Morning journal and courier., 1882-09-06
Grouse Shooting in Sir Walters Countr,
 I pasl

Grouse Shooting tn Str w Wnlter's Country
 From the London Daily Newsl
 Grouse shooting of to day is hardly the labor of love that it was not so many years ago, and there is on many moors too much of the pigeon. shooting element to be com pat ible with true old fashioned sport. It is question if my lord. who bags his hundred and gfty brace to his own gun, cares pin 8 head whether the dog is backing to the bitch's point, or whether they drew the last birds two hundred yards or ran into them so long as the birds rise within shootable dis tance of his choke. To see grouse shooting as it might have been in the days of Sir Wal ter one should go down to his own county, and there find sport, scenery. men and man. ners, wonderfully little altered from the days when the sheriff used to take his annual 'raid into Liddesdale." On many farms. the majority of whose tenants might have sat for the portrait of Charlie's hope the 18th is a day of considerable rejoicing. On the even- ing before the 'twalr' the party begin to drop in, some on their dumples, others so- berly in gigs, and not unfrequently young one on as useful a looking hunter as can be seen in Earl Percy's or the Dukes hunt The old spirit of hospitality is vigorous in quantity as ever. There is one great differ ence, however, now, and one that might not have been pleasing to the ''Shirra ;" the punch bowl circalates scarcely so freely as was it's wont.
 | An early start is the order of the day 1 here, and would scarcely suit the ideas of 6 l hundred and fifty brace man. A Scotch | breakfast at five, and on to your pony at six | and away over the moors, with your gun and cartridges slung over your back, with the prospect of ten hours walking and a nine mile ride home, would make many men out l of condition think twice before embarkinp | on such an exploit. But to those men o1 l iron condition is an unknown quantity fol they have never known what 1t is to be with 1 ont atO fn rid and fresh from town, the first few miles, ride l is superb. He thinks he will do all right the pony goes like sheep, and the road ii not so bad after all. It is very TO
 mantle seeing ten horsemen winding
 their guns on their backs like many
 brigands. But gradually scenery and feel l ings begin to change. The road becomes i'm
 passable for any quadruped except sheep anG
 a horse born and bred on it, and much of il l is exactly similar to the ground over whict 1 Darsie Latimer and Dandie Dinmont hurried l along after their encounter with the high 1 waymen. The man out of condition begin, | now to find his mistake. At each jump hi. l pony takes over a ''hag" (not an old woman
 but piece of rough ground above bog) his | gun overbalances him, he quickly goes dowr | several pounds in weight, and he is lucky il
 he arrives at the sheep fold, where the horse, are off saddled, without tasting peat diluted little with water. When our friend has off
 saddled he would fain lie by the stream run
 ming past and have one long drink, per
 haps tempered with just a thimbleful O
 Clanleish, If he does this his fate is sealed
 Not a stream does he pass but the most dread
 full temptation arises to drink. Halt dozel pools, and each one tempered with alcohol l will complete the cure and he will be com pelled to seek shelter and rest at the Luncheon | rendezvous. Such is the not uncommon fat
 of the ''unconditioned man. eff we may thu
 describe the man and whiskey) and soon th
 fresh breeze puts him right after his roug
 ride.
 The grouse are pretty plentiful, and an ol
 pity not to shoot him, although it is only th