Edinburgh, Aug. 20, That Providence, from the very start of thi British Isles is evident fact that here alone can you get 'Other lands have to be content with ostriches, -humming-Virds, or the simple songsters of the 'The grouse (Lagopus which in the original Geeok: means very choice'), isnot only an oxchusively. British crea ture; we in Scotland may regard it as to all intents and purposes a part of our great national heritage, like: the bagpipes or the Stone of Destiny. A species of grouse is admittedly to be found in England, but: no keen sportsman would care to be photographed for the pictorial press at a "battue" adjacent to some rectory in: Yorkshire, with dirds entirely ignorant of the' Gaelic: Tanguage. Hall the sport of shooting genuine Lagopus Seoticus with the Scottish Tweed brand on every feather is that you do it in a place culled Monavechatanmhor or Snizo miles from any shop where they sell decent cigarettes.
There is a tremendous ritual for all who engage in the chase of Lagopus. Only the very beat and atest leather sun-enses will do, and they shoul have "Perth" or "Inverness" in large-type labels on them lext you should be suspected of merely: going to Hitchen for the weekly supply of country exes. The right costume is imperative, and a watchful eye must be kept' on the light changes which fashion in:
ints upon from year to your. Us fortunately, not every sportsman this season hay observed that the garter "ilnsh" with knickerbockers is utterly de mode, and that the thick, hirsute type of hose given place to two-ply fingering, change by no means welcome to many first-class shots who have worn away their calves by sheer Lard walking on the moors. Need ft be suid that no keen shot wears Tater, In spite of all suggestions to the contrary, no American eitizen has ever been seen north of Carlisle except in pants or breeches race the borly of a keen Chicago shot, much disfigured by sold eagles, was found on a Rossshire moor in 1872, Those fierce hi were supposed to have been furiated by the glint of his cai It will be seen from the current pietorinl weekly papers that, there is no marked change in the female personnel of the shooting season this year. All the old popular favourites are recognizable; Lady—has apparently got over her dirt. dence about holding the second keeper's gun while the photograph being taken. One of the keenest Indy shots on the Snizort moors this season, is, how:
(late of the Gaiety); the hopeless-nets of competing with this. fin sportswoman in long-range flank ing shots is significantly indicated by the reluctance of other keen shots of the Snizort party to occupy butts in the same parish.
What is not generally known in England is the fact that the fabulous sums spent by the keenest shots while they are in Scotland enable the whole of the inhabitants to Subsist without any necessity for working during the entire winter.
George MacDonald, Poet and Novelist, George MacDonald was born 100° years ago. at Huntly Aberdeenshire. He had his followers in literature within his own lifetime, and he outlived the heyday: ofthe. "kail-yard" school, of which he was the doyen. With a considerable reputation as poet, novelist, lecturer and preacher, though his genius was unequal he did some things superlatively well. As a novelist he revealed a power of shrewd characterization, and an intimate. sympathy with the Scot "tish village life. amid which he grew up." Huntly and its district are familiar ground to those who Know Rothieden and Howglen. The: picture of the village school Mee Forbes of Howglen," and the charatevization of Mr. Malison, the schoolmaster, and the minister, 'Mr. Cowie, are' among the best things of their kind. Alec Forbes: and" Annie Anderson are not puppets, but flesh and blood. There fave incidents in his novels that the memory, mos? ged notable of all, perhaps that burning, of Robert Faleoner's. violin which is said to be founded on fact. His novels, the first of which appeared in 1862, were a part of his protest against' that somewhat—stifing Calvinism which was the ereed of respectable folk. outlook on life was broad and generous, remarkable for a Seat of that peri Wiis love of beauty was an over. mastering passion, and it drove him out of the arid wastes of a. rigid Calvinism. If his early life im Scotland determined the setting of most-of his-novels, and: was res Ponsible for the theological. atmosphere in which they are steeped, arge MacDonald owed to his Highland blood: certain qualities of imagination which are seen to best advantage in his ether works, The Celtic fir not with a con tinuous flame, but fitfully, throwing 4 fairy light' upon all around. So the shorter poems \eDonald are by far the A Great Winter Game Association football is with us once more. There may be room for difference of opinion as to when ther it is not_more an entertainnent than a sport. For one man who "plays it, at least a thousand go to watch." A witty Frenehmai in a war book remarked that to Britons to take interest in a battle you had to describe it in terms of game, and to get Frenchmen to take interest in sport you hud to write of it in terms of warfare. Terhaps the difference was Jess that: it seemed. At any rate, no sport affords a nearer analogy to a real fight, than sneaking feeling that herein lies something of its attraction. There ly at least no denying the lure or the hold on ite votal turday afternoon's getae, the one! past and the one to come, brightens the whole week fors hundred of thousands of people. The results fof the one ud the prospects of the other firn'sh endless topies of di cussion. Tt ix safe to say that' the next eight months there wi "|e more conversation about football, wherever the mere males of the community gather, than shout any other matter, even the wath The debut of the same of the row: ball was all that could have beer expected of it, itt spite of the rain. It takes a week or two for the true football fever to rise, but it will come all right.
More German Competiti We have heard a good Inst few years about the "hidden hand' of Germany, to which, alternately with "Russian gold," has been attributed every kind of national misfortune in Britain, from railway strikes and bad trade to foot-and-mouth disease and wet weather. The workings of the hidden foot of Deutschland are now coming, into evidence. One of the few of our major industries that have remained comparatively unaffected by eonomie depression is menaced by German competition. British pro~ fessional football, that glory of our: free and happy land, plausible but systematic undermining. No beer-swiling and earnivirous ed for the who is present of our football tea 5 non-smoker, and a fruitarian. He lecturer on sport to the University of Berlin, and the students of that institution may expect shortly to hear some interesting discourses fon the Urquellen wid Exttwouckelung of British football. Professor Nertz is also a master of languages, and as he is studying the game in all its aspects, we may surmise that, he has made some startling additions to his knowledge of the English tongue. When his pupils have worked down from the Greek Olympic Games to the League Final, }got up the organization of British football so that they may know what jis meant by "Celtic's Serisational Capture," and agreed upon German equivalents for those flowers of Jepeech wherewith the British Demos encourages or reproves the players, they will no doubt proceed, if they are not too old, to the actual pur-[suit of the "sphere" and the outwitting of the "custodian." We are cov ricer eae sur
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.