1 2 2 Saddle and Sirloin. 



danced with her at " a bidden wedding." She was a 

 tall, comely woman with auburn hair flowing down 

 her back, but " a bad partner in a dance, as I was 

 always losing her, when she ran to attend to customers 

 in the bar or look after the oatcake." 



Mr. Grey was the friend of Culley on the Border, 

 and his Richmond school-life secured him introduc- 

 tions to the Collings, Charge, and Maynard. With 

 them he spent his holidays, and when Dr. Tate asked 

 him what they mostly talked about, he replied in 

 classic phrase, " Comet et id genus omne." Farming 

 was in a very rough way when he first learnt it. 

 " There was nothing but foldyard manure ; they 

 hardly knew how to sow away clover seeds. Havre, 

 and Havre again, give it a bit of management, and 

 sow it in barley or its geyly grass prood so just 

 let it lie to rest." Being of a literary turn Mr. Grey 

 was generally engaged with some agricultural report 

 or other, and one of his earliest labours was looking 

 over the proof-sheets of Sir John Sinclair's " Code of 

 Agriculture." He became acquainted with Mr. God- 

 frey Sinclair when he was a pupil with Mr. Jobson. 

 Sir John was great at that time upon Merino sheep, 

 whose price rose considerably during the Spanish war. 

 It chanced that the baronet was visiting at Floors 

 Castle, and every one made a point of handling his 

 coat, which was merino-woven, and of complimenting 

 him on its texture. Sir Harry McDougall, after 

 hearing a discussion upon the wool specimens, 

 declared that he had some as good, and produced a 

 sample. Sir John handled it, and declared that it 

 wouldn't work as there were some coarse hairs in it ; 

 and when Sir Harry was questioned as to what it was, 

 he turned the laugh by saying that he got it out of 

 the pocket of Sir John's own carriage as it stood in 

 the stable-yard. A good deal of jealousy was felt 

 about Sir John, and the story did not fail to circulate. 



In 1833, when he was in his very prime at 47, Mr. 



