284 FIELD AND PERN. 



these seven years. Only a few black-horned and 

 half-bred St. Kilda ewes are browsing on the slopes ; 

 and the prize Ayrshire quey at Stirling, and the one 

 that beat her at Glasgow, are in the field "below. 



Otter -hunting was at one time quite a passion 

 with the late Duke, and many a long day he had with 

 that kindred spirit, Lord John Scott, on the Teviot 

 and the Tweed. He was a man of immense muscu- 

 lar energy, and forty-four inches across the chest. 

 His pace at starting was not great ; but, solaced by 

 his unfailing pipe, he could stay for ever. One pecu- 

 liarity was greatly in his favour. When he was com- 

 ing home, he would stop every third or fourth mile, 

 and sit down by the roadside, fall asleep in an instant, 

 and at the end of five minutes start on to his legs 

 again, and off like a new man. Beardy Willie 

 (whose " tumbling cataract of beard" fairly appalled 

 us as he opened the gate at Dunkeld) not only acted 

 as his banner-bearer when, as Knight of the Gael, 



" He went 

 Gaily to the tournament," 



but was always a henchman on these occasions, carry- 

 ing a spade and a pickaxe on his shoulder from the 

 dawn to the gloamin, and as full of running as his 

 master, from end to end. 



The Duke would hardly eat or drink anything when 

 he was with his pack. Once he started early in the 

 morning, and hunted the Braan for ten miles, then 

 back for a couple, and crossed the hill from Amulvie 

 to Aberfeldy, to try two lochs. After that he hunted 



