THE AYRSHIBES. 117 



Lord Marchmout's estates in Berwickshire. They were soon 

 afterwards carried to the farms belonging to the same nobleman, 

 at Sornbergh, in Kyle. A bull of the new stock was sold to JMr. 

 Hamilton of Sundrum ; then Mr. Dunlop, in Cunningham, im- 

 ported some of the Dutch cattle, and their progeny was long 

 afterwards distinguished by the name of the Dunlop cows. These 

 were the first of the improved, or stranger breed, that reached 

 the baillery of Cimningham. Mr. Orr, about the year 1767, 

 brought to his estate of Grongar, near Kilmarnock, some fine milch 

 cows of a larger size than any which had been on tlie farm. It 

 was not, however, until about 1780, that this improved breed 

 might be said to be duly estimated, or generally established in 

 that part of Ayrshire, although they had begun to extend 

 beyond the Irvine, into Kyle. About 1790, according to Mr. 

 Aiton, Mr. Fulton from Blith, carried them first into Carrick, and 

 Mr. Wilson, of Kilpatrick, was the first wlio took them to the 

 southern parts of that district. So late as 1804, they were intro- 

 duced on the estate of Penmore, on the Stonchar, and they are 

 now the estabhshed cattle of Ayrshire ; they are increasing in the 

 neighboring counties, and have found their way to most parts of 

 Britain. 



" The breed has much improved since Mr. Aiton described it, 

 and is short in the leg; the neck a little thicker at the shoulder, 

 but finely shaped towards the head ; the horns smaller than those 

 of the Highlanders, but clear and smooth, pointing forwards, and 

 turning upwards, and tapering to a point. They are deep in the 

 carcass, but not round and ample, and especially not so in the 

 loins and haunches. Some, however, have suspected, and not 

 without reason, that an attention to the shape and beauty, and 

 an attempt to produce fat and sleeky cattle, which may be 

 admired at the show, has a tendency to improve what is only 

 their second point — their quahty as grazing cattle — and that at 

 tlio hazard or the certainty of diminishing their value as ibilkers. 



