Of all the dottiness and exuberance and romancing, that of these fish, fowl and fur brigade of hunters is surely among the top. For, in the English Field, there has been some correspondence about "doing a Macnab". The origin of the term is in a novel by John Buchan, where to do a Macnab is apparently to perform the following feats all in one day: to land a salmon, to kill a stag and to bag a grouse (or maybe a brace). A lively correspondence has been going on for some months. In the current (August) number of the magazine, one Mr James Lane tells of his achievements on a Scottish estate. He had never been to Scotland. Disturbed by a child falling from a top bunk during the night, he got up at 5.30 a.m. and went off, rod in hand, to the river. After an hour or so "the rod doubled" and soon he had a 5lb salmon.
He had never been stalking, so an experienced guide brought him up the hill and after "an endless march" they found a large group of stags. He was told to take the front one, and he did. "Down went an eleven-pointer". So on to the last stage of the Macnab. He was told there were 7,000 acres to wander over, where, however no grouse had been shot for years. Five hours later he was ready to drop, but the dog suddenly stiffened, there was an explosion of wings, the birds flew straight into the sun, our man shut his eyes as he swung the gun up. And "the result came back in Bramble's [his dog's] mouth." The feeling was "indescribable. It does not leave you either."
Other letters of some jocosity. A major mentions the French cavalry officers' challenge: it involves, allegedly, in three hours and in any order riding three horses, each for three miles, drinking three bottles of champagne and making love to three women. (Three hours? Three weeks?). The major asked a senior French cavalry officer if this challenge was true. "All I got was a Gallic shrug and a response along the lines of: `It is very difficult to be an officer in the French cavalry.' " Who was pulling whose leg?
In an earlier edition of the magazine, Mr Raoul Millais, re the basic Macnab, wrote that when he was young he achieved this at least three times "for a bet of £1 - a lot of money for a boy in those days. One only had to get up early and catch the salmon, and the stag and grouse were easy. There were fish in all the rivers in those days. Now one might have to buy one from a salmon farm." Y