94 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



had got all the divisions collected in the dark is beyond 

 my comprehension. The charge was left entirely to 

 himself from midnight until the rising of the sun ; and if 

 all the shepherds in the forest had been there to have 

 assisted him, they could not have effected it with greater 

 propriety. All that I can further say is, that I never 

 felt so grateful to any creature below the sun as I did to 

 my honest Sirrah that morning." 



Mr. Hogg, in a letter to the editor of " Blackwood's 

 Edinburgh Magazine," gives the following anecdote of 

 his shepherd's dog " Hector." " He was the son and 

 immediate successor of the faithful old Sirrah ; and 

 although not nearly so valuable a dog as his father, he 

 was a far more interesting one. He had three times 

 more humour and whim about him ; and although 

 exceedingly docile, his bravest acts were mostly tinctured 

 with a grain of stupidity, which showed his reasoning 

 faculties to be laughably obtuse. I shall mention a 

 striking instance of it. I was once at the farm of 

 Shorthope, on Ettrick Head, receiving some lambs that 

 I had bought, and was going to take to market with some 

 more the next day. Owing to some accidental delay, 

 I did not get final delivery of the lambs till it was 

 growing late ; and being obliged to be at my own house 

 that night, I was not a little dismayed lest I should 

 scatter or lose them if darkness overtook me. Darkness 

 did overtake me by the time I got half way, and no 

 ordinary darkness for an August evening. The lambs 

 having been weaned that day, and of the wild black- 

 face breed, became exceedingly unruly, and for a good 

 while I lost hopes of mastering them. Hector managed 

 the point, and we got them safe home ; but both he and 

 his master were alike sore forefoughten. It had become 



