Kings & rulers > More leaves from the journal of a life in the Highlands from 1862 to 1882

83
It rained soon after I got up, and continued raining
: till near eleven. I read and wrote, etc. At half-past
■ eleven, it having cleared, I rode up the small narrow
glen, down which flows a “bumie” (called the Garden
Burn), the banks covered with fern and juniper,
| heather and birch, etc., past the kitchen-garden.
E Louise walked with me. Went up nearly to the top
l and walked down it again, then on to the stables,
| which are at a small distance from the house, where I
saw an old underkeeper, P. Stewart by name, seventy-
four years old, with a Peninsular and Waterloo medal,
: who had been in the 92nd Highlanders, and was a
: great favourite of the late Duke’s. Home by twenty
; minutes to one. The day became very fine and warm.
; Lunched in my own room with Louise at the same
■ small table at which we had breakfasted, Ross and the
Duke’s piper playing outside the window.
After luncheon rode (on Sultan, as this morning)
with Louise and Jane Churchill, the Duke walking
(and Jane also part of the way), down to the end of
Glenfiddich; turning then to the left for Brtdgehaugh
(a ford), and going on round the hill of Ben Main.
We first went along the road and then on the heather
"“squinting” the hill—hard and good ground, but dis¬
agreeable from the heather being so deep that you
did not see where you were going—the Duke’s forester
leading the way, and so fast that Brown led me on at
his full speed, and we distanced the others entirely.
At five we got to the edge of a small ravine, from
whence we had a fine view of the old ruined castle of
\Achendown, which formerly belonged to the old Lords
Huntly. Here we took our tea, and then rode home
by another and a shorter way—not a bad road, but
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