98 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



have proved an alibi every time suspicions were enter- 

 tained against him. He always went one road, calling 

 on his acquaintances, and taking care to appear to 

 everybody by whom he was known, while his dog went 

 by another with the stolen sheep ; and then on the two 

 felons meeting again, they had nothing more to do than 

 turn them into an associate's inclosure,in whose house the 

 dog was well fed and entertained, and would have soon 

 taken all the fat sheep on the Lothian edges to that 

 house. 



"This was like^vise a female, a jet black one, with a 

 deep coat of soft hair, but smooth-headed, and very 

 strong and handsome in her make. On the disappear- 

 ance of her master she lay about the hills and places 

 where he had frequented, but she never attempted to 

 steal a drove by herself, nor the smallest thing for her 

 own hand. She was kept for some time by a relation 

 of her master's, but never acted heartily in his service, 

 but soon came privately to an untimely end." " Two 

 sheep-stealers trained a colley to go from the low 

 country into the sheep farms in the hills to drive 

 sheep to them in the night. The thieves were at last 

 detected, tried, convicted, and punished, which brought 

 to light the whole stor}^ One of the witnesses against 

 the thieves was a shepherd boy, who swore to the 

 identity of some of the stolen sheep that had been in 

 his flock. The trial was before two judges who wore 

 very large, well-powdered wigs, having large ringlets. 

 One of the learned judges, doubting that the boy could 

 identify the sheep, asked him how he could distinguish 

 his sheep from others with such certainty as to be able 

 to swear to it. The boy hesitating a little, looked 



