320 FIELD AND FERN. 



first at Edinburgli in ^48^ but was never beaten in his 

 home circuit of Dumfries^ Lockerby^ and Moffat. 

 Good hind quarters came in with him, and so did 

 that nice docile eye (through Belle, the dam of Bess), 

 which Galloway men so much prize if they "really 

 ken a countenance/^ Three seasons were the limit 

 of The Squire^s stay at Meikleculloch, and then 

 Walter Carruthers of Kirkhill and Graham of The 

 Shaw used him. Two strains of Cumberland Willie 

 united in Freebooter (203) through Bess, who was 

 sent to Beattie's Mosstrooper, the bull which 

 won so much both for him and Gibbons of Moss- 

 band, who purchased him as a yearling. He was of 

 E/iggfoot breeding, with rare thighs and ribs, and 

 rather slack behind the shoulders, but, as the Bat- 

 tersea judges said, "a bull first-rate of his kind.^' 

 Mr. Beattie bought Maggy from " Meikleculloch,^^ 

 and beat him with her at Carlisle, and then Hannah 

 paid " Newbie^^ ofiP at Glasgow. Harry and Welling- 

 ton both came to Meikleculloch from Adam Corrie 

 of Cairnie Hill. One went to the Emperor of 

 Russia, leaving a capital daughter, Jess, behind, to 

 die of pleura; and the other was not only a first 

 Royal bull at Carlisle, and a first Highland Society 

 one at Glasgow, but made £60 in prizes from first to 

 last, and was sold for £80. His was not mere ring 

 prowess, as he left Dinah, Harriet, and Agnes ; and 

 Harriet's prizes were within £12 10s. of his own. 



Mr. Graham^s love of showing has not been an 

 unthrift one. The Squire won him the first prize he 



