458 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



the manager of the adjoining sheep-farm, for their respective 

 large families. When I inquired whether this al fresco school 

 was now in use : " No, sir ; the schoolmaister's clippin' " (shear- 

 ing sheep). 



At four in the morning we left Altnaharrow for Lairg, where 

 we had secured places in the post-gig for Assynt. 



At Lairg, when with great assiduity Hector was fixing our 

 luggage in the post's gig, my young companion asked him 

 " Where his sweetheart lived ?" He doubted if she was born : 

 " Ere she'll be ripe, I'll be rotten, I daursay." Giving utter- 

 ance to this bachelor foreboding, and with a kindly smile on 

 his quaint features, Hector Gordon doffed his Glengarry and 

 waved a mountain farewell. This amusing and plucky young 

 fellow, however, had a sweetheart, whom he married. He 

 settled in a village on " The Kyles," and became the most 

 daring and successful fisherman of the district. In his eager- 

 ness to supply the market, one stormy morning he put out to 

 sea, his boat was swamped, and he together with his comrade 

 was drowned. 



The drive from Lairg to Inchnadamff in Assynt was very 

 sultry. Leaning over a rustic bridge, in the heat of the day, 

 was a fat respectable English keeper. He had just arrived, 

 and I thought looked despondingly at the steep frowning hills. 

 Poor fellow ! his red face and well-fed contour seemed ill 

 fitted to contend with more trying ground than the turnip 

 and stubble fields, of which he was likely musing. Our driver 

 thought the same, for, with an unmistakable sneer, he averred, 

 " He's grand at feeding the dowgs." We came through a fine 

 sporting country, but heard only complaints of the deplorable 

 state of young grouse from the long drought, and that the 

 rivers had been useless for weeks. 



Near the top of an Assynt mountain we encountered a 

 delightfully patriarchal " flitting." As the steep road was also 

 narrow, our driver had to pull up in order to let the caravan 

 pass, so we had full time to admire its simple order and disci- 



