for the first time, measured to the same scale, and criticised from an
absolutely unbiassed point of view.
Not the least difficult part of this work is to thank all the kind
friends who have so generously helped me, many having gone out of
their way to obtain photos, pictures, or information of some particular
head which they thought might be of use. Especially are my thanks
due to Mr. Charlie Lucas of Warnham Court, who has done everything
he could to help me in the study of park deer, and to Sir Edmund
Loder, who, in addition to his valuable criticism, has given me every
facility for working in his splendid museum and library. These two
friends have done much to make part of a somewhat difficult task
most pleasant, and I fear I can but inadequately express my thanks
to them here. My sincere thanks are also due to the Duke of Westminster,
the Duke of Portland, the Marquis of Breadalbane, the Earl of
Ilchester, Lord Castletown, Lord Powerseourt, Sir Henry Gore Booth,
Sir George Macpherson Grant, Sir Douglas Brooke, Sir Arthur Grant of
Monymusk, and Mr. J. E. Harting, who have all helped me considerably
in my chapters on heads.
The Duke of Athole, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, Lord
Tweedmouth, the Hon. Walter Rothschild, Colonel Gordon - Cumming
(Forres House), Colonel M‘Inroy, the Hon. G. Lascelles, Mr. J. Grant of
Glenmoriston, Mr. Ralph Sneyd, Mr. Dan Cooper, Mr. John Hargreaves,
Mr. E. Hartert, and Mr. Sidney Loder have also given me permission to
draw from their collections, or have kindly sent me photographs and
notes. Mr. H. Snowie has shown me all his photographs of good heads
of the past, and perhaps no one has taken greater trouble in rendering
me every assistance, extending over several years,- than Mr. William
Macleay of Inverness.
My father-in-law, Mr. P. G. Skipwith, has most kindly revised the
first half of this book, but when he got to Chapter V. his emotion overcame
him, and he skipped off to New Zealand one fine morning to
spend Christmas with his boys. .. Anyway, I have felt it bitterly, as I have
had to do all the rest myself, and I never could read my own handwriting.
So as to give the stalker true landscapes of Highland forests, and
some that he may, perchance, recognise as old hunting-grounds, I have, in
the larger pictures, had the able assistance of Mr. Sidney Steel of Perth.
He has spared no pains to help me, and I leave his work to speak for
itself. He has also done four of the roe black and whites and three of
the red deer.
The happiest recollections that the stalker cherishes are certainly
those of scenes and incidents, the poetry of which has been so perfectly
expressed in the pictures of Sir Edwin Landseer. The naturalist, on the
other hand, although he too may equally be influenced by the same
considerations, is a grim realist, and will have, as a rule, naught but
what actually exists to the cold scientific eye. No doubt the latter is
right, horribly right, but then we cannot exist without. the healthy
sentiment of the other. All the artist can do is to maintain his own
individuality and reconcile as far as possible the feelings and interests of
both.
J. G. MILLAIS.
H o r sh am , May 18 97 .