ATHELSTANEFORD TO COLDSTREAM. 155 



his lordship was beaten by Mr. Stark of Mellen- 

 deaUj and has by no means always the best of it in 

 the show yards. Only some six score ewes are kept 

 at Mertoun, but some of the very best go on to a 

 great age, and the greatest caution is used in ascer- 

 taining what sort of stock a tup gets before he is 

 dipped into. The ewe and gimmer draft have been 

 sold for many years to the same farm in Fifeshire. 

 Nothing but the highest tact, combined with advan- 

 tages of situation, could give them such a long lead. 

 They have been put up to auction for fifty-eight years, 

 and whereas in 1820 thirty -five of them only ave- 

 raged £3 15s., in 1864 the same number reached 

 £27. The Cotswold element, which was once fancied 

 on the Border, has never been introduced amongst 

 them."^ 



The Border can show its Leicester title almost as 

 far back as the beginning of the century, . and Mr. 

 Bobertson of Ladykirk and Mr. Cully of Wark 

 began it. Mr. Purvis has been at it for full fifty 

 years, and has crossed with the flocks of Lord Pol- 

 warth, Compton of New Learmouth, Smith of 



* "This celebrated flock, which has long commanded top prices at the 

 great Kelso sales, and whose strain is disiinctly traceable in the flocks of 

 almost all the best breeders of pm-e Scotch Leicesters in the country, origi- 

 nated in 1802, when 80 ewes were purchased, at £2 15s. each, from a well- 

 known Northumberland breeder, Mr. Jobson of-Hidgley, near Chillingham 

 and 140 ewes from Mr. Waddell (also, we beheve, a Northumbrian breeder)' 

 at £2 14s. Where the rams were obtaiaed fi-om, it is now somewhat difficult 

 to ascertain. At that time, however, the most reputed breeders chd not care 

 to dispose of their rams, and it is probable that these were hh-ed from the most 

 famous Border flockmasters, of whom Mr. Robertson of Ladvkh-k was one. 

 Two yeai-s after Lord Polwarth had purchased the flock from Mr. Jobson he 

 commenced a sale of rams at Mertoun, and from that time (ISOi) continued 

 them every year at that place until 1S52, when he sent his rams down to Kelso 

 where they have ever since been sold." — Scottish Farmer. ' 



