20 COUNTRY LIFE 



cast and the fish in so grand a humour for taking. 

 Or the scene at Tibbie's, a la Sneyders or Landseer, 

 when the gillies come in and shoot out their loads of 

 feathered game in unstudied studies of colour, at the 

 corners of the little parlour. But it is in his Sporting 

 Jacket in those Recreations of his that Christopher is 

 simply perfect, beginning with the boyish reminiscences 

 of the moorland parish where he was under the roof of 

 the manse ; where such game as he cared for then 

 swarmed like the midges on some mountain tarn, and 

 you could not throw a stone into hedge or cornyard 

 without sending a cloud of sparrows into the air. How 

 humorous is the description of the exploits of himself 

 and his comrades with the rusty pistol that was their 

 common property we think we remember something 

 of the same kind in the introduction to the " Old 

 Forest Ranger," also written by a Scotchman or with 

 the ancient single-barrel of portentous length and 

 recoil that used to be supported along the shoulders of 

 two of the party, while a third volunteered for the 

 duty of discharging it ! So he leads us on through 

 such feats of irregular shooting as his stealing in upon 

 the heron struggling with the eel, since " we too can 

 crawl silent as the sinuous serpent," to the finished 

 exploits of the full-grown youth who drops his birds 

 almost unfailingly to the fatal double-barrel, as he 

 strides over the heather behind his highly-trained dogs, 

 and who can throw a fly that falls light as thistle-down. 

 There is nothing North touches that he does not adorn, 

 even when the touch is a mere passing allusion. How 



