noticed how gradually both the H and their heads deteriorate as .one B B D |
particularly So® there a marked change between bucks killed tn the JfflWrground
Stanley,fiione, and Black Park, and those killed on the heather grounds north | Murthly
only 7 miles distant. Murthly itself isipartly heather ound and partly low ground, and
it is quite possible to recognise the two types of bucks which east there, those that had
worked in from Strathord and th jg p th being fir superior to those .from »ohallion and
Dunkeld way. , I .
About Forres there are the grand wood»:»* Darnaway, Cawdor, Bur|gj Westerton,
Altyre, etc., whic|p»e all full i f roe. In the big wood round Cawdor Castle there are
From a water-colour by William Millais:
probably to-day more roe than in any other wood of its size in Scotland, not even excepting
Farley.
In Beauly district there are many roe in the big woods on the sides o f the river up
to Strathglass and Guisachan. Starting from Beauly itself, there is the beautiful Beaufort
estate, on which there were, till recently, more roe than in any other estate in Scotland.
Here is the famous Farley wood, where probably more roe have been killed than in any one
wood in the North.
On Beaufort too are the two other great woods o f Boblainey and Altnacliach, where a
large number of roe can still be killed. Moniack and Clunes, in this district, are also good
for roe, whilst up Strathconon and Dingwall way all the woods used to hold a good number
o f fine roe.
In Mull they were introduced in 1865, and are now thriving there.
The distribution o f roe in the south o f Scotland is not nearly so well known, so it is
necessary to particularise more. There were no roe, at any rate till recently, in either
Berwickshire or Roxburghshire, and though some appeared in Selkirkshire, on the Duke
o f Buccleuch’s ground, they were killed off, as they interfered with the foxhounds. They
are plentiful in Peeblesshire, and particularly so in Dumfriesshire. In Wigtownshire they are
also numerous, particularly in the Newton-Stewart and Monreith country. A ll these south-
country roe are said to owe their existence to some which were reintroduced by the first
Marquis o f Ailsa at the beginning o f the present century at his estate Culzean Castle,
Maybole. These few deer, introduced by him in fifty years, increased to such an alarming
extent that they became quite a plague, and orders were given for their entire extermination.
In one year this was to a large extent carried out by Lord David Kennedy, who was one o f
the finest rifle-shots o f his day, and is still alive and hearty. There is no doubt that within
the first year an enormous number o f roe were killed on the Culzean estate, and Lord David
says he is well within the mark when he states that between six and seven hundred roe
were killed within the first twelve months o f the shooting. He himself, strolling about the
glades and the edges o f the woods, often killed six and seven good bucks in an evening;
and the present Marquis o f Ailsa, in a letter to me, states, “ When I was a child I can
remember that enormous quantities o f roe deer used to exist here. They had to be killed