NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 225 



again, is gratefully exchanged for the welcome face of a being of 

 the above description, whom we have known many years, and 

 who holds a place in our esteem. My acquaintance with Captain 

 Barclay is of more than thirty years' standing, having commenced 

 when he hunted in Oxfordshire ; and the general celebrity of 

 his character made me proud of the opportunity of renewing it. 

 I was delighted then, when I saw him standing at the inn door 

 to receive me, and we walked together to our dinner, at Ury, dis- 

 tant two miles. 



The domain of Ury is by far the finest that I saw in Scotland. 

 It consists of a thousand acres of excellent arable and old pasture 

 land six hundred of the former, and four hundred of the latter 

 admirably laid out for agricultural purposes ; and from its being 

 surrounded by a wild country,* and containing enclosures of 

 from forty to eighty acres each, in a high state of cultivation, it 

 may, with a little stretch of the imagination, be compared to 

 Northamptonshire, in miniature, transported into Scotland. The 

 house is very unequal to the domain. It is of that peculiarly un- 

 classical form so frequently seen in Scotland namely a high 

 white building, somewhat resembling a large dove-cot ; nor is 

 there more than one good room in it. It is, however, well 

 situated for the picturesque, a wild and rapid river running in 

 front of it, and a fine view of the domain is commanded from 

 most of the windows. 



A well-built stone wall extends round a great portion of the 

 domain, and as the Captain adds to it every year, the great 

 undertaking of thus enclosing the whole will no doubt be com- 

 pleted through time. 



The Captain is considered one of the very best farmers and 

 breeders of cattle in Scotland, and has merited the gratitude of 

 his countrymen for his introduction of improved stock. When I 

 was at Ury it consisted of one thousand two hundred sheep of 

 the pure new Leicester breed, and one hundred head of equally 

 pure short-horned (Durham) cows, heifers, and bulls, besides a 



* The country about Stonehaven is thus described in vol. ii. of the 

 Picture of Scotland, p. 248 : " There is not, perhaps, in all Scotland, 

 a track more sterile, and at the same time so thickly inhabited, as that 

 which the road passes over between Stonehaven and Aberdeen. This 

 bleak region, celebrated by the author of Waverley under the name of 

 Drumthwacket, presents only barren eminences, destitute even of heath, 

 and cold swampy moorlands, which nature seems to have specially set- 

 aside for the snipe and lapwing. In proof, however, of the industry of 

 the Scotch people, I may add the singular fact, of cottages and small 

 farm steadings being thickly scattered over this still melancholy 

 tract. 



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