326 Life and Times of " The Druid!' 



crankie had I not passed through it on my 

 way to the West Highland herd at Blair 

 Athole. l Something attempted, something 

 done has earned a night's repose,' was my 

 motto, and I enjoyed one between two and 

 four a.m. in the saddle during a night ride 

 over the Ord of Caithness, while the rain 

 poured down and the mare grazed. 

 4 Cockade,' for so I called her, from per- 

 sistently wearing her mane on the near side, 

 was not my companion in the summer of 

 1862. I walked as far as I could, but coaches 

 and railways aided me in a measure, and I 

 wearied sadly under a very heavy knapsack, 

 finding also that such long cross-country 

 walks were not favourable for framing cross- 

 examinations at night Hence I soon found 

 that I was merely cutting time to waste, and 

 after that discovery pushed my way on to the 

 Orkneys, and asked my good friend Archer 

 Fortescue to buy me a ' garron ' before that 

 day twelvemonths." 



When the second summer came round 

 there were only two " garrons " of the size 

 he wanted for sale in Pomona; one at £\o, 

 and the other, a brown, at £7 10s. The 



