William Scrope 



IF ever there was a man to whom sport was made easy 

 it was William Scrope. He was one of those lucky 

 mortals who are born "with silver spoons in their 

 mouths," and he was able to gratify to the full his 

 artistic and sporting tastes without any sordid calcula- 

 tions as to ways and means. He could study art in 

 Rome or pursue sport in Scotland as he pleased, with 

 every luxurious accompaniment that the resources of 

 civilisation could supply. He carried his books, his 

 pictures, his paraphernalia for the slaughter of deer and 

 salmon, whithersoever it seemed good to him to do so. 

 He could afford to rent at one and the same time three 

 noble Scottish residences, besides a couple of shooting- 

 boxes. For years he had the run of the grandest deer- 

 forest in the Highlands. When the fancy took him to 

 write a book he could have it produced in the most 

 sumptuous of bindings, illustrated by the most celebrated 

 of artists, with supreme indifference as to whether he 

 lost or gained by the production. 



Humbler sportsmen like John Younger, of St. Bos- 

 well's, for example conscious of an equal passion for 



415 



