"The Drtrid s" Endurance. 327 



brown was just the thing, and being in light 

 marching order, " The Druid " was twenty- 

 four pounds lighter than when he left London, 

 which (in his own words) " he carried behind 

 him in the much pleasanter shape of mackin- 

 tosh and luggage." " Just fifteen four the 

 lot," with his saddle, valise and book bag, he 

 set out from Kirkwall upon a brown half- 

 broken four- year- old mare, as rough and 

 uncouth as the half-wild sheep among which 

 she had passed her early years, to make his 

 way to London. "The journey," he adds, 

 "to a man who has a good horse, and can 

 send his luggage on to points, must be easy 

 and pleasant enough ; but when you have a 

 shy, half-bred nag, quite out of condition, and 

 have perforce to spend months and months in 

 roughing it, in a country to which you are not 

 acclimatised, it becomes no merry game. 



" ' He'll never get to Lunnon, maister,' said 

 Dick, the first whip and kennel huntsman to 

 the Orkney Hounds, sotto voce, as I took the 

 mare from his hand ; and I was not quite 

 clear on that point myself. Still, with fine 

 weather overhead, and a steady practice of 

 getting off to lead for every third or fourth 



