one day with an impetuous youth who, on missing an easy shot at a stag, proceeded to
bombard it at several hundred yards’ distance as it ran unscathed up a hill towards the
march. Donald had, o f course, previously spied his neighbour’s ground, and it was gall and
bitterness to him to know that the party from the adjoining forest was even at that very
moment watching them. “ I wudna shute ony mair i f a’ was ye,” he said, placing his hand
quietly on the smoking rifle, “ ye might kull him abin the mairch.
Away now to Black Mount, o f which I have said some little in previous pages. Here
is a deer forest worth talking aboutft^the largest, I believe, in the North— covering as it does
some 90,000 acres o f the fair county o f A r g y le ; and surely nowhere else in all Scotland is
grander, wilder, or more exquisite scenery to be found. Loch Maree and the rough forests
away to the north-west o f it are superb, as are also parts o f Ardverikie, Loch More, and
western Argyleshire, but to my mind they are, one and all, surpassed in grandeur by the
magnificent high passes and corries o f Black Mount.
On a fine day in October, standing on the rough summit o f Altahourn Ben Starab,
one seems lost in a surrounding sea o f mountains, which stretch without a break in serried
masses away to the west coast. Deer fences are but little used here, and the children of
the forest wander over this vast domain with almost all their pristine freedom. The owner,
the present Marquis o f Breadalbane, is himself a keen stalker ; it is the one sport that he
really loves, and, “ like master, like man,” his foresters are as fine and hard-working a lot as
any to be found in the North. Every man on the place knows his work, and does it, the
game is plentiful, and the whole entourage a scene o f wildest beauty. He must, indeed, be
but a poor sort o f sportsman who fails to find enjoyment here. I can speak from experience,
and it is no mere compliment to say that to his kindness and that o f Lady Breadalbane I
owe some o f the happiest days o f my life. Sir Edwin Landseer was constantly there in the
late Lord Breadalbane’s time, as well as during the tenancy o f Lord Dudley, who followed ;
and one sees from the number o f pictures he painted from sketches taken in the forest how
much he thought o f its scenery and its sport. “ T he Stag at Bay ” records a true incident of
that forest. A fine deer was slightly wounded on Ben T o ig and two hounds were slipped
after him. One o f them the hart struck dead as it galloped beside him, so another hound
was let go, and this second couple took the stag down into Loch Tulla, where they held him"
at bay close to the Forest Lodge. T h e older o f the two hounds, however, attempted to seize
the stag by the ear in the water, on which he also received his coup de grace. Sir Edwin,
who was in the house at the time, ran out and was a witness o f the final tragedy. “ T h e Deer
Drive ” was another picture sketched in there, the scene being taken from the high pass
between Altahourn and Larig Dochart, a spot where the present Lord Tweedmouth and the
late Lord Dudley killed no fewer than nineteen big stags at one drive. Black Mount also
furnished the subject o f “ The Torrent” and many more o f Sir Edwin’s famous forest pictures.
When I was there, old John M ‘Leish, than whom there is no finer stalker in Scotland,1
was the only man on the place who could remember Landseer well, and he was not very
1 During the season 1892 this remarkable stalker’s average was exceptional; Out of twenty-three stalks made on his beat
only one went wrong, owing to the deer having moved. Of the other twenty-two the various rifles all obtained their shots and
twenty-two stags were killed. Though this would be good shooting for any single sportsman, it is remarkable that, with six or
seven different men shooting, every stag should have been grassed. As every sportsman will know, his success lies in the way the
stalker brings his man up to the firing point, and without undue haste gives him a fair chance.
communicative, but his description o f the great painter’s personality was rather quaint. “ Oh
ay, I mind him fine; he was a nice wee mannie, and he carried a braw rifle.” Sir Edwin,
I may say, was one o f the first to be armed with a breechloader.
Mr. Grimble s Deer-Stalking is a work which I would strongly recommend to intending
stalkers as containing everything that the tyro should know before proceeding to the hill.
There are plenty o f other works on the subject, but none so good as this. Old stalkers, of
course, do not require such books. After two or three seasons’ experience they know, or
ought to know, everything that is to be learnt about the sport, and very few o f them would
ever think o f looking into a text-book; but I never yet knew a stalker who was not fond of
pictures, books, or papers that served to recall his own happy experiences on the hills of
bonnie Scotland.
Let me give from my diary a short account o f two weeks’ stalking as typical examples o f
the ups and downs o f this grand sport, remarking in advance that the state o f the weather
and the cunning way in which the deer tribe manage to avoid points o f danger make it
practically impossible at times for even the best stalkers to score. The uninitiated may
hardly believe this, seeing that in most forests the game is so numerous, but old stalkers
know such times well, and dread them, as the season is so short.
The first week was one o f exceptionally good luck, for I was on an outside beat, where,
owing to the difficulties o f pony service and the distance from headquarters, Black Mount
lllprest Lodge, I could not expect to kill more than one stag a day. Moreover, two days out
o f the six were occupied in tramping to and from the little iron house at Glen Kinglass.
Tuesday, 3rd October— Started at 9 a .m . with old M £Leish for the high Snowy-corries
beat, but the weather coming on thick, as usual, we had to remain at a lower level. Just
below the mist, in Inverguisachan, we came on a fine light-coloured stag, moving towards us
with twelve or fourteen hinds. The wind, however, was wrong, and he passed away above,
giving the alarm as he did so to a much better stag, with about twenty-five hinds, that was
lying unseen amongst some rocks at the foot o f the narrow corrie. They also immediately
headed for a pass on the opposite hill a few hundred yards above us, but we easily intercepted
them» and I got a long shot at about 170 yards up-hill, which fortunately took the stag in
the right place. He left the hinds at once, galloped about 100 yards down-hill, and rolled
over dead. Weight 16 stone 2 lbs.; his head an average one o f 10 points. It was then
only n o clock, and M ‘Leish began to descant upon the supreme joys o f fishing with a worm
in the Kinglass ; but as I didn’t exactly hanker after that sort o f thing, I proposed to go and
look at the stags on his beat, even i f he wouldn’t let me shoot another, for he said we should
then be too far away to get a second stag home that night. After some parley a compromise
was come to, which pleased us both, namely, that should we find a shootable stag on the
shoulder o f Ben-an-luss I might be allowed a shot, the hill being close to the lodge. And
this is precisely what did happen. We wandered about, seeing many good beasts during the
afternoon, and at 4 o clock found ourselves near home and discussing the merits o f four stags
feeding quietly below us. One was an old animal, and M ‘Leish, deciding that he would be
better in the larder, I got an easy shot at about 70 yards, and killed. Weight 13 stone ;
head o f 10 points ; rather a poor one. And so home to dinner after a capital day’s sport.
Wednesday, \th October.— Started for the big corrie with M £Coll, and saw nothing till