does not reach 13 stone.1 In some forests it ranges from 14 to 21 stone, but in most
12 to 17 stone is the weight o f a stag. In the Duke o f Hamilton’s forest in the Isle o f
Arran the average weight is far heavier than anywhere on the mainland. Park stags
were introduced into Arran about the year 1850. The largest o f them (which, strange to
say, carried the finest head ever seen there) was killed by Mr. H. Padwick in September
1872. It weighed 28 stone 6 lbs. clean.
The old wood stags o f Perthshire and the deer o f Beaufort woods still frequently reach
25 stone, and the big stag o f 30 stone 2 lbs. clean, killed by Col. the Hon. Alastair Fraser
at the last-named place, is the heaviest Scotch stag o f which I have any note. The statistics
of the northern deer and those o f north-western forests and many adjacent islands show a
distinctly lower average of weight. A stag killed at Berriedale by the Duke o f Portland,
3rd October 1890— the largest taken in that forest for some years past— weighed 22 stone
4 lbs., while the biggest killed at Black Mount in the present Marquis o f Breadalbane’s
time weighed 21 stone. Formerly, even in the late Lord Dudley’s tenancy, the Black
Mount deer were not to be surpassed by any in Scotland. The great drives, however, which
were latterly much in vogue in that forest did much to clear off the best o f the great stags,
and though the forest has since been most carefully worked, both in Mr. Daniel Cooper’s
time and in that o f the present owner, the deer are still inferior to their old form, both in
body and head. I think that the change in the quality o f the pasturage has much to do
with it, for all the high grazing ground to which the deer naturally resort in the warm
months is now becoming excessively poor, the grass being long and rank. A wonderful
contrast this to the grazing on Ben Alder, but a few miles to the east. Here is a forest
that has not received anything like the attention paid to Black Mount, and has changed
hands again and again during the last few years, and yet, with the exception o f a few bad
years, the deer always scale well there and carry far better heads than the Black Mount
animals. The last twenty stags killed in Black Mount in 1894 scaled on an average
14 stone, whilst the last twenty. killed by Lord Ilchester on Ben Alder in the same'year
showed an average o f 16 stone.
And now will my readers forgive a yarn or two about the Highland stalker ? He is a
man worth studying, and, judging from those I have met, a good fellow and a pleasant
companion. His intense love o f the sport and the grand poetical surroundings o f his home
could hardly fail to make him so unless he be o f such common clay that the beauties o f
nature and the healthful pursuit o f his calling have no effect upon him. There may, of
course, be such men, for there are “ bad uns ” in all grades and professions. Intensely
practical is he, quaint and courteous, and though plain-spoken to a degree hardly permissible
perhaps to other men, his speech is characteristic o f himself, and as no offence is meant,
none is ever taken. Sir Edmund Loder tells some good stories about his old stalker, John
Ross, who was with the family for many years at Amot. Amongst other pursuits, Sir
Edmund is given to botany, in which he takes great delight, and his rock garden at
Leonardslee is famous. One season he was making a collection o f mountain plants for this
garden, and while out stalking he spent more time poking about amongst the rocks looking
1 The height at shoulder of a good Scotch stag is about 42 inches, and the length from nose to tail along the back about
68 inches.
for specimens than. Ross considered desirable. The idea o f any man in his senses paying
even a moment s attention to such trifles when deer were in view was to him incomprehensible,
and shortly afterwards he let his master know this at the usual interview after
breakfast. “ Weel, Sir Edmund, is it to be sta-alkin’ or scra-atchin’ the day ? ” A t
another time his opinion o f England after a short visit was summed up in a few words. A t
Christmas one o f his old masters, Sir Greville Smythe, had entertained him right royally with
beef and plum pudding, and coming on to Leonardslee, Sir Edmund Loder took him a sharp
walk up and down the hill that skirts the valley o f his wild-beast preserve— one o f the few
hills in un-rugged Sussex. “ Well, what do you think o f England now, Johnnie ? ” said his
IN RAGS AND TATTERS. WILD STAGS, AUGUST
hjgj. ‘ Oh ! replied the o l i stalker, blowing like a grampus, after a fortnight's inaction
and high feeding, “ I didna expect to see the|grsgijji ri-isin’ and fa - a ll in » much.”
In the old days o f the solid bullet it frequently happened that the stalker, in firing at a
slag with other beasts standing behind it, killed a hind or a staggie as well, and in Northern
forests these unwarrantable beasts were generally given as perquisites^) the stalkers:. . A
friend o f mine;, who had a bit o f Glen Strathfkrrar, -t° mtng the more fatal explosive'
bullets when they were first introduced. His forester, however, never lost an opportunity
for deprecating their use, and at last his master asked him point-blank why he objected to
them. The truth then leaked ouM Donald was thinking o f his perquisites, and, driven into
a corner, could hardly escape confessing it. “ Aweel ye see, sur," he said, “ there’s nae
possible chance, 0’ kullin’ twa.” Another dry speech o f his is worth recalling. He was out