A DAY ON THE MOORS. 643 



other direction, but missing his partner, was coming down at speed : 

 he instantly backed, his body forming a curve, obeying the direction 

 of his course, and of the quarter from whence he received the scent. 

 I panted with breathless expectation, and wished to give the dogs 

 leisure to enjoy their point; but I was teazed with the importunities 

 of my gilly, who, not understanding either the niceties or flutter of 

 spirits in the presence of a muir fowl, was urging me to go on and 

 take my shot. I did so, and missed my bird, which, under such cir- 

 cumstances, was less wonderful than if I had bagged him. Archy 

 had lost confidence in me by this specimen of my address, but I had 

 gained some in myself; I could depend on my dogs, and I knew what 

 he did not, that I could depend on myself when the first impressions, 

 inseparable from young sportsmen, had been dissipated. There was 

 no want of game: we returned to the grey stone from whence we had 

 first started in the morning, and giving the dogs the wind, passed 

 through the low grounds, which were full of hags, in some places se- 

 parated by water, or wet, miry turf. In passing over to one of these 

 detached masses, a pack of grouse rose before me : I had not expected 

 them ; but, on the other hand, neither was I flurried with the sus- 

 pense and awful pause which, more or less, besets a sportsman to the 

 last, in the interval between the point and the shot; I killed the old 

 cock with my favourite left-hand barrel, and a bird which rose nearer to 

 me shared the same fate with the second discharge. The dogs had 

 instantly dropped, and the game was fluttering on the spot where it 

 had fallen, when I called Arehy in a tone which sufficiently marked 

 how I felt after this exploit, and asked him for a charge of shot. I 

 would not condescend to make any remarks on it myself; that would 

 have looked too much as if such feats had been new to me: no, it 

 must come from him only. a Had 1 not better pick up the bird, 

 Sir ?" " Not till I have done, and then you will find two grouse, or 

 I mistake;" which, I believe, was pronounced with an air of great 

 dignity ; for Archy, who seemed to freeze under the chillness of my 

 aspect, attempted to cajole me, by saying, while he lifted them.) 

 " Lord, Sir, if ye gang on that gait till gloaming, what will the bag 

 say till't?" While I am writing this I have almost a repetition of the 

 wild joy and pleasure I had when these beautiful birds, my first 

 trophies, were brought to me ; not a feather ruffled ; their eyes nearly 

 closed, and the big, thick drops of blood bursting convulsively from 

 the mouth. I smoothed the plumage, and laid them, with something 

 like tenderness and pride, into my bag, and encouraging the dogs to 

 go out, was again on the alert. Before eight o'clock I had counted 

 seven brace ; a wide track of excellent heath lay before me, and my 

 hopes were not unreasonably high of my day's sport : now and then 

 an anxious thought would come across me, of jealousy of my com- 

 panion's success/ but on the whole I was delighted and satisfied. I 

 learned there was a shepherd's cot at no great distance, and feeling it 

 was breakfast time, proceeded in that direction to get some milk. It 

 was a wretched hovel, no bad resemblance to an Indian wig-warn, 

 seated at the foot of a high hill, with a stream running close beside. 

 A little kail-yard., with a patch of corn, completed the whole appear- 

 ance of this simple man's provision for the winter : a heap of peats 

 r>iled to the end of his house, and a hovel for his cow at the other, 



