26 ECHOES OF SPORT 



Five miles' drive to reach the ground, wherein 

 was time to draw deep of the morning's 

 beauty, to imagine bringing home the finest 

 stag that ever was seen, and various other 

 hallucinations of anticipation that surely are 

 among the amusing attributes of sport. At 

 the end of the five miles the stalker was met 

 spying from the road, and with him an old 

 white-bearded ghillie, who despite his seventy 

 years, a bronchial cough, and rheumatic feet, 

 could not be kept from the hill. He had been 

 a shepherd in former days, and the love of all 

 things wild is too deep planted in such hill- 

 men to be effaced by mere weight of years. 



" Good day, Dewar ; how are you ? You've 

 got to take me to the hill to-day," and a long 

 figure in the shortest of grey skirts jumped 

 from the pony-trap to greet the stalwart 

 stalker and the " old man of the mountain." 

 " An' deed, me'em, I'm pleessed to see ye," 

 was the pleasant response. Then came the 

 usual " Have you seen anything ? " " Ah, 

 weel, I wuss seeing some beasts further back," 

 and so on. During this palaver Dewar pos- 



