FALDONSIDE TO DALGIG. 249 



knees^ and fight out inch by inch the stud merits of 

 Stockwell and Orlando ; but the Old Cumnockites 

 went beyond that. They disregarded their ale and 

 their toddy, they stood up and held each other by the 

 coats, and cross-pumped into each other^s sys- 

 tems their curling observations and criticisms. Al- 

 most from daybreak telegrams were flying about as 

 to the state of the ice, and the very farm lads looked 

 as if they contemplated suicide when the thaw came 

 softly stealing from the south. 



A six-mile ride over the hills from Old Cumnock 

 brought us to Dalgig, which Ivie Campbell and his 

 Canaradzo have made so famous both in Scottish and 

 English leash annals, and our first notions of the 

 place were gathered from a distant view of Mr. 

 Campbell and his renowned white, surveying a rink 

 of curlers. The group on the bank was completed by 

 a slashing (May 3) son of Canaradzo and Snowdrop 

 (who died after pupping), a red bitch by him out of 

 Butterfly by Judge, and a very small white by Daring 

 from Canopy. They may not, perhaps, like Milton^s 

 hibbar fiend, have "earned their cream-bowl duly 

 set '^^ but still the life of saplings at an Ayrshire 

 dairy farm is a right royal one ; and we found them 

 invariably curled together, basking in all "their 

 hairy strength'^ on a rug by the kitchen fire, and 

 complacently surveying and levying a capital per- 

 centage on whatever kail and porridge were flying 

 about. We remember a lady once telling us that 

 she never could get her servants to treat the foxhound 



