174 A HUNDRED YEARS 



wars with Buonaparte, yet was always ready to come 

 shooting or fishing in burn, loch, or sea with us if his 

 men were carrying on routine work which only needed 

 his presence occasionally. He was with us nearly the 

 whole summer, and I remember what high spirits he 

 was in one day when one of his people won a prize by 

 throwing the sun's rays from a concave mirror from, I 

 think, the top of Slioch to the Clova Hills in Kincardine- 

 shire through some glen or other, thus enabling these 

 spots to be fixed accurately for mapping. He was much 

 interested by our dear Uncle Kenneth's account of the 

 war with Hyder Ali and the siege and taking of Seringa- 

 patam, at which Uncle Kenneth was present. He 

 retired afterwards to Kerry sdale, and seemed to 

 be more peaceful and happy than anyone I ever 

 knew. 



" My father never went out to kill a heavy bag. 

 Such things were never boasted of in those times as now, 

 when a man who shoots, say, one hundred brace in a day 

 is looked up to as quite a hero. Except to vary the 

 house diet and to give some game to a tenant, killing 

 grouse was mere waste, there being no way to dispose 

 of it, no steamers, no railways, no wheels to Gairloch to 

 send the game broadcast all over the kingdom. There 

 was then as much game as could be expected when the 

 gamekeeper was merely a game-killer and never dreamt 

 of trapping vermin. My father shot any kind of vermin 

 that happened to come in his way or hunted them with 

 the dogs. When he went to shoot some grouse we small 

 boys always begged to be allowed to carry the dead. 

 One day I remember so well his astonishing us. From 



