xiv INTRODUCTION. 



writer had to come under consideration at the outset, 

 and at an early stage those who were most interested 

 fixed upon Mr James Cameron as the man most gener- 

 ally fitted for the task, on account of his long and 

 varied experience of the breed and its patrons and 

 his practice as a writer. Mr Cameron took to his 

 duties most enthusiastically. In the volume there 

 are no suggestions of the dry-as-dust. The writer 

 is not even occasionally under the thrall of details. 

 All through there is a sense of movement, and the 

 reader is never conscious of being stranded in a dull 

 period. Here we have very human glimpses and pen- 

 and-ink portraits of Lord Lynedoch, Judge Hepburn, 

 John Moubray, Alexander Geekie, Colonel Williamson, 

 Lord Dunmore, Major Dundas, James Douglas, Donald 

 Fisher, James Beattie, Alexander Robertson, Sir James 

 Sivewright, Colonel Munro, Lord Polwarth (until 

 recently with us), Wm. Bain, and others in the 

 Shorthorn brotherhood. The personality of the men 

 and what they did for the breed are rapidly esti- 

 mated. These pages record a good deal that was 

 in great danger of passing into oblivion. 



Although the volume is nominally concerned with 

 Central and Southern Scotland, its numerous side 

 references render it interesting to the general reader. 

 For another matter, the outsider has in the pages on 

 existing herds many sketches of Scottish varieties of 

 scenery, indications of soil characteristics, and touches 



