AYR TO DUMFRIES. 319 



blackfaced ewe hoggs sent down from the neigh- 

 bouring hills. The Cheviots are principally on the 

 hill range towards CrifFell^ and beyond the Solway 

 Pirth we catch the faint outline of Skiddaw, Saddle- 

 back, and the Cumberland hills — the first home 

 beacon in our journey. The engine sounds the knell 

 of Mosstrooper raids and feudal days, as it rushes up 

 the valley and calls at that dreadfully matter-of-fact 

 Dalbeattie, with its corn, its saw, its paper, its bone 

 and its bobbin mills. Its Craignair granite also 

 helped to build the Liverpool docks, and is now laid 

 under contribution for the Thames embankment. 



The evening sun was just slanting over the distant 

 hills of Kirkennan, and tinging the quiet waters of 

 Edingham Loch. There, too, in the panorama were 

 Torr Katrine, Culmain, Blaiket, and Whitecairn, 

 which have always rallied under the black banner ; 

 but not so Meikle and Little Firth Heads, where 

 they keep the Ayrshires, at which Mr. Graham's 

 Modesty by Guardsman gazed too fondly over the 

 hedge, and brought a red calf thrice in succession. 

 Bess, the dam of Freebooter and Modesty, was then 

 the queen-mother of the Meikleculloch herd. Her 

 lineage is undeniable, as she is by Fergy (19), who 

 was only shown once, and was then first at the High- 

 land Society. He was by The Squire (16) by Cum- 

 berland Willie (160); and it was to The Squire, 

 bred by Graham of Eiggfoot, that " Meikleculloch''^ 

 owes his show rank. Fergy's dam Eiggfoot was 

 bought along with The Squire, who v/as not only 



