WEST HIGHLAND CATTLE. 181 



broad, flat, and well-haired forehead ; the large, full, and steady 

 eye; the short, broad, and well-bred muzzle; the large and 

 well-opened nostril ; the thick coat of strong (not coarse) hair 

 of richest colour, in black, or red, or dun, or brindled, impart 

 a picturesqueness which is still further enhanced by that grace 

 and deliberation of movement so distinctive of all animals well 

 reared in perfect freedom. 



In former times a very extensive trade was carried on, chiefly 

 by dealers or ** drovers," who bought Highland cattle from 

 farmers at home and at district fairs in the north and west, and 

 sent them to England and to the southern Scottish counties, 

 the great mart for this trade being the Falkirk trysts, held in 

 August, September, and October, and at which the southern 

 dealers and farmers met their brethren from the north. Within 

 the memory of men not yet very old, before railways or even 

 fast coaches were in existence in Scotland, and before the 

 distinctive peculiarities of districts and races were so much 

 effaced as they are now too rapidly becoming, the scene 

 presented by a Falkirk tryst to an observer of men and manners 

 was a very animated and striking one. There, year by year, 

 met crowds of men remarkably different in form and face, and 

 dress and language, any one of whom might be selected as a 

 type of the shrewd and active man of his own district or race, 

 to transact business on a large scale in the open field, amid the 

 strange din of lowing herds, barking dogs, flourishing of sticks 

 (and sometimes more), frantic torrents of purest G-aelic, broken 

 English, vigorous Lowland Scotch, and honest Saxon English, 

 and not unfrequently ankle-deep in mud — the whole scene not 

 unlike a mimic and bloodless Flodden. " Falkirk trysts " are 

 still held, but the improved means of communication, and the 

 establishment of auction sales of stock at many centres, have 

 almost superseded fairs, and the "trysts" are rapidly falling 

 off. Whether the new state of matters is better than the old 

 for the farmer is very doubtful, for certain it is that stock now, 

 in the course of its short life, changes hands many times, and 

 every change means expense and profit or loss to somebody. A 

 story is told of a remarkably shrewd Highland grazier of the 

 last century, who, from his wealth and position in his own 

 district, was styled " the Baron," and who had a fine fold of 



