170 FIELD AND FERN. 



pendently of the regular Monday ones^ three or four 

 special sales are held for half-bred lambs in August 

 and September^ and two principally for draft Che- 

 viot ewes in October, and occasionally extra ones 

 for cattle. Mr. Oliver's new sale-yard will hold ten 

 thousand sheep and lambs ; and after the last Melrose 

 fair it was full, and a contingent of a thousand were 

 billeted in the adjoining space. Liddesdale, Teviot- 

 dale, and Ewesdale all send Cheviot and half-bred 

 Iambs; Fifeshire, Perthshire, and Forfarshire come 

 for the latter to feed off, and the English dealers 

 principally for Cheviot and half-bred ewes. Mr. 

 Penny has similar sales at Kelso, they also thrive 

 under Mr. Oliver at Galashiels, and Mr. Davison 

 at Melrose, There are plenty of other outlets for 

 sellers, and flock-masters on the Jed and the borders 

 of the Cheviot hills take their lambs to Pennymuir. 

 on the old drove road to Newcastle, in July, and their 

 cast ewes in October. Those in Gala Water, the 

 lower parts of Roxburghshire, and the upper part of 

 Berwickshire, who have a half-bred stock, sell their 

 three-parts-bred lambs at St. BoswelFs and Melrose, 

 and buy half-bred ewes to keep up their flock of 

 breeding ewes on the improved land or parks. The 

 Cheviot lamb buyers from the Highlands generally 

 come after the wedder tops, and the ewe lambs (of 

 which flockmasters will only sell the seconds) are 

 dispersed round the district, while the cast Cheviot 

 ewes are invariably Cumberland and Yorkshire 

 bound. 



