146 A HUNDRED YEARS 



of the whole lot. So the boy was sent very early next 

 morning to the mansion of the laird with a polite note, 

 and he himself started with a lot of retainers and several 

 ponies to fetch the stags. They carried them home 

 in triumph and with great pomp. 



Just to show how eccentric this old gentleman was, 

 his gamekeeper told me afterwards that on the arrival 

 of the cavalcade at the door of the big house, they were 

 ordered to stand at attention with the stags still on the 

 unfortunate ponies' backs ! Had it been in these modern 

 times the men might have thought the group was to be 

 photographed, but photography was not known then, 

 and so they fondly hoped it might mean a dram all 

 round on the great occasion of the laird's bringing back 

 his first stags (though they happened to have been 

 shot by someone else). From former bitter experience, 

 however, they well knew that treating was not at all 

 in his line; so there they were kept standing for well 

 over an hour, imtil they nearly dropped ; but at long last 

 ** himself " appeared, dressed as if for an Inverness 

 Northern Meeting ball, with all the paraphernalia of 

 powder horn and pistols, dirks and daggers. Thus 

 embellished, he walked three times round the stags, 

 ordered the men to give three ringing cheers for " him- 

 self,'' and then dismissed them without either a dram 

 or anything else, and retired indoors to undress himself. 



How often have I since regretted not having at the 

 time asked the keeper (who was so well known by his 

 nickname of " Glineachan ") whether on that great 

 occasion the laird wore his long or his short kilt. He 

 possessed two, and at the first Inverness gathering which 



