DUNKELD TO BLAIR ATHOLE. 287 



shepherd, who might have pushed his fortune any- 

 where and to any length, was more than rewarded 

 for living a solitary deer-keeper at the far end of 

 Glen Tilt, or some nameless wild where for months 

 he saw no living thing but his dog and the deer, the 

 eagles and the hill-fox, the raven and the curlew 

 by his .18 a year, his 3 for milk, his six bolls and 

 a-half of oatmeal, with his annual coat of grey tweed, 

 his kilt, and his hose, so that he had the chance of 

 a kind word or a nod from the Duke, or, more blessed 

 still, a friendly pipe with him in his hut, and a con- 

 fidential chat on the interests of the ( Forest.' "* 



It was something heroically grand to see his Grace 

 in the middle of the ring at Kelso, all muffled up, to 

 hide the ravages of that terrible malady which was 

 so surely eating away his life, and yet calmly giving 

 orders about his cattle, Ayrshire and West Highland, 

 which "will not be scattered, when I die, to the four 

 winds of heaven/' The servants of the exhibitors had 

 not forgotten how unceasingly" he watched over 

 their interests at Battersea ; and they seemed to vie 

 with each other in holding his horse, and anticipat- 

 ing every wish. His death, as he told his friends, 

 when he bade them good-bye in the yard, with as 

 much calmness as if he were only taking a journey, 

 " may be a matter of only ten days or three months" ; 

 but it was six weary months before he found 

 rest. When he could hardly speak, we saw him 

 leaving the Dunkeld station to superintend the 



* Scotman. 



