GROUSE 187 



panorama of the Hebrides, or delivered at your 

 destination, even in Inverness or Sutherland, at a 

 time which would have seemed fabulous to our 

 not very remote progenitors. I remember the 

 late Laird of Poltalloch, who died in 1893, telling 

 me how his father used to ride the whole way 

 from London, purchasing his horse and having 

 his saddle made before starting ; and how, having 

 been asked to patronise a young man just start- 

 ing in business, he gave the first order to the 

 founder of a famous firm still in the front rank 

 of London saddlers and harness-makers. The jour- 

 ney then took three weeks. Now you may go 

 to the theatre in London one evening, and arrive 

 at Poltalloch in time for luncheon on the next 

 day ! 



Happy is the man who is not obliged to defer 

 his holiday till the last moment before the Twelfth, 

 but can devote a few days to the burn and loch 

 trout, to potting those troublesome rabbits with 

 a pea-rifle, and trying the young pointers and 

 setters over a few of the neighbouring moors. 

 He is not so likely as some to find upon the day 

 his native heath very different from his native 

 flagstones, and to collapse utterly at noon like 

 Mr. Briggs. However, for many it is good fortune 

 enough to be able to begin a holiday on the eve 

 of the happy day, and members of Parliament 

 have usually only been able to obtain even that 

 privilege either by neglect of their duties or the 



