HERD NOTICES 255 



loam over bluish clay, part is on gravel, and small 

 sections are of a mossy nature. From 300 to 400 

 acres of the property are in young woodlands, mostly 

 larches, Scots firs, and spruces, and the substantial 

 old mansion-house is set in stately policies where 

 great oaks, ashes, elms, and beeches give no hints 

 of submission to time. The soil in that part is deeper 

 and evidently richer than the average. In the early 

 part of last century Lord Kinnedder, a representative 

 of the Erskine family, had a quiet retreat here from 

 the Court of Session, and here also Sir Walter Scott 

 had periods of musing and writing. He was then 

 emerging strongly from what Carlyle might have been 

 tempted to term a " Centre of Indifference" between 

 Law and Minstrelsy, and was in the first flush of 

 Romance. 



On Blairsgreen, which has an extent of 150 acres, 

 Sir Kennedy began to form a Shorthorn herd in 1918. 

 He has now representatives of the Zoe Clipper, Kil- 

 blean Beauty, Undine, Rachel, Kirklevington, and 

 Graceful families. The Clipper is a red four-year of 

 big scale, bred by Mrs Burnyeat, and by the late 

 Colonel A. T. Gordon's Nonpareil Champion (112,667), 

 out of a dam by Golden Treasure (95,346). Being of 

 the Zoe line of descent she has the much-prized Star 

 of Morning (58,189) cross. At foot she has an ex- 

 ceptionally promising red bull calf by Moresby Pilot 

 (vol. 65). Lothian Betty 4th, the member of the 

 Kilblean Beauty strain of breeding, is a pretty roan 

 yearling, bred at Dalmeny and by the noted Collynie 

 Grand Duke (124,844), while her mother was by the 



