356 FIELD AND FERN. 



lian, as he looked down on that vale, so thickly 

 wooded that we tried in vain to trace out our route 

 — where we had seen Bonnie Dundee snorting round 

 his paddock at The Heuk, and stretching his 

 battered old legs for another hunting season^ and 

 where the fallow deer hadflitted across the road, as 

 we came back at dark from Raehills. 



We caught the same dale from a different point 

 when we looked over it from Lockerby hill at the 

 time of the great August lamb fair. Dreary little 

 places often have the magnetic power of becoming a 

 great fair focus, and so it is with Lockerby. "The 

 Ewe and Lamb^' sign tells its simple story. August 

 brings the lamb fair; September creeps up with 

 Galloway cattle and cast ewes, and "fetches the 

 greatest weight of money with it ;" and tail lambs, 

 cast ewes, and store cattle conclude the year in Oc- 

 tober and November. There is also the show of 

 Galloway bulls, fat cattle, and hoggs, in April, when 

 the Dumfries Hunt give blood-sire and hunter prizes ; 

 and'ir September the local show extends its favours 

 even to Savoy cabbages and canaries. 



The town was full of holiday lads and lasses ; and 

 " Ai'e ye gan up the hill ?'^ was the challenge of the 

 hour. The lads sometimes fail to climb that hill 

 quite peaceably, with their ladye loves on their arm. 

 One had a fit of heroics half-way up, and was going 

 to " smasV somebody, but the crowd gathered round, 

 with the cooling query, " What ails 'urn P" and his 

 Phillis hung on to him, and implored him, for her 



