]890 GEANIES 147 



To Mrs. Momanes. 



AchsJibster,^ Caithness : August 14, 1883. 



To-day turned out not at all bad after all ; and 

 although there was a good deal too much rain I 

 had a glorious time. Bag twenty brace of grouse, 

 one brace plover, one hare, one duck; I could 

 easily have got more, only Bango got so tired in the 

 afternoon that we knocked ofE at five o'clock, more- 

 over I did not begin till eleven, as I did not wake till 

 ten ! So the twenty brace was shot in about five 

 hours. The new setter ' Flora ' is a beauty. She is 

 extraordinarily like Bango, but with a prettier face. 

 She is a splendid worker. 



Even at G-eanies he always 'worked' for some 

 part of the day, and sport, tennis, boating, filled up 

 the rest of his time. 



Yery often there was a house party, and the 

 evenings were particularly bright — merry talk, games, 

 very amateurish theatricals, learned discussions. 

 Xothing came amiss to the master of the house. He 

 was always a httle apt to be absent-minded and 

 dreamy, and his pet name, bestowed on bim by the 

 dearest and merriest of all the merry ' Geanies brother- 

 hood ' was ' Philosopher.' It stuck, and many people 

 only knew him by that name. 



No one ever appreciated a good story more than 

 he, and, as a friend has said, ' his laugh was so merry 

 and so often heard.' 



His own jokes were invariably free from any un- 

 kindness, and he did not in the least appreciate 

 repartee or epigram, the point of which lay chiefly, if 



' A moor taken in addition to the low ground shooting of Geanies. 



