A HUNT AROUND THE HIGHLANDS: ON THE TRAIL OF COLONEL THORNTON. By Michael Brander.

(1961) 1973 revised 2nd edition. 8vo (140 x 223mm). Pp240. Colour frontispiece, b/w illustrations, map, brief bibliography, pictorial end-papers. Green cloth, spine titled in gilt.

This is a revised and updated edition of "Soho for the Colonel" (1961). Colonel Thomas Thornton's classic, "A Sporting Tour through the Northern Parts of England and Great Part of the Highlands of Scotland", took place in 1784. Michael Brander attempts to follow in his footsteps, making a comparison between Colonel Thornton's journey and the same route in 1959. The resulting hunt provides a book full of descriptions of sport, travel, inns, architecture and people, as seen both through Thornton's eyes in the 1780s and those of the author in the twentieth century. A little history, a little description, and many shooting and fishing stories. Chapters include: A stirrup cup; Drawing the home covert, Boroughbridge to Darlington; Tally O, Darlington to Lauder; Gone away, Lauder via Edinburgh and Glasgow to Tarbet; Tarbet to Dunkeld; Dunkeld to Speyside; Speyside; Grantown to Forres and back to Speyside; Sohowe, Inverness to Fort William; A gallop, Fort William to Inverary; View Holloa, Inverary to Hamilton, via Glasgow; In full cry again, Hamilton, via Edinburgh and Kelso to Wigton; Gone to ground, Wigton, via Kendal to Boroughbridge; Whoo whoop. Appendices are: Extract from Edinburgh Review; Chronological life of Colonel Thomas Thornton; Numbered notes on text.