342 SHOOTING BLA CK FALLO W-B UCKS 



was soon forgotten, and I expressed my delight in the 

 three loudest whoops I ever gave in my life. I don't 

 think I ever more thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast 

 before or since than I did on our return to the house 

 that morning. I killed another buck the next day, 

 and these were the only three which were killed by 

 us during our stay. I have never since seen such 

 a handy rifle as the one I had the bad luck to break. 

 My poor old uncle promised to leave it to me in his 

 will, as a souvenir of my first deer, but I never saw it 

 again. To give the reader an idea as to how handy 

 a weapon it was, my uncle often used it for rabbits, 

 and could bowl them over with it when going away 

 from him uphill. 



For some years after the above I did not get any 

 stalking, for my time was too much taken up with 

 hunting during the winter, and buying and making 

 horses during the summer. Some twenty-three years 

 ago I went to stay in Scotland with some connections, 

 and I was initiated in the art of stalking the noble red- 

 deer in the well-known forest of Strath-Farrar, and 

 soon became enamoured of the sport, but after a time 

 much preferred to do my own stalking. However, in 

 those days this was not allowed. 



In the autumn of 1868 I received an invitation to the 

 Highlands from that best of sportsmen and deer- 

 stalkers, Lord Lovat ; his son Simon, Master of 

 Lovat, who afterwards succeeded him, being then 

 jiving. I had often seen the latter when shooting at 

 Wimbledon before I knew him, and was afterwards 

 able to value his friendship and learn to love him, as 

 all who knew him were bound to do. The then Lord 

 Lovat, his father, bore a strong resemblance to the 



