f
juvenile recollection, I may just attempt to embody one or two scenes
illustrative of the Highland character, and which belong peculiarly to
the Chronicles of the Canongate, to the grey-headed eld of whom they
are as familiar as to Chrystal Croftangry. Yet I will not go back to the
days of clanship and claymores. Have at you, gentle reader, with a
tale of Two Drovers. An oyster may be crossed in love, says the gentle
Tilburina--and a drover may be touched on a point of honour, says the
Chronicler of the Canongate.

*****

THE TWO DROVERS.

CHAPTER I.

It was the day after Doune Fair when my story commences. It had been a
brisk market. Several dealers had attended from the northern and midland
counties in England, and English money had flown so merrily about as to
gladden the hearts of the Highland farmers. Many large droves were about
to set off for England, under the protection of their owners, or of the
topsmen whom they employed in the tedious, laborious, and responsible
office of driving the cattle for many hundred miles, from the market
where they had been purchased, to the fields or farmyards where they
were to be fattened for the shambles.

The Highlanders in particular are masters of this difficult trade
of driving, which seems to suit them as well as the trade of war. It
affords exercise for all their habits of patient endurance and active
exertion. They are required to know perfectly the drove-roads, which lie
over the wildest tracts of the country, and to avoid as much as
possible the highways, which distress the feet of the bullocks, and the
turnpikes, which annoy the spirit of the drover; whereas on the broad
green or grey track which leads across the pathless moor, the herd
not only move at ease and without taxation, but, if they mind their
business, may pick up a mouthful of food by the way. At night the
drovers usually sleep along with their cattle, let the weather be what
it will; and many of these hardy men do not once rest under a roof
during a journey on foot from Lochaber to Lincolnshire. They are paid
very highly, for the trust reposed is of the last importance, as it
depends on their prudence, vigilance, and honesty whether the cattle
reach the final market in good order, and afford a profit to the
grazier. But as they maintain themselves at their own expense, they are
especially economical in that particular. At the period we speak of, a
Highland drover was victualled for his