ENGLISH DRIVING 177 



man, when you be older, you'll know better than to 

 tell such tales as that to a lot of men.' 



Many years after, a servant of mine, a veteran of 

 the navy and the Taku forts, and afterwards of the 

 London Fire Brigade, had to fight for his life in a 

 Scotch lodge because he had incautiously related, and 

 on this occasion quite truthfully, the results of a week 

 at High Force, where he had just been with me, and 

 where we had averaged 600 brace a day for four days. 

 Previously nettled by his disparagement of Scotch 

 moors as compared with English, the local champion, 

 who happened to be the coachman, was fairly roused 



by this astounding record. ' Ye're a d d leear,' 



he cried, and fell upon the Southron. They were 

 separated, but not until Flodden and Bannockburn 

 had been fought over again, and the gun-room floor 

 was covered with blood. 



These things are more widely known now, but I 

 misdoubt me that many a Scotch keeper who listens 

 with open-mouthed gravity to the tales of Studley and 

 High Force, Broomhead or Wemmergill, conceals 

 under the politeness of the Highlander an incredulity 

 which cannot be shaken, and which deters him for ever 

 from any effort to emulate such fabulous achievements, 

 or eclipse the respectable moderation of the records 

 of his own glen. 



X 



