DALGIG TO AYR. 277 



tion. In short, the day and night before the show 

 are in many instances quite as important as an artistes 

 glazing-day at the Royal Academy. The judges are 

 all well up to " the little game/^ which extends to 

 scraping rams^ horns almost to the quick, and then 

 japanning them, and is on all -fours with that artistic 

 clipping to hide weak points, against which old Val^ 

 Barford, K.C.B. (Kuight of the Clipping Board) 

 struggled so long, till the Royal English Society 

 issued its ukase. 



Ayr begins the show season on the last Friday of 

 April,, and brings many bull buyers from Dumfries 

 and some Lancashire and London men to look up 

 queys. Then follow L^vine on the first Tuesday in 

 May, and Kihnarnock, Mauchline, and Maryhill, all 

 in May. There is another Maryhill in November, 

 imd with June come Tarbolton, at which there is a 

 good display of bulls and late-calving cows, and also 

 East Kilbride, near Glasgow, vvdth its great trio of 

 prizes for the best Ayrshire cow in-milk, aged bull, 

 and farm mare. In 1860-61 the late Duke of Athole 

 gave a cow-in-milk prize at Ayr, and photography 

 has preserved the scene. The average result of the 

 milkings was as follows : 



Mr. Wallace's Glengall, 261b. 5|oz Agnes Wyllie 1 



Mr. Reed's Cherry, 24J13. 7oz Janec M'Mainter li 



Mr. J. Hendrie's Bell, 221b. lOoz ^ Kate M'Kail 3 



Mr. A. Hendrie's Ochiltree, 221b. loz ? Charlotte Himter 4 



Mr. A. Hendrie's Lily, 221b Eliza M'Craith 5 



The dresses were a sudden thought of the Duke^s 



* Called " Bob" by mistake at p. 112. 



