PLEASANT PLACES 5 



scientific manner ; but it was only by means of barling 

 that two rods could fish the same water at one and 

 the same time, and it was for that reason that 

 this method was so often adopted at hospitable 

 Murthly. 



Other guests would splash through Murthly Moss, 

 immortalised by the pencil of Millais, himself a later 

 tenant of the shootings, or where the bog was im- 

 passable would walk just outside the thick reed-grown 

 swamps, picking off the snipe or water-fowl which the 

 keepers put out by means of a rope held between them 

 and dragged through the rushes. Never was there 

 such a place for getting a mixed bag ; eight varieties 

 was thought nothing of, ten or twelve were quite 

 likely to have been obtained when the lucky sports- 

 men returned happy in the evening. Duck and teal, 

 snipe, whole and jack, grouse and black-game, rabbits 

 and hares, were certainties, while woodcock, golden 

 plover, capercailzie, roe, and wood-pigeons were often 

 got. Another amusement was still-hunting in the 

 coverts, where an expert rifle shot might find oppor- 

 tunities of adding the pretty head of a roe to his 

 sporting trophies. I more than once killed roe there 

 myself, and I remember an occasion when one of the 

 visitors killed two fine roebuck right and left, which 

 he came upon fighting near the water garden. 



The evenings were not less delightful than the 

 days. Music and song, much of the latter improvised, 

 kept the party merry till a late hour ; and all in turn 

 enjoyed the good-natured chaffing verses in which 

 Henry used to chronicle the adventures of the day. 

 As I write I find snatches of these ephemeral lyrics 

 running in my head, although it is nearly half a 



