Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/250

 had a bit of ground at the back by way of garden or kailyard.

Another part of Scott's description of the village of Tullly-Veolan, mentions the great number of useless dogs, and the story told of them by a French tourist who, wishing to find a reason for the number of dogs he saw, recorded as one of the national characteristics of Scotland, that the State maintained in each village a relay of curs, called collies whose duty it was to chase the chevaux de poste (too starved and exhausted to move without such a stimulus) from one hamlet to another, till they drove them to the end of the stage. Travellers in Scotland now might not find the number of curs so great as described by the veracious French tourist; but Colonel Thompson related a curious story of the Scotch collies which he heard on his Free Trade expedition in Scotland. The country people used to be followed to church by their collie dogs, which were all put into an appointed place in the church by themselves; and the dogs knew by the change in the preacher's tone when he was winding up, and with one consent cried Hoo! in joy at their approaching liberation. It came into one preacher's head to try the experiment of imitating the tones