32 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



yards and also fell. Such a gathering of roe I 

 have never seen together before or since in Scot- 

 land, and it was great luck to have been able to 

 bag three adult bucks at one stand and at one 

 moment. 



These excellent guns I only kept for a short 

 time, owing to an unfortunate accident. 



One bitterly cold winter morning in 1887 I went 

 on leave from my regiment, the Seaforth High- 

 landers, then quartered in Glasgow, and journeyed 

 to Perth, from which I drove in a cab to New Mill, 

 a country estate rented by my father, who had 

 recently given up the Murthly shootings. We 

 were descending the last hill to the house at about 

 seven in the morning, when, on looking from the 

 window of the cab, I saw in the middle of a field a 

 red Irish water spaniel, belonging to one of my 

 brother officers, Malcolm Murray, 1 howling as if his 

 heart would break. At once I got out to ascertain 

 the cause of the trouble, when, looking in the direc- 

 tion of New Mill, I saw the whole place obscured in 

 volumes of smoke. The roof had fallen in and the 

 place was gutted. The sight gave me a shock, as 

 my parents and the servants were living there, and 

 I could only guess what had happened. 



Running to the house with the utmost speed, I 

 found no one, only a large upturned grand piano 

 reposed on the lawn in the deep snow, but that 

 plainly showed that the inhabitants had not only 

 saved themselves, but had had time to eject some 

 of the more valuable contents of the house. A 

 gardener then came up and told me that all were 



1 Now Colonel Sir Malcolm Murray, Controller to the Duke 

 of Connaught. 



