NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 325 



fo r 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 

 unclassical 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 completed 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 quantity of native stock bought in for feeding ; 



* The country about Stonehaven is thus described in vol. 2 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 scat- 

 tered over this, still melancholy, tract. 



