2 1 o Notes on Sport and T7^avel i 



have one's health tenderly inquired after by Donald ? 



• Never ! Tub — sleep-dispeller, welcome ! and 



to breakfast at six with a Sutherland appetite. 



Before the terminal gooseberry jam is attained, 

 the sharp sound of wheels on the wet gravel announces 

 the arrival of Donald, kindest-hearted and keenest 

 of stalkers, and his cheery inquiries as to my state 

 of preparation are promptly answered by my appear- 

 ance at the door. 



We are bent on business whatever the weather 

 may be, but we go through the ceremony of dis- 

 cussing whether there is a chance of its being worth 

 the while ; and then, after an interchange of prophecies 

 believed in by neither of the prophets, we climb into 

 the dog-cart, and turn down sharp by that wonder- 

 ful post-office, whose master is a * Mairchaunt,' and 

 where you can buy, or at least order, everything, 

 from a red hackle to a reaping-machine. 



How deliciously the fresh breeze sweeps round 

 the corner, inflating our lungs to their innermost 

 cell, and how the waves lap and jump under it! A 

 wild night last night, judging from those piles of foam 

 along the shore ; but those great straggling rifts are 

 beginning to show patches of the cold blue northern 

 sky beyond. Nothing, after all, but a sea-fog ! 

 Whether the weather be wet or dry, wet we shall be 

 on the hill, and those rifts will let light enough 

 through to show us deer, if the worst comes to the 

 worst. 



Trundle along, powney, through the stone-inclosed 



