xJ PREFACE. 



gather evidence from those breeders who stand high 

 in its annals, not only as to the present progress of 

 the stock on which England depends for such exten- 

 sive supplies, but also as to the thoughts and labours 

 of men who have done Scotland good service, and 

 then passed to their rest. Grouse shooting, deer 

 stalking, and salmon rod-fishing have their own liege 

 lords of the pen ; but still there were many little 

 points connected with hunting, coursing, racing, and 

 otter hunting, which seemed calculated to work into 

 a picture of Scottish life, and to vary the monotony 

 of mere beef and mutton chapters. 



Fancy soon faded into reality, and I found that I 

 had sot myself a very serious task. I had to pluck 

 the heart out of three summers, a winter, and a 

 spring, to travel some 8,000 miles,* to sleep away 

 from home about 250 nights, and change my bed 

 146 times, before I wrote a line. The Government 

 Pish Commissioners, coasting jauntily along in the 

 Salamis, had quite the best of me, as I worked my 

 own commission on Flesh and Fowl, through sunshine 

 and shower, with no secretary to cut out the line. 

 It is very easy to draw up a programme, but not sa 

 easy to hold to it. I often found a new and valu- 

 able witness where I least expected to do so, and had 

 to throw over every plan rather than leave him ; but 

 there was still, in spite of all the hardship and 



* This includes several journeys to and from London. 



