SOME MEMORIES 323 



over the nearest line of grouse-butts on 

 the open moor above in a lashing shower 

 of sleet ; lunch eaten hastily in the shelter 

 of some ancient larches, and so to the 

 distant wood where the caper dwells. 



My stand for the drive of the day 

 was a small natural clearing in a wood 

 of mighty spruce. All around chance- 

 grown seedlings, striving upwards to fill 

 the ranks of the forest ; far above the 

 wind swayed and soughed among the 

 bending tops ; below no movement and 

 no sound, only the breathless silence 

 peculiar to great woods. Alone with 

 wind and trees, for the guns on either 

 side are buried in the depths of the wood, 

 and the beaters still distant, little effort 

 of imagination would make of this wild 

 spot a glade in primaeval forest, till you 

 might almost expect moose or bear to 

 come crashing through the greenwood, 

 or even to catch a glimpse of some 

 creature of an earlier age stealthily re- 

 garding you through the tracery of low, 

 hanging branches. 



21 a 



