ALLOA TO SKYE. 355 



not suit West Highlanders, that Mr. John Lorn 

 Steuart of Coll, chamberlain to the Duke of Argyll, 

 began to keep Ayrshire cattle; and ever since then 

 dairy husbandry has been universally adopted. The 

 farmers' daughters came to be instructed in the 

 making of Dunlop cheese, but still Mr. Steuart was 

 not fully satisfied with the result ; and feeling con- 

 convinced that the goodness of the cheese was more 

 dependent upon the making than the pasture, he sent 

 two of his servants to England to learn the Cheddar 

 process, which was then hardly, if at all, known 

 in Scotland. Last year he purchased the celebrated 

 prize-bull " Sir Colin Campbell" for his Grace the 

 Duke of Argyll, who wished to improve the breed of 

 Ayrshires among his tenantry, and about sixty calves 

 for the present season is no bad beginning. Mr. 

 Steuart has owned the Island of Coll since '56 ; and in- 

 troduced the dairy system on the home farm with a 

 herd of eighty cows. The cheese is of finer quality 

 than the Kintyre, as the sandy downs are covered 

 with the richest clover; and in 1864 it brought 

 no less than 66 per ton, the highest price that has 

 ever been paid, to our knowledge, for Scottish Ched- 

 dar in the London market. 



We were soon on our way once more, past that 

 time-eaten keep, tapestried with ivy, and crops of 

 oats waving on such haggard, sea-bound spots, that, 

 even if we do spy a house in the distance, we lose the 

 idea of the Lord of the Isle in ' ' the man that couldn't 

 get warm/' Sometimes we are steaming up a bay 



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