grounds o f Scotland are far too poor to be cultivated to advantage in these (so-called) Free
Trade days, and as to the other tenth, it is more than doubtful whether the poorer inhabitants
would not lose more than they would gain by the change. For, think o f the money that is
spent in keeping up these forests, of the labour employed in maintaining and repairing
buildings, roads, fences, etc., and o f the golden stream that flows into the pockets o f the
people day by day so long as M y Lord or Mr. Moneybags is in residence. Much is
expected o f the man who rents a forest in Scotland, and rarely, i f ever, is the expectation
disappointed. He may count himself lucky who during the stalking season escapes with
an expenditure o f less than £50 a day. Ladies too come over, i f the tenant is worthy of
STAGS FEEDING AS THEY MOVE -
their companionship, and their gracious presence does no small good in uniting both rich
and poor, the Sassenach and the Highlander, in the bonds o f sincere affection. Set these
things against the contingencies o f farming in these Northern wilds, where for long periods
in the year “ the rain it raineth every day,” and where at best the ruling prices o f stock and
crop leave but a scanty profit, and see i f the balance does not turn in the direction I have
suggested. Whatever it may be elsewhere, in Scotland most certainly the little farmer’s lot,
like the policeman’s, “ is not a happy one.”
With the afforesting o f so many sheep grounds and the introduction o f wire fences
during the past fifteen years there has been an enormous increase in the number o f deer in
Scotland. Quality has given place to quantity ; and though there are nearly as good stags
killed now as in the previous fifty years, with a few exceptions the best heads do not come
from these highly-stocked forests.
In the great deer forest country stretching from Beauly to the west|Js®iSt Mr. Winans
-. ■ Is probably ..responsible for the fact that the animals have increased threefold during his
tenancy. In Mar, Athole, and Black Mount d f f| are still on the increase, whilst to the
north— in Wvvi's, Inchbae, Strathvaick, Braemore, Ktnloch-l.nichart, Fannich, Dundonnell,
and Letterewe— there is an immense stock o f deer, which are every year'degenerating. In
Strathvaick there are probably more deer- to the hoipithan in any other fijrest in Scotland,
and Mr. Williams annually sh d fcahou t 14,5 stags. Whilst |1 the wajB fDundonne ll forest
in 1 B 1 I drove along the road from Garve which runs parallel tp the long h i ll o f Strathvaick,
. and there I saw the largest assemblage, o f wild deer that has ever come under my eye. One
.Of Mr. Williams s stalkers, with whom I-;j|ot- into conversation at Aultguish Inn, estimated
the number then within sight at ||1| 1|, and ;as I drov|||>n towards the Braemore march I
some 400 or that were probably o u fy jf his view. The formation o f these
great herds has one serious drawback to the tenant p i t causes the best s t S from the
stalker’gjib'int o f view, to desert the district and move to isolated ;|Muations on the sheep
jfjouadSior in the big,woo,ds, w heg ithe ir natural cunning stands them in good stead.
From 1.8189 tp 1894 Mr. Wina|®^ princely domain in the North remained undisturbed
the sound o f a rifle, and amongst Northern sportsmen speculation was rife
as to the number o f noble harts that must have reached their prime and be wandering
unscathed through his variou||j|)rests. At Fort Georges in" Inverness-shire, where I was
then quartered, fpne heard all the local gossip about these forests, and the wild
speculation as to the sport to be had there. «Great heavens! what grand heads I
could. £et had I this or that forest just foiffime year,” was the exclamation o f many
a keen: stalker, and when in 1893 a large piece in the very heart o f Mr. Wirianftr
Rpuntry became vacant|gmmjpetition for it was simply fierce. In the end it fell to a certain
Mr. L ., a keen sportsman,.» first-class shot, and a man who knows a good head when he
/ lE ^e^0W’ ^°Ped to fill his walls in that on eg season with trophiHtelfth as
B boast, but, alas ! his first day’s: stalking- dashed these hopes to the ground.
There were stags enough and - to spare, and plenty o f big ones, among them, but all so
abominably tatne that they never moved even when he showed himself within ijjt, y a H
o f them ; an.d as to their heads, not a single good. j j | f was to be seen. A second day p fb v j l
just as bat: as the first. By the end o f it he had been all over the ground, and having
Satisfied himself that there was not a good head in the forest, he quickly shot his number
and left the place in disgust.
. Kintail is an example o f a forest which, according !o the prevailing wind, is at times full
o f deer, and at other times may np:k yield a single good head in a whole season. A t any
time, as its home stock is comparatively small, but few .stags find their way there, from
other forests, but those that do come are generally first-rate animals. For some years
previous % 4 894 very little was done at Kintail, but in that goodfiason many big stags '
selected it a p their summer ground. It was- then in the hands, o f one o f the best
stalkers and shots o f thisgjountry— Sir Edmund Loder— and during the season he won
to his own rifle perhaps the finest lot o f heads that has fallen to any one man during
the past ten yeaffc Nearly all o f theSe-'fine stags were found singly,for with o n ljS n e or two
companions. The best head, a magnificent 10-pointer, which adorns the smoking-room at
K 2