168 FIELD AND FERN. 



clerk headed the horsemen armed with swords, and 

 pedestrians witli clubs/^ to race on the Muir the first 

 day, and to ride the ancient marches, beginning at 

 the Commonhaugh, on the second. 



It doesn't take much to wake up the " lads" now. 

 An otter, or even a foulmart, will do it most effect- 

 ually, let alone a meet of the Duke's at Grundiston 

 or Chapel Hill, so that summer or winter they are 

 pretty well '^ up to their cruppers'' in sport. We 

 found fully five hundred of them waiting at the sta- 

 tion to meet a local hero, "The Gover," who had 

 been trained near Bradford for a mile race. One 

 grim cynic growled out, w^hen w^e asked for informa- 

 tion, " They're only a set of daft bodies — it's just this 

 foot-racing'^ ; but, daft or not, if ^' The Gover" 

 and his trainer had been the Premier and Mr. Glad- 

 stone they could not have been received more reve- 

 rentially. 



At present, however, we have to pluck up the 

 ancient landmarks, and look upon Hawick as the 

 great sheep and cattle centre of Upper Teviotdale, 

 extending from Denholm on the East to Mosspaull 

 on the west. There is a half-yearly market for cattle 

 and hiring of servants, but the cattle department has 

 of late years been entirely superseded by the weekly 

 auctions of the Messrs. Oliver. This firm, which was 

 the first to establish such auctions in Scotland, be- 

 gan some twenty-five years ago with a monthly one. 

 Gradually this mode of selling came into favour with 

 the farmers, and now a weekly one is held, at which 



