4 AUTUMNS IN AKGYLESHIRE 



in these more effeminate days. Rats swarmed 

 about the basements of many of the old ram- 

 shackle buildings, and did not scruple to penetrate 

 on occasions into the sitting-rooms and bedrooms. 

 I have a vivid recollection of one particular night 

 in Ross-shire, when a great rat got accidentally 

 shut up in my bedroom, and kept running round 

 and round, passing on each occasion over my face 

 as I lay in bed. Half-awake and half-asleep after 

 a hard day on the hill, I was too lazy to get up, 

 but felt a grim satisfaction when a splash and a 

 scraping announced that my tormentor had fallen 

 into my hip-bath. I had, however, hardly got to 

 sleep again before my enemy made his escape and 

 resumed his rounds, dragging his now " moist, un- 

 pleasant body " over my face as before. Whether 

 he left off or I ceased to heed him and fell asleep, 

 I cannot say, but in the early morning I saw him 

 endeavouring to hide on the top shelf of a cup- 

 board where a lot of chintz, pin-cushions, and 

 miscellaneous rubbish, had been put away by the 

 former occupants. I jumped up and locked the 

 cupboard door, and flattered myself that I had 

 secured my revenge for the morning, when I 

 summoned my brother to assist in the execution 

 of the intruder. Armed with poker and stick, 

 we cautiously opened the door of the hiding-place, 

 but had hardly commenced the search when the 

 rat jumped on to my shoulder and down on to the 

 floor, and after a brief chase and a few ineffectual 



