SHOOTING. 



a state of uncertainty, we discerned through the gloom, at a 

 short distance, two uncouth figures, which appeared to be stalk- 

 ing towards us. They approached, and, like guardian genii, 

 accompanied us to a road (a rough one certainly) by which we 

 ultimately reached our place of destination, at a quarter past 

 eleven o'clock, after a most uncertain and irksome journey. 

 Having made arrangements for the following day, we retired to 

 rest at twelve, and had not been in bed more than an hour be- 

 fore the trampling of horses and the whistling of dogs, &c. suffi- 

 ciently indicated the anxiety of brother sportsmen to be on the 

 mountains at the peep of morn, to see the first rising and flight 

 of a grouse. The mountains in this neighbourhood, which prin- 

 cipally belong to the Bishop of Durham, rise, for the most part, 

 very abruptly, and to great heights ; they are, nevertheless, 

 much inclined to bog? and walking over them is attended with 

 no ordinary fatigue. We rose a little before two o'clock, and 

 after making a hasty, but not a very hearty, breakfast, we mount- 

 ed our ponies, and, accompanied by our guides, directed our 

 steps up a long, winding, steep ascent, which led to the wished- 

 for spot. The weather was hazy, and the gray of the morn 

 enabled us to see the dense fog, which hung, like rolling smoke, 

 in volumes, round the tops of the mountains. No one but a true 

 sportsman can picture to the mind that eager, that impatient 

 anxiety which is felt at a moment like this ; particularly, as from 

 report, we had reason to believe that abundance of game lay be- 

 fore us. But this anxious feeling is not confined to the sports- 

 man : his dog partakes it in a greater degree, if possible, than 

 himself* The motion of his tail, his crouching curves, his im- 

 patient whine, the blandishment of his expressive eye, all confess 

 the delightful anticipations which animate his eager hopes. 



Grouse shooting may be placed at the head of the list of what 

 the French would significantly enough call la chasse au fusil. In 

 fine weather nothing can equal grouse-shooting : in wet weather 



