The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

136 Ihe Highland Monthly.
season of the year, and the suitableness of the day for hay-
making, I was not a Httle surprised at the Sabbath appear-
ance of the fields. My first inipression was that if not the
*' muckle Sabbath itsel','' it was at least a fast-day. As
communion fasts are usually held on Thursdays, and no
other holidays were then common, the solution, on second
consideration, did not hold good, so I asked a little boy
that was herding cattle by the roadside, ivhy people were
not working, and he told me they were a' awa to the
Clachan Fair. The yearly lamb fair was a customary
holiday, it seemed, in the district. I reached the Clachan
Inn in time, and found " mine host " in a perspiration of
anxiety. The stables were filled with horses, and every
part of the house—not a small one— filled with company.
Before the inn were rows of "sweetie" stands, and penny
shows, and all the children of the parish—my little ragged
informant, the herd boy, excepted. Further away on the
hillside were droves of lambs, and crowds of persons who
intended to buy or sell. I asked " mine host " for dinner.
He told me that deil a dinner I could hae there unless I
waited for the public yearly dinner of the farmers, which
closed the fair. I agreed to stay, and being informed that
two parish authorities whom I wished to see ofificially were
on the hillside, I bent my steps thither, determined, as
usual, to take things as they came without annoyance, if I
could do so.
I found one of the gentlemen I sought, and in his company
navigated my way among the flocks of lambs, amusing
myself with observations on the groups of buyers and
sellers. Perhaps it is an early prejudice, but I think that
there is not under the sun a class of heartier, and, on the
whole, honester men than farmers. Yet to watch their
bargain-making one would think them as sharp as Jews.
There now is a red-faced, loud-voiced buyer, who explains
to a young sheepish seller that the price he asks is absurdly
high, because the English markets are down and must
come down from the bad prospects of the harvest and the