828 FIELD AND FERN. 



Provost steel and Son, W. and R. Graham, W. A. 

 Roxburgh of Annan, and Sib son and Irvine of Mary- 

 port, are also leading men in this line at the Dum- 

 fries markets. Annan has a good market every 

 Thursday, and so has Carlisle on Saturday, but the 

 Scottish dealers are seldom found on its " Sands.^^ 

 George Graham is a very extensive curer, and Max- 

 well and William Bell are the largest ham and bacon 

 dealers in the north of England, and have large 

 London transactions."^ 



At Dumfries the market begins at six, and in a win- 

 ter's morning the dealers will sometimes go to meet 

 the carts. They have been known to be three miles 

 out on the Glasgow and Galloway roads, and ^-a great 

 runner has a great chance.'^ A large amount of the 

 carcases are in the hands of the jobbers, but they are 

 not in such request as those which come direct from the 

 farmers ; and the " Hae ye sold ?" is most generally 

 directed to him. The difficulty in the dark is to 

 guess the weight of the pigs, as it is no joke paying 

 6s. lOd. per stone for " fine light pigs,'^ and finding 

 them over 7st. Hence, as people don^t like " to go 

 back with their finger in their mouth,^^ and as those 

 who have heavy pigs never know the weight, it is rather 

 a " pig in a poke^^ afi'air. Thirty to forty carts also 

 arrive filled with porkers from six weeks to two 

 months old, for which all prices are paid from 16s. to 

 35 s. There is so much competition that porkers in 



* At page 332, line 4, for "William Bell's" read "Maxwell's." 

 At page 238, line 9 (North), for " Bii-dcatcher" read " Emilius," 



