FALKIRK TO EDINBURGH. 31 



" The sheep farmer thought a little, snuiFed, sipped his toddy, and replied : 

 ' The Duke of Wellington was, na doot, a varra clever man — vaiTa clever, 

 T believe. They tell "me he was a good soger; Imt then d'ye see, he had 

 2'easonable men to deal with — captains, and majors and generals that could 

 understand him every yen o' them— both officers and men ; biit I'm no so 

 sm-e, after all, if he could manage, say 20,000 sheep, to say nout of black 

 cattle, that could na tmderstand one word he said, Gaelic or EngUsh, and 

 l>ring eveiy hoof of them to Fa'kirk Tiyst ! I doot it. But I ha' done that I' " 



The Lanark Tryst — Dealings of leading Salesmen — Scenes on the IMoor 

 — The Dealers of Other Days — Fate of the Greenliorns — The Myste- 

 rious Visitor — Among the Drovers — Driving and Shoeing Beasts — His- 

 tory of the Falkirk Trysts — The other Sheep and Cattle Fairs in 

 Scotland — Foreign Supplies — Linlithgowshire — Tom Rintoul — The 

 West Lothian Kennels — ^.Ir. VCaldron Hill and his Otter Hounds. 



T\ T was ten o'clock on the second day of the Falkirk 

 ^ Tryst. Whole lines of trucks were already laden 

 with beasts, the shorthorn crosses bound to the 

 North, and the West Highlanders South. The road 

 to the moor was one struggling mass of Norlands 

 and Irish calves, and ankle deep in mud ; and Mr. 

 Adderley and Mr. Stirling, as they tucked up their 

 trouser-bottoms, and trudged sturdily along, were 

 a type of those " Faithful Commons,^' who had once 

 to leave their coaches and walk half their time, 

 through still more deep and miry ways from Scotland 

 to St. Stephen^ s. 



The sheep had come, and more than two-thirds of 



