CHAPTER VIII 



EARLY SPORTING DAYS 



I LEFT my home for Germany in the autumn of 1853, 

 when the Crimean War was in full blast. My mother's 

 intention, was to remain abroad for perhaps three years, 

 but the first summer at Heidelberg proved too hot for me 

 (the thermometer going up to 92° in the shade), so we 

 had to go to Switzerland for three months. Ross-shire 

 saw us back again (at least, for a good long holiday) 

 in 1855, because I was beginning to get very homesick, 

 and in consequence was not thriving quite to my mother's 

 satisfaction. 



Now, as all the shootings on the Gairloch estate were 

 let at this time, I proposed to my mother that we should 

 hire Pool House, which was empty, and which had been 

 our home on one or two previous occasions, and that we 

 should try to get the sporting rights over Inverewe, 

 which was quite near. It was then just a neglected 

 outlying sheep-farm, belonging to the Coul estate, with- 

 out even a resident farm tenant on it, and in charge only 

 of two shepherds, who looked after its stock of Cheviot 

 ewes. One of these shepherds generally carried a gun 

 instead of the regulation shepherd's crook ! There were 

 also one or two other men in Poolewe and in the crofting 



township of Londubh (Black Bog) who occasionally 



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