REMINISCENCES OF "THE LEWS."
IT is possible that some of our readers may not know where " The Lows" is, or knowing generally that it is the northernmost of the Hebrides, may be surprised to find what a considerable place it is, not less, indeed, than sixty miles in length, and, after Ireland, the largest of the British Isles. There are few reasons, indeed, why any oue, except herring-fishers and sportsmen, should make acquaintance with it. To the tourist it presents few attractions, a largo Druidical circle on the west coast being the only notable "sight," and the scenery, except in the southern extremity of the island, where it resembles, though it does not equal, the magnifi- cent outlines of Skye, being tame and uninteresting. But for the sportsman it has charms of no common kind. He will not find, indeed, mighty rivers where salmon, fifty pounds in weight, will lead him in break-neck pursuit through pools and rocks, or moors * Twenty Years' Reminiseences of The hews. By "Sixty-One." London : Iloraee Cox. where he may make "bags" that will make a figure in the Times ; but if he wants to escape that curse of crowding which so haunts us now-a-days, if he does not mind walking honestly for a .day of ten hours, and will he satisfied with some fifteen or twenty brace as his reward ; if he can be content with three or four salmon or grilse seldom more than twelve pound in weight, or two or three dozen sea-trout ; if he can condescend to the humble sport of trout-fishing, and especially if he appreciates the pleasure of trying water where, possibly, a line has never been thrown before (the island, in some places, seems to be more water than land), let hirrs go to " The Lewes"; or, we should rather say, let him go if he can get some introductions, for to the ordinary roving sportsman the place is peculiarly inaccessible, being divided into a few large shootings with scarcely an inn outside the capital town. Or if he is of that happy temperament that can enjoy a thoroughly genuine- account of sport without any thought of sharing it, let him read "Sixty-One's" Reminiscences of The Len's.
It is indeed the genuine character of the book that strikes the reader at ouce. Books of sporting adventure are commonly the records, apocryphal or otherwise, of a few weeks' adventures im regions which the writer has never seen before awl cares little to visit again ; and they are almost of necessity very egotistic. The writers think that they must justify their appearance in print by enormous bags of game or baskets of fish. "Sixty-One's" book is. notof this kind. He writes of his home of twenty years with an affection aud a regret which are positively pathetic ; and though he peoples his scenes with some life-like and characteristic per- sonages, sporting companions, keepers, gillies, and the like, he puts. his own personality, as far as any record of great achievements is concerned, into a modest background. If anyone, then, wants to understand the consuming passion for the sports of Highland life, a passion bred of the old savage instinct of the chase and that love of nature which comes from the culture of modern life, let. him read this book. There is no sort of fine writing in it ; it sets. what, according to all rational views of life, is a most dispropor- tionate value on the pursuits which form its topics, and it has the positive fault, into which the kindly recollections of the author leads him, of being too gossippy about scenes and persons of by- gone times; but it is a genuine transcript of feeling. It is said that players get into a way of thinking that the stage is the real world and actual life a show. So here, as we read, we fanCy- the author turning from what we call real life, the life of politics. and literature, to river and loch, deer forest and salmon pool, as. being the scenes in which the chief interests of existence are centred. Of course, as one might expect from the experiences of one who has lived for the best part of his life with gun or rod in hand, particular chapters have a definite interest. There is, for instance, the chapter on" Woodcocks," a most graphic and interest- ing bit for those whose tastes lie that way. Whose mouth, at least among those who know only Euglisli coverts, will not water at hearing of thirtg.one woodcocks in a single day, and that to one gun, not, as the writer owns, a very "straight-shooter '"? Again,, all that " Sixty-One " says about his dogs is full of value and in- struction. We, that is, this present writer, have also our " re- miniscences of The Lewd," and we may possibly not be wholly impartial, yet we cannot help thinking that our readers, if at least. they have ever known anything of the passion of sport, will feel sonwthiug of the interest that this volume hat, had for us.
Previous page
