The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

350
The Highland Monthly.
talk at first was intermittent, and had reference only to the
events of the day.
About the time of which I write a very extensive, and
sometimes lucrative, trade in black cattle was prosecuted by
Highland tacksmen, and, in many cases, to a much greater
extent by those middle men or dealers who were known as
drovers. A series of local markets were held throughout
the North, between Beltane and Whitsunday, at which black
cattle were brought and sold, either singly or in lots of
various size, according to the holding on which they were
reared.
Tacksmen, who engaged in this trade, generally summered
on their own land the cattle thus purchased, and
thereafter exposed them for sale at one or other of the great
Southern trysts held in the back end—unless, indeed, as
frequently happened, they were sold at home to some
drover who would buy them purely as a speculation, with
the intention of reselling them immediately. If the drover
could not pay for his herd in full, the cautious tacksman
would most likely accompany him to the tryst, and the two
would lay their heads together to promote an advantageous
sale. Should the tryst be a good one, the tacksman got the
balance due him willingly ;
but should it turn out otherwise,
as too often happened, the drover would be sure to expect
a heavy luckpenny to help to cover his loss. I have known
of several score pounds sterling to have been returned in
this fashion. I believe it is a fact that very few of those
who engaged in the cattle trade as drovers, buying at one
market in order to sell at another, were gainers in the end.
Nay, it must be allowed that, sooner or later, as a general
rule, they became bankrupts. Theirs was a trade that
partook of much of the excitement and risk of gambling.
Fortunes were made one year only to be lost the following.
Thus, notwithstanding the large number who used to be
engaged in the cattle trade, and the magnitude of the trans-
actions which sometimes took place, the drovers who died
rich were iQ\w and far between.