346 FIELD AND FERN. 



SO difficult to shake off in Ayrshire. Among the 

 COWS; which had some trouble to follow him in his 

 gay trot to the stalls, were Miss Harper, the blood- 

 like Nightingale, first at Hamilton in '63 ; Miss 

 Eingland, with a very engaging countenance, and 

 second, as she well might be, at Sanquhar, in a ring 

 where sometimes forty yearling heifers have to stand 

 together, and fight it out upon shape alone before 

 the vessel can prophesy of itself. Stately had a de- 

 lightful vessel; Charlotte^s horn and middle-piece 

 were equally true-shaped; and Kate we remarked 

 on more for her neat bone. Beauty's vessel has gone 

 now, and Mr. Heslop's '^brilliant ruin,'Vho has walked 

 out of the ring with many a card in her time, kept 

 quite away, as if she knew that she had no part or 

 lot with the ducal thirty-four, of which the best are 

 occasionally shown at Sanquhar, Thornhill, and 

 Dumfries. The Holstane dairy deserted with the 

 times from Dunlops six years ago, and it is now 

 making Cheddars of 56 to 601bs., and getting 14s. 

 the 241bs. 



It was now " Bock agin, Sandy ;" but the Valley 

 of the Nith will well bear riding twice. There was no 

 shorter cut, and with another call at Tinwald Downs 

 for a stirrup-cup, and a long look with young Mr. 

 Wilkin at his capital black Spanish fowls, we set the 

 mare's head over the hill for Annandale. We had 

 to skirt Lochar Moss, and pass Torthorwald Tower of 

 murderous '' Pllmaksiccar (sure)" fame. Then King 

 Robert de Brus's elastic, and '' the Castle Lochs and 



