CHAPTER III 



An English Squire 



T)ERHAPS the Highlands have most fascination for 

 * a man with a dash of the adventurer in him, who 

 is hard and sound in mind and body ; who loves to 

 brace his sinews in exposure and with severe exercise ; 

 who does not object to an occasional touch of hardship ; 

 who can make himself happy among well-chosen books 

 as the companions of his leisure hours, when he is not 

 living in a house that is filled with congenial company. 

 But there is much to be said, on the other hand, for the 

 life of the English squire. It is true that, so far from 

 being monarch of all he surveys, and a good deal more, 

 he is rather " crowded up," as the Yankees would say. 

 The lands of his neighbours cut here and there into his 

 own ; and when he flushes birds upon farms not very 

 far from his house, they are apt to drop beyond his 

 boundaries. But then he has plenty of pleasant society 

 in a neighbourhood that is full of quiet, domestic 

 beauties, if it has not the grandeur of the shores of 

 Lochlyle. The hall may stand a trifle low. Those 



