-264 GOOD DOGS BADL V HANDLED 



they were, too ! and what is grouse shooting without 

 dogs, and the interest they afford in their breeding 

 and trainings ? In 1862 I was asked to form one of a 

 party to kill grouse, solely for the sake of killing them, 

 and nothingf else. The dop^s, it is true, were there, 

 and in numbers, for the kennels boasted of no fewer 

 than twenty-seven of them ; but I shall never forget 

 the way in which they were broken in. As a friend 

 remarked to me, ' Are we driving sheep, or are we 

 being fooled ?' ' The latter,' I replied, much crest- 

 fallen. I had shot grouse over these dogs often enough 

 by myself, but as luck would have it, my friend and I 

 were asked to go out together and pass our opinion on 

 the best dogs in the kennel. It was in October, and 

 the birds were a bit wild ; but as soon as ever they got 

 a chance of lying, and the dogs came to a long point, 

 all hope of getting near them was ruined by the keeper 

 yelling out the now exploded * To ho !' loud enough 

 to be heard a mile off. I don't think I was ever more 

 vexed in my life, for I was endeavouring to show the 

 best breed of setters in Scotland to a judge whom I 

 had told they were so good that it was worth giving up 

 a few days' cub-hunting to get a day over them. 

 My language at every fresh exhibition may not have 

 been expressed in very loud tones, but I fear it con- 

 signed the keeper, in the first letters of his own words, 

 to a hotter place than ' To ho.' Anyone who has 

 ever experienced the awful trial it is to go out under 

 such circumstances with another man's keeper, and 

 see him so disgrace himself and ruin good dogs, can 

 form some idea of what my feelings were on that 

 occasion. My friend, whom I had driven a long 

 way to witness this exhibition, is a well-known horse 



