GLASGOW TO CAPELLIE. 15 



that glorious prospect of the Scottish hills in the dis- 

 tance^ and the clear-bottomed surface drains at our 

 feet. These are made with a plough constructed for 

 the purpose, eighteen feet apart and five to ten inches 

 in depth. A man with two horses can drain five 

 acres a day ; and the muirland bite has been im- 

 proved not a little for the blackfaced ewes, which are 

 crossed with Leicesters for early Glasgow lamb. 

 Along the middle of the sheep-walk is an excellent 

 rifle range of twelve hundred yards ; and the sheep- 

 walk itself is a great rural amphitheatre, where the 

 West of Scotland sham-fight took place in '64, with 

 8,000 volunteers, in the valley, nearly 50,000 

 spectators on Capellie top and Killoch height, and 

 the '' Field Marshal of the Waterloo" in the double 

 character of a Major of a Battalion and Lord of the 

 Manor. 



He is at pretty constant drill, both with rifle, 

 tongue, and pen. As "A Public Courser," he first 

 gave life and nerves to the dry bones of coursing 

 literature. " Sic itiir ad asira,'' said a rapturous 

 lover of long-tails, when he read the beautiful scenery 

 and character setting of his Cup victory in The Life ; 

 and in one sense the writer has now glided into '' the 

 milky-way," as he follows up sport with practice, as 

 ^^A Renfrewshire Dairyman.''^ Be it as chairman or 

 lecturer, there is always the same eloquent flow and 

 dainty choice of language, which might go from 

 his lips to the press without altering a Vv^ord, com- 

 bined with the power of staying any distance, on any 



