16 AUTOBIOGKAPHY. [Ch. II. 



joke, but it was no joke to me, for I had shot a large number of 

 birds, but did not know how many, and could not add them to 

 my list, which I used to do by making a knot in a piece of 

 string tied to a button-hole. This my wicked friends had 

 perceived. 



How I did enjoy shooting ! but I think that I must have been 

 half-consciously ashamed of my zeal, for I tried to persuade 

 myself that shooting was almost an intellectual employment ; 

 it required so much skill to judge where to find most game and 

 to hunt the dogs well. 



One of my autumnal visits to Maer in 1827 was memorable 

 from meeting there Sir J. Mackintosh, who was the best con- 

 verser I ever listened to. I heard afterwards with a glow of 

 pride that he had said, " There is something in that young man 

 that interests me." This must have been chiefly due to his 

 perceiving that I listened with much interest to everything 

 which he said, for I was as ignorant as a pig about his subjects 

 of history, politics, and moral philosophy. To hear of praise 

 from an eminent person, though no doubt apt or certain to 

 excite vanity, is, I think, good for a young man, as it helps to 

 keep him in the right course. 



My visits to Maer during these two or three succeeding years 

 were quite delightful, independently of the autumnal shooting. 

 Life there was perfectly free ; the country was very pleasant 

 for walking or riding ; and in the evening there was much very 

 agreeable conversation, not so personal as it generally is in 

 large family parties, together with music. In the summer the 

 whole family used often to sit on the steps of the old portico 

 with the flower-garden in front, and with the steep wooded bank 

 opposite the house reflected in the lake, with here and there a 

 fish rising or a water-bird paddling about. Nothing has left a 

 more vivid picture on my mind than these evenings at Maer. I 

 was also attached to and greatly revered my Uncle Jos ; he was 

 silent and reserved, so as to be a rather awful man ; but he 

 sometimes talked openly with me. Ho was the very type of an 

 upright man, with the clearest judgment. I do not believe that 

 any power on earth could have made him swerve an inch from 

 what he considered the right course. I used to apply to him in 

 my mind the well-known ode of Horace, now forgotten by mo, 

 in which the words " nee vultus tyranni, &c," * come* in. 



* Justum et tenacem propositi virum 

 Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 

 Non vultus instantis tyranni 

 Mente quatit solida. 



