A fortnight finished it, and I returned to England wiser in grouse lore than when I went. The £50 was well spent.
The novelty, the pure air, the heather hills, in fact, the whole thing, was delightful; it gave me a very considerable insight into grousing matters, and a knowledge of grouse moors in that locality, that was eventually of considerable use to me, and Stubbs put me right in many ways.
According to the fashion of the times I was shooting with a gun of 7-1/4lb. weight, and I was still further handicapping myself by holding my left hand too near the trigger guard.
"You shoot with too much gun," says Stubbs; "push out your left hand along the barrels."
On my way south the Aberdeen innkeeper asked me to join a party that he was making up to attend the Highland sports that were to be held at Mar Lodge. I was nothing loth, and joined the party.
He took us down very comfortably along Dee side in a four horse omnibus, driven by himself, and gave me the box seat by his side. I think that he felt some compunction about the little do in respect to the moor "that was enough for one gun."
I forgave freely enough.
Everything was well arranged, rooms having been taken beforehand at the Hotel at Braemar.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were there (it was just after their marriage), and, of course, a great number of notables to meet them.
The whole affair was a large garden party; the railway being only open to Aberdeen, and the hotels in the locality not being so numerous or extensive as they are now, there was no crowding on the ground.