BRUAR LODGE. 47 



is a wooden foot bridge, raised high above the water, so as 

 to give it a free passage. When Tortoise nourished, this 

 bridge, shot away by the floods, used to make an annual 

 excursion of some miles towards the Garry, and was regu- 

 larly brought back again piecemeal by a train of carts 

 every summer. Like the boat -bridge on the Rhine, it 

 might be termed a pont volant. Some distance up the glen, 

 towards the east, a lofty cataract falls from the mountain 

 side, whose waters find their way into the Bruar ; and the 

 head of the pass is obstructed by a chain of mountains, so 

 that it forms a sort of cul-de-sac. 



On these hills grouse are most abundant; and when 

 they are not shrouded in mist, there cannot be a more de- 

 lightful range for a sportsman. Tortoise, therefore, used to 

 relax a little on them, after the severer exercise of deer- 

 stalking, when venison was plenty, and grouse scarce at 

 the castle, or when the wind was unfavourable for the 

 pursuit of the nobler game. By the favour of the lord of 

 the forest, Bruar Lodge* was his occasional domicile. 

 With all its apertures he loved it dearly ; and it may be 

 doubted whether any monarch ever entered a palace, or 

 any lady a ball-room, with more absolute delight than he 

 was wont to enter this lonely abode. What though the 



* The noble proprietor of Bruar Lodge would have spared no 

 trouble or expense in making it as comfortable as possible for the 

 writer of these pages ; and this was repeatedly and kindly pressed 

 upon him at Blair; but, as almost all his time during the shooting 

 season was spent at the castle, he felt and expressed that every thing 

 at the lodge was precisely as he could wish; and really, during a 

 violent north wind and a raging tempest (the particular time alluded 

 to), it did not come within the scope of a carpenter or mason's craft 

 to ward off the inroad of the elements. 



