88 FIELD AND FERN. 



ported, were requested to communicate witli the Se- 

 cretary/^ The straw had begun to stir at last ; and 

 when Edinburgh had held another poor meeting, and 

 Glasgow a good one, it was decided to give up the 

 biennial rotation of Edinburgh and Glasgow, to 

 erase the conventional term "black cattle^' from the 

 list, and to accept the invitation to Perth on the first 

 October Wednesday of ^29. Gradually the Society 

 has fallen on to regular circuit towns, Inverness in 

 the North, Aberdeen in the North-east, Perth in the 

 centre, Edinburgh as the capitol, Glasgow in the 

 West, Dumfries in the South-west, and Kelso in the 

 South-east. Dundee was once the venue in '43, and 

 Stirling in ^64, after an interval of one-and-thirty 

 years, while Ayr has been given up by common con- 

 sent for very nearly as long. 



The second Glasgow was another success, only 

 marred by the rule that Clydesdales should be " bay, 

 black, or brown bay all over," which prevented any of 

 the forty-two from claiming a prize, and made the 

 Society tolerant of white-legs and blazes for the 

 future. Then the regular country meetings began at 

 Perth, with J357 worth of premiums, and among the 

 192 in the cattle ranks nothing was more looked at 

 than the West Highlander, which was said to be the 

 fattest that had ever been fed at Keir. Thirty short- 

 horn bulls came to Dumfries in '30, and " Old Mood- 

 law^' began his prize raid with the " five best Cheviot 

 gimmers.^' For many years the winning history of 

 these classes was interwoven with his name, as well as 



