Mr. I vie Campbell. 1 1 



Still, amid Ayrshire cows and arable, he always 

 yearned after his first love — his college cap and gown. 

 Robert Pollok, the author of " The Course of Time," 

 was a fellow student in the Divinity school, and many 



errand. "Whatever he did, he did with all his might. For instance, 

 when Lord James Stewart, as principal trustee for the young Marquis of 

 Bute, offered four silver medals for different classes of farm stock, he 

 felt sure of being first for the " Dairy Stock," and anything but sure of 

 the " Single Ayrshire Milch Cow," the " Clydesdale Brood Mare," and 

 the " Two-year-old Ayrshire Quey." Defeat was not to be thought of, 

 and (like the late Duke of Hamilton when he determined to be foremost 

 among the best at Battersea) he bought one in Dumfriesshire, another in 

 Lanarkshire, and the third in a distant part of Ayrshire, and kept the 

 medals together. In 1833 he reclaimed 570 acres of waste hill land 

 by ploughing and liming, and then sowing it out in first-rate pasture, 

 and for this improvement he gained the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society's gold medal. Three years after that, he commenced with his 

 brother-in-law, Mr. Richmond (of Bridgehouse), as his mentor, breed- 

 ing "Superior Ayrshire Stock," and they bought between them the 

 celebrated "Tarn" from Mr. Allan, of Dairy. Tarn's cows and queys 

 carried almost everything before them from 1843 to 1854 ; and were 

 first on five different occasions, when the competition was open to all 

 Ayrshire. His next purchase, Cardigan, from Mr. Parker, gained 

 twenty-seven first prizes, and was never beaten while at Dalgig, and it 

 was for this bull that he refused 100/. in 1856. Mr. Parker's stalls also 

 furnished him with Clarendon, who fined down very much after his 

 arrival, and was first both at Ayr and Glasgow in '60. 



With all this good milk material, do what he might, he could never 

 get to the top of the tree in cheese-making. His dairy could win at 

 New and Old Cumnock, but they were never even commended in the 

 county competition at Kilmarnock. He spared no expense to have his 

 dairy-maids instructed in the Cheddar system, and both Mr. Harding 

 and Mr. Norton from Somersetshire set up their cheese-presses for a 

 time at Dalgig. Still he never succeeded in making a first-class article, 

 and he attributed his failure to the wet soil and the cold, damp air. 



Blackfaced sheep were also his fancy, and he won prizes with them, 

 but never showed after Mr. Richmond's death in '44. He began his 

 horse-labours simultaneously with his assault on waste land, and Kleber 

 and Lamartine, both Lanarkshire-bred Clydesdales, were his best sires. 

 Still, much as he might like good draught horses, he liked good saddle 

 horses better, and by the purchase of Revolter (a son of Grand Turk, 

 "the Cumberland coacher" and Merrylegs, a trotting mare) which he 

 put to six or seven nearly thorough-bred mares, he achieved a great 

 success both for himself and those who sent mares to "the old lame 

 horse. " For a man of his weight he was a very fearless rider, and he 

 never cared what sort of savage he had in a gig, as he would soon teach 

 it how to go. 



