MEMOIR. 1 7 



work with bird No. 1, and so with bird No. 2. I never saw so 

 perfect a dog for retrieving, but he was not handsome. 



After this introduction St John and I became frequent com- 

 panions. T soon found there was something in him beyond the 

 common slaughtering sportsman ; and he must have discovered that 

 the old sheriff had some tastes with which he could sympathise. 

 The remainder of that season we were very much together, and 

 often took our exercise and sport in company. On one of these 



occasions we went together to join a battue at Dunphail ; but the 

 weather was too bad, and after waiting for some hours without 

 taking our guns out of their cover, St John and I returned to 

 Knockomie, a cottage of relations of mine near Torres, who have 

 made it my second home for many years. We travelled in St 

 John's dogcart through steady heavy rain. I was well clothed in 

 a thick topcoat, and he in a pea-jacket of sealskins of his own 

 shooting, so that there was no suffering from the weather as we 



B 



