WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



'•I became acquainted with Charles St John in my autumn vacation of 

 1844, when I was Sheriff of Moray. We had some common friends, and 

 messages of civility had passed between us; but we had not yet met, when 

 one day in October I was shooting down the riverside and the islands on 

 the Findhorn, making out a bag of partridges laboriously. 



"It was a windy day, and the birds going off wild spoilt my shooting, 

 which is at best uncertain. While I was on the island, two birds had gone 

 away wounded into a large turnip-field across the river. I waded the river 

 after them with my pointers, when a man pushed through a hedge from 

 the Inverness side, followed by a dog, making straight for me. 



"Therewas no mistaking the gentleman — a sportsman all over, though 

 without any 'getting up ' for sport, and without a gun. I waited for him, 

 and on coming up, he said he had seen my birds pitch, and offered to find 

 them for me if I would take up my dogs. When my pointers were coupled 

 he called 'Grip,' and a large poodle with a Mephistopheles expression 

 began travelling across and across the drills, till suddenly he struck the 

 scent, and then with a series of curious jumps on all fours, and pauses 

 between to listen for the moving of the bird, he made quick work with 

 No. I, and so with No. 2. I never saw so perfect a dog for retrieving; but 

 he was not handsome. 



"After this introduction, St John and I became frequent companions. 

 At that time I was in the habit of writing an article occasionally for the 

 Quarterly, and I put together one on Scotch sport, using as my material 

 some of St John's chapters, especially the story of the Muckle Hart of 

 Benmore.* The paper pleased Mr Lockhart. ' It would be sufficient,' he 

 said, ' to float any number. Whether the capital journal laid under con- 

 tribution be your own or another's, I don't know, but every one will wish 

 to see more of it.' 



"I received the editor's letter at Knockomie, and the next day the 

 reading of it to St John served for seasoning as we took our shooting 

 lunch together beside the spring among the whins on the Brae of Bervie. 

 Our course was now plain. I divided the money produce of the Quarterly 

 article with St John, who rejoiced greatly in the first money he had ever 

 made by his own exertions, and on my next visit to London I arranged 

 for him the sale of the whole chapters, the produce of his last winter's 



* Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxvii. 



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