PONIES. 21 



liard and sharp to crawl over without long practice, and 

 even burnt heather is not altogether a bed of roses ; 

 also skinned and bleeding knees are not a pretty sight 

 to enter the breakfast-room if ladies be of the party ? 

 and altogether picturesque as the dress may be, it is 

 best left to those who are to the manner born. Even 

 those whose native garb it is do not always find it 

 pleasant, and many a time on a snowy east wind day 

 in October the writer has seen through the glass one 

 of the best known veteran stalkers of Scotland with 

 his stockings pulled up over his thighs as high as they 

 would come. He little knew he was being inspected ! 

 In most parts of Scotland a gillie and pony can be hired 

 fjr two guineas a week, and it is worth all the money 

 to meet the couple at the end of a hard day and home 

 ten miles off and the rain coming down. 



A friend of the writer's realized this fact so acutely, 

 that he was once heard to exclaim sotto wee as he was 

 setting off for a twelve-mile tramp from an outlying 

 corrie, at about six o'clock on an October evening, in 

 the face of wind, rain, and darkness, and over a very 

 rough and steep ground, " Well, I would give twenty 

 pounds to be able to go into Long's and get a pint of 

 champagne and order a hansom." So if pony and gillie 

 are to be had, reader, take advice and secure them, 

 or the day may come when you will feel inclined to 

 exceed my friend's bid ! 



These ponies are very sure-footed, and as soon as 

 they have been along a track a few times they know it 

 by heart, and every dangerous hole in it ; over the very 

 worst of tracks on the darkest nights they will brin.^ 



