118 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



mark of esteem, to wliicli benefaction Charley added the aforesaid letter as 

 a still smaller mark of his esteem. 



Having satisfied his turf creditors, and intimated that it was the last 

 of his money which they would be likely to see, he cut the turf, and 

 commenced to enjoy himself in a very comfortable rational way, and 

 primarily he consulted me about getting a moor, and asked me to look one 

 out for him that very next Christmas, and to shoot it thereafter, and I 

 wrote to my old gossips Snowie of Inverness and Paton of Perth to keep 

 anything good that came along for my consideration up to certain limits, 

 and in about three weeks or so I had letters from them with inclosures 

 giving accounts of two moors, either of which was well worth notice. 

 Glen-Ladich, 20,000 acres, large lodge, suitable for a large family; 

 gardens, hothouses, &c., fifteen miles from post town, and a like distance 

 from supplies. We might kill 600 or 700 brace or so, and ten or a 

 dozen stags, the woods being full of roe; some small trout lochs, but 

 nothing else in the way of fishing. Rent, 700^. 



Craigdarroch, 15,000 acres, small lodge, kitchen garden, situated on 

 Loch Darroch, with five miles of the Darroch, a middling salmon river late 

 in the season, with ptarmigan on Ben Darroch, and an occasional stag, six 

 miles from post town and supplies. Rent, 550/. 



If I felt inclined to come down in March I could run over the moors 

 and see what the prospects were, so as not to purchase a pig in a poke. 

 Por general sport, Paton, one of the best judges going, seemed to fancy 

 Craigdarroch, and, unless we wanted more accommodation, the lodge, 

 though small, was snug and quite capacious enough for bachelors; so I 

 determined to take a look at Craigdarroch first, and, if that suited, not 

 to trouble about Glen Ladich, and early in March, taking my setter Old 

 Bang with me, I made tracks for the "land of cakes" by the "limited," 

 and in about sixteen hours was landed at Craigdarroch. 



The lodge, I saw at once, was all that would be needed : two sitting 

 rooms, a gun room, four best bed rooms, and the usual ofiices, stables, 

 and kennels, moderate but sufficient, airy and well-drained ; kitchen garden 

 well stocked and well sheltered, large enough for our wants; no hothouses 

 to speak of, and nothing expensive to keep up. I liked the look of the 



