WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



was easy and flowing. When in London he was wont to drive 

 or ride out of town to shoot blackcock and return the same day. 

 The distance was eighty miles, and he used four horses in 

 getting over the ground, each horse doing twenty miles. 



A new phase of life opened upon him after leaving the 

 Treasury, owing to the kindness of his cousin, Lord Bolingbroke, 

 who lent him Rosehall, a shooting-box on the Oykell in Suther- 

 land. The retirement, the shooting, the wild stretches of 

 moorland around him, exactly suited his genius. Many of his 

 observations on animal life, and much of his experience as a 

 deer- stalker, were here acqufred. On an expedition from 

 Rosehall he met Miss Ann Gibson, the daughter of a rich 

 banker in Newcastle, and married her in November 1834. 

 She possessed some fortune, in which he had been somewhat 

 deficient, and much sympathy with his tastes and habits. 

 Henceforth he devoted himself to the life of a sportsman and 

 naturalist, living in succession at several houses in the High- 

 lands in Ross-shire, Inverness, Nairn, and Moray. The need 

 of schools for his growing family brought him nearer to towns. 

 But he found the " laigh " of Moray best suited to his tastes — 

 " a fertile and well-cultivated country, with dry soil and bright 

 and bracing climate, with wide views of sea and mountain, 

 within easy distance of mountain sports, in the midst of the 

 game and wild animals of a low country, and with the coast 

 indented by bays of the sea and studded with frequent fresh- 

 water lakes, the haunt of all the common wild-fowl, and of 

 many of the rarer sorts." Amid such scenes St. John lived for 

 ten years, the best part of his working life, before his fatal 

 illness. 



It was in Moray that St. John became acquainted with Mr. 

 C. Innes, Sheriff of Moray, in the autumn of 1844, while the 

 latter was shooting partridges. He had shot one and lost it 

 among some potatoes; but St. John offered to let his own 

 rather ungainly-looking dog find it if the Sheriff would permit 

 him. This the dog speedily did, and an acquaintance thus 

 commenced of much pleasure to both, and the source of a new 

 and unexpected interest in St. John's life. He was then 

 living at Invererne, below Forres ; and Mr. Innes, captivated by 

 his stories of sport and adventure, induced him to write out a 

 few reminiscences for an article he was himself preparing for 



