CHAPTER IV 

 FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF DEER-STALKING 



THERE are some days and some events that can 

 never be effaced from the memory. It is more 

 than thirty years since that upon which I made 

 my first futile attempt to shoot a stag ; yet as I 

 sit down to write every detail of the long day 

 seems fresh and vivid, and the memory which so 

 often fails to recall events of far greater importance 

 for once is not at fault. Let the reader go back 

 with me to the beautiful valley of the North Esk, 

 and a September morning in the early seventies. 



I was then staying at Millden with the first 

 Lord Cairns. We had had good sport with the 

 grouse ; but there were no red deer upon the 

 ground, and my excitement was great when an 

 invitation arrived from Lord Dalhousie to join in 

 a deer drive in the adjacent forest of Invermark. 

 Two of us were to go, and Lord Cairns and the 

 elder members of the party waived their claims 

 in favour of myself and a young nephew of our 

 host. The start was to be an early one, as the 

 rendezvous was at the Castle, seven miles up the 

 glen, and we were to be there not later than eight 



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