CHARACTER OF THE KILMORY CATTLE. 353 



reproduced and carried on under Sir John Orde's con- 

 stant supervision, with the aid and assistance of his 

 intelligent manager, James Aitchison, who tended the 

 old herd, and whose constant care and help have so 

 materially contributed to build up the new one on its 

 ruins. The description of the Athole cattle as 

 they existed at the Duke of Buccleuch's need not 

 be repeated, for it closely applies to them. I am 

 informed that they are not, like the Hamilton cattle, 

 mottled with black above the fetlock ; and it has been 

 observed of them that the more black upon the ear 

 the more black the hoofs also. They have all the 

 characteristics of the ancient herds of wild cattle, and 

 retain, in spite of the careful domestication they 

 undergo when young, a spice of their native wildness. 

 They are very shy, but never wicked ; and, though they 

 graze on a hill through which the high road to 

 Inverary passes, without any fence at all along the 

 greater part of it, have not been known to molest 

 anybody; but to drive the young steers to market is 

 a job, so they are generally sold on the ground and put 

 on board a steamboat near. Even the calves, five or 

 six months old, when at grass with their dams, will 

 run at the boy attending the cows, and, missing him, 

 tumble heels over head, and then get up and run at him 

 again. The cows, too, are very quarrelsome among them- 

 selves, and Sir John Orde has had more than one killed 

 by her own sisters, cousins, &c. 



The place is much better adapted for breeding than 

 for feeding purposes, and the oxen are therefore seldom 

 fed at home, but sold at about six quarters old to a 

 distance for feeding. At the Prince Consort's Shaw 

 Farm at Windsor, at the Duke of Buccleuch's at 

 x 



