CHAPTER V 

 YOUTH 



When I was about eight years of age a tutor was got 

 for me, and I had one with me from then till I was 

 eleven, when I left Gairloch for Germany. I was very 

 keen about sport of every kind, and one day, when I was 

 about nine, my mother told me that as soon as I could 

 swim twenty yards she would order a little gun for me. 

 I quickly learned to swim at the lovely big sands at 

 Gairloch, being taught by two or three girl cousins who 

 were expert swimmers; so one day a twenty yards 

 length of rope was bought, each end was held by a very 

 pretty lassie, and after a fearful struggle I accomplished 

 my task. That night a little single-barrelled muzzle- 

 loader weighing only three pounds was ordered from a 

 gun-maker in London. Some wise folk thought my 

 mother was making a great mistake by letting me start 

 shooting so early, one of the chief reasons brought for- 

 ward being that I should soon become quite blase and 

 should not enjoy sport when I grew up to manhood. 

 But all these prophecies were completely falsified, as I 

 was the keenest of sportsmen all my life, until I gave up 

 the gun when I was over seventy. 



Few men have done more shooting in the course of their 

 lives than I have. Before I began to shoot I used to 



love to go out with our old butler, Sim Eachainn, with a 



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