AUGUST 195 



for that purpose. But, in fact, it might surprise some of 

 us were it possible to present statistics showing the use 

 made by legislators of their regained freedom. Rest 

 assured that venatic ardour is not the main impulse 

 which sets men longing for the free air of the country 



' When the summer runs out like grains of sand, 

 And fans for a penny are sold in the Strand.' 



Anyhow, we are all grateful to the little red bird for 

 the historic excuse he provides for escaping from London 

 in the dog-days. The late Duke of Richmond was as 

 staunch and keen a sportsman as ever drew bead on a 

 stag or wielded a 'wand' on Speyside; yet, as all men 

 know, he never grudged the best of his years to the 

 service of the state. One first of May he was a guest at 

 the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, and took the 

 opportunity, so highly prized by those invited, of wander- 

 ing round the rooms before dinner was served, to have a 

 quiet look at the pictures. He stood long in contempla- 

 tion before a painting by Sir John Millais, representing, 

 with all that great artist's force and fidelity, a Scottish 

 moorland with the flush of August on the heather. A 

 friend happening to pass, stopped and asked the Duke 

 how he liked the picture. ' Confound the fellow ! ' growled 

 the Duke ; ' he has no business to paint like that : makes 

 me wish I were five hundred miles away from this beastly 

 town.' Ay! the waft of the heather and the crow of 

 the grousecock what country-bred Scot can ever be in- 

 different to them ? even though the last wish in his mind 

 be to shoulder a gun and pursue the brave bird to its 

 death. The heather, indeed, he may sniff in many lands, 

 for it is the most widely distributed of all the heath 

 family, spreading itself from Galway to the Ural Moun- 



