HAWICK TO MOSS PAUL. 211 



the dogs round him when he had a dram, and then 

 he was highly colloquial^ both with them and his 

 friends. He lived at the head of Hermitage Wateiv 

 and as a stock-farmer he had one peculiarity — his 

 tups must all be horned. Liddesdale and Teyiot 

 Head were the cream of his country _, and from New- 

 Year's Day till the middle of April he would be 

 there with a dozen or fifteen shepherds at sunrise^, 

 each provided with a pocket pistol and a lump of 

 bread and cheese. 



Old Kyle was a good wrestler and fighter for his 

 inches. In early days he was entered to hare, but 

 he changed to fox after thirty, and killed nearly 80O 

 brace in his fifty years. Cauldcleuch and North Tyne 

 furnished some of his best foxes, which were all of 

 the greyhound breed, and took a world of catching. 

 He always knew them again, or said he did, and 

 spoke of them confidentially as old acquaintances. 

 The drag was generally hit off from certain syke 

 heads, and when the foxes did go to ground they were 

 always " spaded^^ and never smoked. Bolting them 

 for "an afternoon fox^' was not the custom of his hunt. 

 His terriers were of the Dan die Dinmont breed, 

 and latterly, as the neighbours said, he looked like a 

 terrier himself. They were high and leggy, with 

 wiry coats of a red-grey, and black points on their 

 ears, tail, and feet, and got well over the bogs. The 

 smaller ones with their out- turned toes did a deal of 

 business, lying flat and working like a share plough, 

 when they were tunnelling up to " Charley.^' Kyle's 



2 p3 



