56 FIELD AND FERN. 



and three only obtains in the current leases. The 

 strath of Kildonaii springs early, and there is nothing 

 in the lower part under three shillings, and nothing 

 in the higher under five. 



We did not pursue our own wanderings beyond 

 Mr. Hadwin's shooting-lodge, in front of which two 

 foxes, killed in no fair chace, and then stuffed with 

 straw, creaked like felons on a gibbet. No Oulton 

 Lowe or Cream Gorse for them ; no cheery view- 

 halloo from Jem Hills or John Walker ! But there 

 was no help for it ; the cubs cannot be dug out of the 

 rocks, and the old ones make as much havoc with 

 the lambs and hares as they did of late among the 

 roe-calves in a Morayshire wood, and "grew too fat 

 to trot." Still extremes will meet even in appetite ; 

 and if they do love one trap-bait better than another, 

 it is a rotten rat. There were far more pleasant tro- 

 phies inside the lodge, where scores of antlered heads 

 did peg duty in passage, hall, and bedroom. Many 

 of them had their forest epitaph duly labelled be- 

 low. August, 1859, had witnessed the crash of a 

 19st. 21b. hart on Ben Dune at 295 yards ; Glass- 

 come could boast of ' ' 24 stone clean" ; and Aulton- 

 grange beat it with a stone in hand. 



Old Gideon Kutherford, whose son Richard now 

 holds part of it, is the venerable sage of the 

 strath ; and there was the light of battle in his eye, 

 when he recalled how many "braw lads 5 -' it had 

 " given to the 42nd Highlanders, who beat the In- 

 vincibles in Egypt." There have always been men of 



