CO 
A ROYAL FAMILY. 
of creature- comforts that the appetite may desire, and 
which is one of those accommodating ^ textile fabrics ' cal- 
culated for all weathers, and all circumstances, and all 
places, except Bond-street and ' the Mall.' 
But let us not forget that we have here undertaken to 
speak especially of Grouse, w^hicli may be considered as 
occupying the place of the royal family among game birds : 
by sportsmen they are certainly held in the highest esti- 
mation, perhaps on account of the difficulties attending 
their pursuit and capture, for that is ever most valued 
which is least easy of attainment. Perhaps, also, the large 
amount of positive enjoyment which attends the pursuit of 
game in the "svild solitudes of nature, amid w^hich only the 
Grouse can be foimd, may greatly tend to give this species 
of game an increased value in the pyes of the lover of 
natural scenery especially. There is a wild delirious kind 
of joy, an unspeakable delight, in breathing the pure fresh 
mountain air, amid the wide, wild moors, that richly re- 
wards the Grouse-shooter for his hardships and privations; 
his toilsome climbing up the steep ascents, and long, long 
walks over interminable moorlands ; his desperate en- 
counters wdth armies of old Scotia's emblems — the rough 
and sturdy thistles, and gorse and juniper bushes ; and his 
wadings through burns and rivulets ; not to speak of rain 
and mountain mist, and fog that wraps him about like a 
damp garment, as he goes ranging, as * Craven ' has it, ^ up 
to his loins in a sort of vegetable ocean : ' not to speak, 
either, of the days of cloudless splendour, wdien — 
The silent hills and forest tops seem reeling in the heat ; 
when the gun-stock blisters the hands, and the skin peels 
from the face ; and the panting dogs, with lolling tongues, 
are more eager for w^atercourses than birds, and the ^ gillie ' 
thinks * she had petter rest awee' by the fountain in the 
glen, where the red berries of the rowan glisten amid the 
spray of the fall, and the bonny birks droop their light 
tresses unstirred by a breath of air. Oh, yes, — notwith- 
standing, we say, all drawbacks, — a marvellously pleasant 
life, is that of the free ranger of the hills and moors — 
