IN THE HIGHLANDS 205 



one company being all above six feet, and the others 

 down to five feet nine or so. I had a bier made so that 

 its side-rails should lie easily on the bearers' shoulders, 

 allowing them to slip in and out of harness without any 

 trouble or shaking of the cofiin. We started with eight 

 men of No. 1 company at the rear going to work, four 

 on each side; the captain observed the proper time to 

 make them fall out, when the eight next in front of them 

 took their place, and so on till all the one hundred and 

 twenty -five had taken their turn. Before all the men 

 in No. 1 company were used up, the second company 

 had divided, and the fresh bearers were all in front ready 

 to begin their supplies of eight, the first company filing 

 back to be the rear company. Thus all had exactly 

 their right share of the duty. 



" At first there was not that precision that was so 

 surprising afterwards, but, once started, had the men 

 been drilled at the Guards Barracks in London, it would 

 have been impossible for them to have gone through their 

 willing task more perfectly and solemnly. Not one 

 word was audible among the company on duty, or, 

 indeed, in the other three ; every sound was uttered sotto 

 voce in the true spirit of mourning, and I am sure every 

 man of them felt highly honoured by the service en- 

 trusted to him. All of us being good walkers, we covered, 

 once we fairly started, about four miles an hour. With 

 the help of Rory Mackenzie, the grieve at Conon, and 

 James Kennedy, gardener and forester at Gairloch, we 

 had prepared plenty of food for the five hundred before 

 we started; the food was carried in creels on led 

 horses for each halt on the way. We had plenty of 



