286 FIELD AND FERN. 



on again, and caught his horses and won. The Erl 

 King could'nt have ridden faster if he chanced to be 

 a minute late in starting for the Drive ; and a comi- 

 cal sketch of the kind hung in the drawing-room at 

 Elair Castle from the pencil of his Eton friend, Mr. 

 Evans. Grouse-shooting he did not care much 

 about ; but the autumn drives, of which he would 

 have at least a score, if the wind suited, were his 

 delight. Glen Tilt will average about ten thousand 

 deer daily, and there is no finer sight than an army of 

 harts moving along its sky-line. The great Athole 

 Forest comprises some 80,000 acres, and marches 

 with Glen Fishie, Lairg, and Mar. It has been 

 known to carry 30,000 deer. If the wind is from 

 the south, it is the best drive for Athole into the 

 heart of the Forest; and if in the north, it is the best 

 for Ben-y-Ghlo. But we know nothing of such 

 forest lore, and the wind rancorously barred our only 

 chances of seeing a charge of six thousand down the 

 glen. 



Still, if this was denied us, during the few autumn 

 days we lingered near Blair Athole, it was no light 

 thing for an Englishman to have noted the allegiance 

 of Highlanders to a chief, so deep and true in bis days 

 of health, and deepened and chastened when he 

 was dying. Not till then could we have rea- 

 lized the truth of what was written, ' ' that his Athole 

 guard (many of whom, with. Struan at their head, 

 were his peers in birth) would have died for him, not 

 in word, but in deed" ; and that " a young capable 



