AND ANGLING SONGS. 83 



respect, and his collection of ancient marbles and objects of 

 vertu formed one of the principal attractions of Abercairney 

 House. 



One of the incidents connected with the day in question relates 

 to his high character as a sportsman, not in the capacity merely 

 of Master of Hounds, in which position he was well known and 

 appreciated in the lye of country stretching betwixt the Ochils 

 and the Grampians, but also as an unerring shot, and justice- 

 doer to that persecuted bird whose proper treatment gives almost 

 arable value to the dreariest moorland the grouse. It happened, 

 if I recollect aright, betwixt the 12th and 20th of August. 



Abercairney's neighbour, the Laird of M e, had just started 



on his career of notoriety as a grouse-killer, and his achieve- 

 ments on the heather, publicly bruited abroad, were, of course, 

 liable to be made subjects of talk at table and elsewhere. I for- 

 get the exact tally of birds reported to have been knocked over 



by M e on the occasion, but I well remember how it contrasted 



with the day's performance of my entertainer, whose moors, in 



contiguity with the M e grounds, fully as well stocked, and of 



much greater extent, gave him the opportunity, had he chosen to 

 avail himself of it, of silencing for ever the vaunts of a juvenile 

 candidate for the honours acquired by handling a Manton with 

 effect. The packs, I may mention, in that year, were rather 

 backward in growth. In reality, they were not more so than 

 what (by the false assumption proceeded on in the Game Laws, 

 viz., that the young broods are fit subjects for bagging on the 

 12th of August) they usually turn out to be. Poults were par- 

 ticularly numerous, and it was in dealing with these soft- 

 feathered fledglings, which a mere puff of powder was sufficient 



to singe into insignificance, that M e evidently at that time 



looked for laurels as a crack shot. The pony, the flag-staff, the 

 ready loaded barrel, brought to bear, along with other auxiliaries, 

 there is no merit that I can see, or satisfaction either, beyond 



