32 FIELD AND TERN. 



tliem liad departed on the Monday; and '^ Yes ! 

 theyWe tarring ^em" was the constant response, when 

 we asked if certain lots of cattle were sold. The 

 sheep sales had been very large, and, in fact, for the 

 last five-and-twenty years, many proprietors and far- 

 mers, who were wont to sell by character at Inver- 

 ness, have been gradually changing their tactics, and 

 sending ewes and v/edders direct to the September 

 and October Ealkirks. Mr. John jNInrray, who w^as 

 in early life a sheep manager for six years on the 

 estate of Glengarry, had sold on this occasion forty- 

 three lots from twenty-two different farms in his 

 wonted strongholds of Inverness -shire, Ross-shire, 

 and Sutherlandshire. At times he ^Yill pass some 

 24,000 through his hands at these two trysts ; and 

 being always employed by farmers and proprietors, 

 who are breeders of stock, and do not buy on specu- 

 lation, he confines himself here, as at Inverness, 

 strictly to selling. From 1843 to 1860 he bought 

 very largety at Inverness, principally for the late Mr, 

 James Scott, of Hawick, wdio did by far the largest 

 business on the ^^ plane stones.^^ He has few cattle 

 transactions ; and the chief occasion of his buying 

 largely is at Melrose, where he selects Cheviot 

 wedder lambs on commissions for his clients in the 

 North, who send them back to him at Falkirk after 

 three years' keep. The great majority of his Falkirk 

 lots are Cheviot ewes and wedders ; about a tenth 

 of them are crosses, and a still smaller proportion 

 black-faced. No sheep come to the August tryst. 



