146 GBOEGB JOHN EOMANES 1881- 



a beautiful place overlooking the Moray Firth. It 

 belongs to a cousin of the Eomanes family, Captain 

 Murray, of the 81st Eegiment. Captain Murray's 

 mother and sisters lived not far away, and the 

 Murrays and Eomanes formed a little coterie in that 

 not very populous neighbourhood. 



He continued to be an ardent sportsman, and 

 probably his happiest days were those he spent 

 tramping over moors or plodding through turnips in 

 those October days of perfect beauty, which seem 

 especially peculiar to Scotland. 



The surroundings of Geanies, without being 

 romantically beautiful, have a charm of their own. 

 There is a certain melancholy and loneliness about 

 the inland landscape round Geanies which appealed 

 strongly to him. It is a place abounding in every 

 kind of sea-bird, and it is almost impossible to de- 

 scribe the weird, uncanny efiect which the long 

 endless twilight of the summer, the silence broken 

 by hootings of owls, by the scream of a sea-gull, pro- 

 duce on one. 



It is an old rambling house with long passages 

 and mysterious staircases, and, as the children found, 

 endless conveniences for playing at hide-and-seek. 

 The library is a most lovely room, lined with book- 

 cases, and leading into an old-fashioned garden, full 

 of sweet-smelling flowers. 



It is impossible to imagine a more ideal abode for 

 a poet, a naturalist, a botanist, a sportsman, than 

 this, his summer home ; and as Mr. Eomanes was, 

 to some extent, all four, Geanies was a place of 

 exceeding happiness to him. 



Two of his sonnets are dedicated to his dogs, ' To 

 my Setters,' and ' To Countess,' and the following 

 letter will show him as a sportsman. 



