18 FIELD AND FERN. 



Capellie^ the love of the leasli will peep out. There 

 is an open heart in the centre of the book-case in 

 his farm-office, and of course a greyhound, and not a 

 ventilator, is embossed on it. He wears greyhound 

 (rough or smooth we conclude, as they come) skins in 

 the shape of waistcoats; and at Fereneze House, where 

 he has latterly resided with his elder brother John, 

 the old white horse, on which for well nigh twenty 

 years he led the coursing-field, is buried under a 

 sycamore. He was by Caleb Quotem, fifteen hands 

 sharp, and not a very pleasant one to ride till he was 

 seven or eight years old. A statue of the greyhound 

 Oscar, from which envious Time has stolen the tail 

 (which was turned round, and carried high in life), is 

 over the front-door. It is the work of Greenshields, 

 the self-taught sculptor, not from measurement, but 

 simply from looking at the animal of v/hich it is a 

 perfect image. Mr. A. Graham took Oscar over 

 himself to that little, quiet cottage by the side of the 

 Clyde, and let him play about while " the fine hale 

 mason, with a countenance like a book,^^ noted every 

 attitude, and then *^'fixed^^ him in stone from the 

 self-same rock from which he had hewn the stone for 

 his Sir Walter Scott. 



Oscar always went from a loose slip, and used to roll 

 his tongue strangely from side to side, while the beaters 

 were looking for a hare. " Studying Oscar,^' said a 

 great judge, '^^is studying coursing.^^ He placed 

 himself right in his harems line, and realized the old 

 saying that ^^a cunning. dog will throw you over, but 



