92 MKMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



with sheep ! Property, in every country, should 

 be held sacred, but it should also have its bounds ; 

 and, in my opinion, it should be, in a certain 

 degree, held in trust, jointly, for the benefit of its 

 owners, and the good of society. To exercise a 

 right of property beyond this is despotism, the 

 offspring of misplaced aristocratic pride. 



I have not noticed that I was sometimes, in 

 passing along, detained at fairs and " trysts." 

 These, with their merry-makings, were something 

 like the "hoppings" and "feasts" on Tyneside ; 

 and the girls had the same ruddy look as the 

 farmers' servants who are put to do field work in 

 Xorthumberland and Durham. With the Scotch 

 music and dancing, I was very much pleased. 

 They were certainly good dancers, and seemed 

 quite wild, or exhilarated to excess. 



I left the Highlands with regret. The last day's 

 journey was a very long one, and a very hungry 

 one ; after which I entered Stirling in the night. 

 I told the landlord of the public house there that 

 I was almost famished, not having stopped at any 

 house on my very long journey to that place ; and 

 I begged of him to hasten to get me something 

 to eat. He told me he had nothing left but eggs, 

 as his company had eaten up everything that had 

 been in the house. I did not get my eggs till 

 midnight ; for a quarrel, or an affray, happened 

 in the house at the time I ought to have had them. 

 They were brought in to me at last, and were 

 boiled as hard as eggs could be. With them, in 

 my eagerness to eat, I was nearly choked. 



I remained about two or three days at Stirling, 

 chiefly on account of my face having been so 

 blistered by the heat of the sun that I thought 



