"THE MOOR AND THE LOCH" 227 



little beagles following hot and fast on the trail of 

 the roe, and the scratch lot of rough hounds swimming 

 and diving on the track of the otter, gurgling and 

 yelping between water and wind. Our fancy has run 

 away with us, and it is time to rein up. For every- 

 where and in all things Mr, Colquhoun has antici- 

 pated us : he has emphasised and illustrated each 

 possible situation with the graphic touch of a Land- 

 seer and the knowledge and experience that are all 

 his own. 



Nearly sixty years of sport by flood and felJ, in 

 field and forest have left him the Nestor of Scottish 

 sportsmen. What changes these sixty years have 

 witnessed ! We know not to what we may look 

 forward in the future. We may take to acclimating 

 the reindeer of Scandinavia in the Shetlands, the elk 

 in the Blackmount, and the izzard in Torridon or 

 Applecross. We may stock our coverts with the 

 golden pheasant and the bantam-like jungle-fowl, and 

 lay down the spawn of the sturgeon in the breeding- 

 ponds of the Highlands and the Border. But it is 

 only too certain that no future writer can rival Mr. 

 Colquhoun in reminiscences of the characteristic 

 Scotland of the olden time. No doubt we have 

 witnessed many improvements. We have reclaimed 

 an infinity of unproductive wastes ; and financially, 

 the national income has benefited. Socially, too, we 

 have made marvellous progress, and have left our 

 grandfathers leagues behind, while we can only blush 

 for their ruder progenitors. But from the artistic 



