DUNKELD TO BLAIR ATHOLE. 285 



part of the way back to Dunkeld, and got there at 

 eleven o y clock, very little the worse for fifty miles 

 and a blank day. About twelve couple was his 

 favourite number; but once, when an otter had 

 wearied them out below the Stenton rocks, he sent 

 back for seventeen couple more. His first pack was 

 made up from the Marquis of Worcester's and 

 Captain Hopwood's ; and he delighted to tell how 

 Manager lay six hours in a drain below Kinnaird, and 

 only spoke when he went in ; how Jesuit never left 

 the water for six or seven miles on The Tweed ; and 

 how land and water seemed alike to London and 

 his celebrated Carlisle pair Conqueror and Cruel. 

 The season began in April, and he hunted two days 

 a week for four or five months on seven or eight 

 rivers. His maiden otter was killed on the Braan, 

 but he never bore home a single trophy from the Tilt 

 or the Garry. 



He once had harriers at Strathord in Perthshire, 

 and would occasionally handle a deer with them, and 

 ride, despite his short-sightedness, with r,n energy 

 that was almost miraculous. While in the Scots 

 Greys, h6 had been a hard rider, and Ben-y-Ghlo and 

 Confusion, which won the Hunters' Stake at Perth, 

 were his best-known thorough-breds. 



If there was one finer reminiscence than another 

 of his indomitable pluck, it was when he rode his 

 Eagle for the Perth Hurdle Race in '38. He fell 

 at the second hurdle opposite Marshall's? lace; but 

 though his collar-bone was broken, he would be lifted 



