212 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



in simpler days than ours. His family had 

 spent the winter in Edinburgh ; a thing that 

 never happens now. Or, it may be that he was 

 member for the county; for the "carpet-bagger" 

 was still in the future. But Parliament rose about 

 the end of July; and it would have been rank 

 heresy, bringing on the leaders the disaffection, and 

 desertion of their followers, to have sat over the 

 Twelfth ; or even so near as to make the journey 

 hurried, and inconvenient. 



The stations were not the present scenes of 

 bustle ; the trains travelled more leisurely. There 

 were no sleeping compartments ; and, as he shook 

 himself up. put aside his rug, and opened the 

 window to let in the fresh morning air, the 

 shearers were already abroad in the barley-fields 

 of an early harvest. 



If young, and eager, he was up bright and soon, 

 and on the moor before the grouse had filled their 

 crops with the tender tips of the heather; if an 

 old hand, he, probably, took another three hours in 

 bed. " It will generally be found," says one who 

 preserved the best traditions of the sport, " that 

 if two equal shots, upon equal moors, uncouple 

 their dogs, one at five o'clock, and the other at 

 eight, and compare notes at two in the afternoon, 



