John Leech and other papers

Struan. 385
at the great fire in Leith Street some six-and-twenty
years ago, — as a stripling in Highland ball-dress, —
with a company of his men whom he had led from
the Castle ; how he took, as if by right, the com-
mand of every one, and worked like Telamonian
Ajax (who we are sure was like him) at the engines ;
how the boys gloried in him, saying, ' There 's young
Struan ; he works like six ! ' and so he did. He
and his men got the thanks of the Town-Council
next day. But his life was spent in his own Rannoch
and among his own people, taking part not only in
all their sports and games and strenuous festivities,
the life and soul of them all, but leading them also
in better ways, — making roads and building for
them schools and bridges.
Like all true sportsmen, he was a naturalist,—
studied Nature's ongoings and all her children with
a keen, unerring, and loving eye, from her lichens
and moths (for which Rannoch is famous) to her
eagles, red deer, and Salmo ferox ; and his stories,
if recorded, would stand well side by side with Mr.
St. John's. One we remember. He and his keeper
were on a cloudless day in midwinter walking across
the head of Loch Rannoch, which, being shallow,
was frozen over. The keeper stopped, and, looking
straight up into the clear sky, said to his master,
'Do you see that?' Keen as he was, Struan said,
'What?' 'An eagle;' and there, sure enough, was