114 A HUNDRED YEARS 



shot over it; but as grouse were so very scarce, they 

 more or less confined themselves to sporting along 

 its shores, on the ofE-chance of getting a shot at an otter, 

 a merganser, or, still better, a great northern diver. 

 Well do I remember one of them telling me that a Muir 

 Bhuachaill (sea herdsman, the Gaelic for the northern 

 diver) was far better than any three fat hens. I can 

 certainly vouch for its being bigger and heavier, if not 

 better flavoured, for the first northern diver I ever shot 

 weighed 17 pounds ! 



Accordingly we approached the then laird of Coul, 

 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, on the question of shooting 

 rent; his ideas were very moderate, for he only asked 

 £10 per annum for something like 7,000 or 8,000 acres, 

 on condition that we put on a good keeper, who would 

 stop poaching and destroy the vermin. And so I 

 started my life as a regular sportsman at the early age 

 of thirteen years. The keeper who was engaged came 

 of real good old stock, who had served the Gairloch 

 family more or less for generations, and had been with 

 us as hall-boy for some years in the Tigh Dige. He 

 rejoiced in the modern anglicised patronymic of 

 Morrison, which would sound so much nicer in its old 

 original Gaelic form of Mac ille Mhoire (Son of the 

 Servant of St. Mary). 



The next thing was to get a good dog of some kind, 

 and as I was so young someone suggested that a sort 

 of retriever, which would occasionally point at his game, 

 might suit me, instead of having a regular team of 

 pointers or setters. There was nothing in the way of a 

 kennel at Pool House, so my first and only dog, '* Shot," 



