The Black Swans 



know I should not in this climate. 

 And apropos of that, and of the right 

 to bear arms and bare legs, I once had 

 the pleasure and the honor of spending 

 a delightful summer day with the late 

 Sir George Macpherson Grant at Bal- 

 lindalloch Castle way up there in 

 Strathspey where the heather and the 

 Trojan Ericas were blooming. Prince 

 Ito was there also, but you might not 

 find him quite as interesting as I did. 

 Still he was a bull well worth knowing, 

 whose pedigree may be found in that 

 Scottish bovine Almanac de Gotha, 

 the Aberdeen-Angus herd book. I am 

 sure that His Lordship's "hieland" 

 dress was vastly more comfortable 

 as we wandered up and down the 

 fields that day than were my own long 

 regulation "breeks." Freedom of 

 movement! Freedom of life! Up there 

 in the northern air and hills! And in- 

 side the gray old castle walls we 

 climbed the steep and narrow circling 

 steps by which the ancient tower of 

 [n6] 



