FALKIRK TO EDINBURGH. 35 



shilling and a bawbee/^ and warrants bis gingerbread 

 to "drive a nail in tlie dark/-' In tbe tents^ whisky 

 and mashed potatoes were the great circulating 

 media ; and with meat and mnstard to aid it, a 

 stomach must be cynical indeed which cannot break 

 its Falkirk fast. As you sit waiting for your turn, 

 you hear hard bargains and harder slaps all round 

 you, and see piles of greasy one-pound notes pulled 

 out of breast=pockets and paid away by the smaller 

 men, to whom a cheque-book is only a dream of 

 the future. 



There was a time when no shorthorns were seen on 

 the muir, and Aberdeen runts and West Highland- 

 ers, and a few Ayrshire stots, formed its sole army of 

 occupation, llobert M^Turk was a mighty buyer in 

 old days, and was known to strike hands for seventy 

 score of West Highland stirks at £S each one 

 Michaelmas tryst before he got off his pony. The 

 Williamsons and the Thoms were also very compre- 

 hensive in their dealings, and so was old M'^Combie, 

 whose family mark below the near hock was known 

 at Falkirk for sixty long years. It was only for the 

 runts, as the West Highlanders were burnt with 

 gustrils in the horns. Big Paterson was a mighty 

 sheep seller from Caithness, and would sometimes 

 bring nine thousand Cheviots. It ^ was the boast of 

 Cameron of Corrychoillie that he was the greatest 

 stock owner in the world except Prince Esterhazy. 

 He won the prize for buck goats when the Highland 

 Society met at Inverness in ^31, and he was not 



2 D 2 



