8 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



word that I have been bowled out by the elder 

 brother of the " Grand old man " ! 



How happy too were the weeks spent on Speyside 

 as the guest of Dr. Deane, afterwards Sir James Parker 

 Deane. the Queen's Advocate, where my dear friend and 

 college companion, Bargrave Deane, who now presides 

 in the Court where his father was then so distinguished 

 a leader, invited me to share the sport. The grouse 

 shooting was of the best, and there was also capital 

 rough shooting in woods where Bargrave's rifle used 

 to account for many a fine roebuck. The fishing in 

 the Spey was indifferent, but there was a stretch of 

 the Avon which fished well after a spate ; and I re- 

 member a picnic expedition with Bargrave, when with 

 our knapsacks we walked across the hill, and after 

 sleeping out in a shake-down, brought back in triumph 

 two or three somewhat red kippers. 



As a grouse moor Millden stands supreme, and I 

 should be indeed ungrateful if I did not recall with 

 special thankfulness the many seasons that I spent 

 there as guest of the first Lord Cairns, and the magni- 

 ficent sport and genial welcome I ever enjoyed at the 

 hands of that kind host. I can never hope to see again 

 such a perfectly trained kennel of pointers as he then 

 possessed, or to be one of a party of four guns who 

 bagged over fifteen hundred brace of grouse over dogs 

 in ten days' sport. The family were then all quite 

 young children, and Arthur, the eldest boy, was only 

 occasionally allowed to walk with the shooters for part 

 of a day. The beautiful North Esk ran through the 

 middle of the ground, and salmon might often be seen 

 moving in the pools, but I only once succeeded in 

 catching a fish there. I used, however, to catch 

 plenty of small trout on off days, and I remember one 



