ATHELSTANEFOKD TO COLDSTREAM. 157 



sort^ and this year Mr. Purvis got .£10 for ewe 

 hoggs and £20 for tup hoggs out of the wool, to go 

 over. These were not the pick of his lot, as he 

 alwaj^s takes care to have 100 of his best tup hoggs 

 for Kelso, when they ought to weigh 501bs. per 

 quarter. 



The farms, partly hill and arable, of Roxburgh- 

 shire, Berwickshire, Selkirkshire, and Peebleshire 

 are mostly farmed on the principle of bringing Che- 

 viot ewes from the hill, keeping them to five or six 

 years old, and taking half-bred lambs from them 

 each year. This system generally obtains in every 

 district not more than seven hundred feet above the 

 sea; and the small half-bred ewe shots are 

 made quite as good as top Cheviot wedder lambs. 

 Those who follow it regularly buy from the 

 hill farmers two-fifths of their Cheviot ewe lambs 

 each year, in order to keep up their stock. It ascends 

 Teviotdale, five miles above Hawick, up Kale and 

 Bowmont Water, to the foot of the Cheviots, all along 

 the banks of the '^^shallowbrawlingTweed,^^ Gala, and 

 Leader beyond Peebles, and nearly to Lanark. 



" Drj'grange with the milk-white ewes," 

 • 'Twixt Tweed, and Leader standing," 



is faithful to it ; and in the Vale of Yarrow every- 

 one breeds half-bred s, if his land is low enough, and 

 he has winter keep. In the Bowmont Water district 

 the farmers go a step further, and use Border Leices- 

 ter s to the four or five year old Cheviot ewes, which 

 arc then in the very height of their milk, in order to 



