AX UNCERTAIN JOURNEY. 81 



inclined to stop and wait for the cart. At last I do so, 

 and listen for it, but in vain. The mare shakes her 

 head impatiently, and on she jogs again, carrying me 

 safely through a roaring burn. Another half-hour 

 passes, I strike a light and look at the watch, and 

 begin to feel sure I have lost the way ; then another 

 half-hour goes by, and just as I am quite certain of 

 being a waif and a stray, a sudden shine of lights and 

 smell of peat-smoke puts a pleasant end to all uncertain- 

 ties, and in a few minutes more the journey is ended. 

 I have ridden and walked that trfack many a time since, 

 but these were my sensations then, and I never yet 

 knew any one do it the first time, but what he had a 

 good deal to say about it over his dinner. In the teeth 

 of a gale from the west, and the rain driving into one's 

 face, it was indeed something to talk about. It will be 

 seen from this that we are, as the guide books say, in 

 a " remote and inaccessible " part of Scotland. 



On this 3rd of September, 1881, three of us have just 

 finished breakfast, and are standing round the peat and 

 wood fire preparatory to starting for a day's grousing. 

 The room has four windows in it, one looking north, 

 two looking east, and another facing south a splendid 

 view of moor and loch and mountain to be seen from 

 each. Strange to say, the drawing-room, the library, 

 the smoking-room, and gun-room all had the same view 

 and the same arrangement of windows ; but this was 

 accounted for by the room we were in serving the pur- 

 poses of all, and dining-room to boot. It was a bright 

 sunny morning, with a gentle breeze driving large white 

 fleecy clouds across the sky, and the moving shadows 



