366 



In "barring" the Squire when offering to shoot against anyone 

 present, Captain Ross was actuated by magnanimity towards his 

 friend, for he knew the Squire would be the most likely to accept tha 

 challenge, but not being able to walk fast or long, owing to his 

 accident, he would have no chance ; and, besides, Ross knew his friend 

 would be gratified by being " barred," and attribute the reason to his 

 excellence as a shot. 



On another occasion, July 19, 1826, when staying at Blackball, 

 the seat of his friend, Mr. Farquharson, in Kincardineshire, he had 

 spent seven or eight hours up to his middle shooting flappers, and after 

 a good dinner, when the ladies had gone to the drawing-room, he fell 

 asleep. About nine o'clock he was awakened by the late Sir Andrew 

 Leith Hay, who said, " Ross, old fellow, I want you to jump up and go 

 as my umpire with Lord Kennedy to Inverness. I have made a bet of 

 £2,500 a side that I can get there on foot before him." Nothing came 

 amiss to men like him, and the reply Ross gave was, "All right, I 

 am ready." Off they started there and then in evening costume, with 

 thin shoes and silk stockings ! Their servants followed with more 

 suitable clothing ; but the boots brought Ross were a pair of tight 

 new Wellingtons. Lord Kennedy took the direct line which led them 

 over the Grampians, walking all night, next day, and the next night, 

 and arrived at Inverness at 6 a.m. — raining in torrents all the way. 

 Sir Andrew Hay went by the coach road — which was thirty-six miles 

 longer — but, although level, he did not appear until 10 a.m. The 

 sole of one of Ross's boots vanished when twenty-five miles from 

 Inverness, and he had to finish the walk barefooted ; but did so 

 comparatively fresh. The distance he went over was about ninety- 

 five miles. This match was, however, by Captain Barclay-AUardice, 

 declared drawn, as Lord Kennedy, when a good deal beaten, leant 

 on the arm of his attendant while ascending and descending some 

 of the hills towards the end. 



Ross betted Lord Kennedy £20 he would, in a day, shoot with a gun 

 twenty brace of swallows, which he readily did at Rossie where these 

 birds congregated in great numbers. He sent the lot in a basket to 

 Lord Kennedy and they were brought to him while at dinner. When 

 sending the money he wrote Captain Ross that it was the most 

 expensive entree ever handed him. 



Two years after, one morning before breakfast, for a bet of £lOO 

 with Mr. George Foljambe, Ross shot, flying, ten brace of swallows 

 with pistol and single ball, also at Rossie Castle. 



Ross did not go in for record bags of grouse ; sixty-five brace in one 

 day was about the biggest he ever made. Not ^o deer. 



In 1828 he rented, from the Duke of Athol, Feloar, and on it shot 

 to his ov/n rifle eighty-seven deer. It was in the following November 

 he had the match with Colonel Anson, and he attributed the good 

 condition he was in to the grand training he had deer-stalking. 



In 1837 he killed seventy-five deer in Sutherlandshire. In 1851 he 



