110 FIELD AND PERN. 



only saplings then. The latter, a very racing-like^ 

 strongbacked dog;, was walked by Mr. Tom Welsh at 

 Ericstane, and he has proved himself a high-class one 

 by the style in which he has run forward in three or 

 four great stakes. Manganese was rejoicing in 

 the paddock, and a lot of Beacon puppies, one 

 of them old Frolic to the life ; while Mary Mor- 

 ton had ten rolling over her, all white, with brin- 

 dled spots on the head and ear, and a double cross 

 of Wigan. 



Next morning we were eighteen miles " from 

 Edinburgh town," among the great Lothian arables 

 — " good land," according to Carlyle, " now that the 

 plougher understands his trade," and, in fact, ^^ fit," 

 as Mr. Randell exclaimed, when he first saw it, ^' to 

 grow potatoes for all England." In that grand dis- 

 trict to the left of Drem, and stretching away towards 

 North Berwick Law and *' Bass among the Waters," 

 the well-filled stack-garths and chimneys of Hope of 

 Fenton Barns, Deans and Handyside of East and 

 West Fenton, Todd of Castlemains, Begbie of Queens- 

 ton Bank, Gray of Kingston, Hay of Chapel, and 

 Sadler of Ferrygate dot the landscape, and tell of the 

 richness and fatness of the land , in spite of wheat at 

 forty shillings a quarter. Within that four-mile area 

 there are no less than five private steam ploughs, 

 none of them verifying their sarcastic welcome to the 

 district, that they " would require an engineer at one 

 end and a banker at the other." 



But coursing, and not corn, was our mission ; and 



