THE OX. 99 



for the grass continues so good that they will stay a 

 week longer. He brings the intelligence of the old 

 sow's being the joyful mother of a dozen pigs, and re- 

 quests something to feed her with. All this must be 

 ready in an hour : before the conclusion of which, comes 

 Ronald from the high hills, where our sheep and young 

 horses are all summer, and only desires meal, salt, and 

 women with shears to clip the lambs, and tar to smear 

 them. He informs me that the black mare has a foal, 

 a very fine one ; but she is very low, and I must in- 

 stantly send one to bring her to the meadows, before 

 he departs. The tenants who do us services come ; 

 they are going to stay two days in the oak wood, cut- 

 ting timber for our new byre, and must have a compe- 

 tent provision of bread, cheese, and ale for the time 

 they stay." 



The bull is commonly considered a formidable ani- 

 mal, and it is necessary to be cautious when one comes 

 in our way. " Talking of a mischievous bull," says 

 Sir Walter Scott to a friend, " puts me in mind of a 

 case which I witnessed many years ago in Edin- 

 burgh. I was proceeding from the Old to the New 

 Town by the Earthen Mound, at the head of which 

 I was led for a few minutes to look at a bull that had got 

 into an enclosure there, after the unmerciful butcher- 



