120 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



by skilful inference, that you are, out of sight, the best 

 shot in Great Britain : pass round the whiskey, and you 

 may be certain of a ready acquiescence. 



Then when the night closes in, you may call in George 

 Ritchie, the fiddler and wit, if he happens to be in your 

 train. Oh ! George, how well I remember your speaking 

 countenance your capacious mouth and your mighty 

 ears. You are a good fellow, George, and were a most 

 admirable deer driver to the lord of the forest, and for this 

 I honour thee ; but thou didst play me many a slippery 

 trick by neglecting orders when thou wert wont to carry 

 home the dead deer ; for, instead of coming in behind my 

 cast as instructed, thou didst ever cut in before me, and 

 disturb all the ground in a most unsportsmanlike manner ; 

 and this thou didst transact most cannily, winding up a 

 hollow with thy sheltie, that mine eye might not visit thee ; 

 yet I kent well enough what was going on, George, by the 

 movement on the moor ; but alas ! poor George, you were 

 growing old, and had a right to favour yourself a little ; 

 and then thou wert merry in hall, and thy quaint attitudes, 

 and quainter countenance (whilst thou didst worry the 

 strings of thy fiddle) did set the gillies in a roar : for 

 these, thy most excellent qualities, I do recommend thy 

 presence to get up a Highland reel in a stormy evening. 



I must now revert to you few, happy mortals, " quos 

 cequus amavit Jupiter" and I must candidly tell you, that 

 I cannot turn you loose on the mountains to go rambling 

 after your own inventions. 



Enthusiasm you have, no doubt, else wherefore soar you 

 to the mountain top ? But this solitary qualification 

 indispensable as it is, will not set you up entirely. You 

 must have extreme caution in certain situations, and at the 

 same time, prompt decision and execution : boldness also, 

 amounting to rashness in others ; always, indeed, a happy 

 mixture of the two in the same movement ; in short, you 

 should be constituted something after the fashion of Sardus 

 Tigellius 



" Saepe velut qui 



Cur re bat, fugiens boatem, perssepe velut qui 

 Junonis sacra ferret." 



