CHAPTER XVII 



" The Moor and the Loch " : the Nestor of Scottish 

 Sportsmen 



Moor and the Loch." Seldom has such 

 infinite suggestion been so happily compressed 

 in a title. It awakens a whole world of memories : 

 it presents a shifting panorama of Scottish scenes and 

 sport. We see the broad extent of blooming heather, 

 backed up by the brown ranges of mountain or by 

 the peaks sapped by the weather and shivered by 

 the storms, standing out sharp and clear against the 

 distant sky-line. We see lakes like Loch Lomond, 

 winding round bay and headland, in the shadows of 

 the mighty Ben and embosoming an archipelago of 

 islands. We see lakes like Loch Awe or Loch Leven 

 embosoming historic strongholds, where the garrisons 

 like the ospreys on their isolated pillar-rocks could 

 only be reached by swimming or reduced by starva- 

 tion. We follow the great chain of the Central Glen 

 Albyn, with many a silent nook and solitary pool 

 gently washing the shelving beach when stirred by 

 the breeze and mirroring each tremor of the weeping 

 birches. Or we are in the more stern severity of 



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