IN THE HIGHLANDS 111 



mile long, was not to be made into a series of pools 

 instead of flowing in rough runs broken up by big 

 stones, behind one of which, when the river was furnished 

 with cruives, a fish was obliged to rest and get a good 

 sight of our flies. There was no bridge on the Ewe until, 

 I think, 1836 or so, and the present much altered Cliff 

 House was then the smoky, whisky-perfumed Poolewe 

 Inn." 



Apropos of salmon-fishing, my uncle tells a story of 

 a lawsuit his father had : " My father was his own factor 

 and clerk, as every wise landlord will be till too old for 

 work with mind or body. He just pitied landlords 

 who knew not the pleasure of guiding their tenants 

 through all the many difficulties, which no factor 

 can remedy like their landlord, and when the factor was 

 a mere lawyer his pity was greatly increased. He de- 

 tested law and kept out of court with wonderful success, 

 till all at once a litigious fool of a neighbour drew 

 him into no fewer than seven lawsuits. The River 

 Ewe was the Gairloch march in one direction, and 

 Seaforth had bought Kernsary, which was on the north 

 side of the Ewe. Like many people who are very 

 clever but not wise, he discovered that my father was 

 using rights belonging to Kernsary, etc. He soon found 

 lawyers glad enough to back him in his folly. I need 

 not detail more than one of the complaints to court — 

 namely, that my father drew the seine-net at the mouth 

 of the Ewe on the Kernsary seashore. No use telling 

 him that this had been done without any objection for 

 more than a hundred years. He would soon make 

 people wiser, and into court he went ding-dong. Then 



