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/^ 



OUT-DOOR SPORTS 



IK 



SCOTLAND. 



hYEL 




'4<;^- 



"KING OF THK CORRIK. 



OUT-DOOE SPOETS 



IN 



SCOTLAND: 



DEER STALKING, GBOUSE SHOOTING, SALMON FISHING, 
GOLFING, CUBLING, &c. 



WITH NOTES ON THE NATURAL, ECONOMIC AND SPORTING HISTORY 
OF THE ANIMALS OF THE CHASE. 



BY 



'' EliLANGOWAN.'l/.u^^^Y 



,7:^^?(.l^a^^ 



SECOND EDITION. 

*/ will tell yoi what our sport shall be,** — Shakespeare. 



LONDON: 

W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE; 

AND AT CALCUTTA. 



1890. 

(All rights reserved.) 



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New 



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J898°'""'°'^». 



LONDON: 
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limited. 

STAMFORD STEBET AND CHARING CROSS. 



PREFACE. 



The following pages have not been penned with the 
idea of teaching people " how to sport ** ; that is a task 
which it would be somewhat presumptuous for the 
Author to undertake. The chronicling of the facts and 
figures incident to the deer-stalking, grouse-shooting, 
and salmon-fishing of the period, which during late 
years have so largely attracted the attention of econo- 
mists and political agitators, affords ample material for 
his pen. 

The writer has brought together much information 
^ of an interesting kind, hitherto foimd chiefly in news- 
papers or other periodicals, and he has collected from 
"* those who know most about it, and from attentive 
personal observation, much that has never yet come 
/ under the cognisance of a printer. 
'■^ It may be claimed for the following chapters that 
'^ — they are at least illustrative, and in most instances 
'-;' informing; no similar collection of facts and figures 
pertaining to sport and the economic value of the 
~» animals of the chase having. So far as the writer is 
'^ aware, ever been attempted. Painstaking labour has 
been devoted to the gathering and setting forth of what 
all in search of sport on the hills and in the glens 
" of " dear old Scotland " would doubtless like to know. 



J 



vi Preface. 

The truthfulness of the details, given in the succeed- 
ing pages, of the natural history of deer, grouse, and 
other birds and beasts of sport, may be relied upon so 
far as they go. It is not pretended, however, that they 
are scientific, nor do they need to be so ; the object of 
the writer being to tell what he knows himself, and 
to retail knowledge of other people in a way that may 
be easily understood. 

The first edition of this work having been well re- 
ceived alike by critics and the public, Uttle is left for 
the Author to say than that "Out-Door Sports in 
Scotland " continue to flourish ; the demand for moors 
and forests, as also for lowland shootings, has this year 
become greater than usual ; whUst other pastimes, par- 
ticularly golf and football, seem to be taking a firmer 
hold. Anglers, too, in many districts, are having their 
exhausted trout streams replenished with young fish, 
so that in the near future they may be able to " cram 
their creels" with the "speckled beauties'* of the 
water. 

May, 1890. 



CONTENTS. 



Intbodugtion. 

rAOn 

Scotland's most famous Out of door Sports — ^The rise of Sport 
—What Sir Walter Scott: did for Scotland "sixty yean* 
since " — Shooting rents at the beginning — How Grouse- 
shooting began — ^Facilities of travel open up the ground 
— Other Sports in Scotland — ^The Turf— Growing taste 
for Horse-racing, Footfodl, and other pastimes . . 1-10 

Chapter L — Scotland's Deeb akd GfionsB Gbouvdb. 

Acreage of Deer Forests and Grouse Moors — ^List of the chief 
Forests — ^Note of the area they occupy — ^Tbe Counties : 
extent of their sporting ground — ^Number of Stags that 
may be killed 11-20 

Chafteb n. — ^Deeb. 

Natural history of the Deer — Habits of the animal — In- 
breeding: propriety of "crossing": what has been done 
— ^Roe-deer as Venison — About the horns of Deer— Age 
of these animals — ^Traditions and Stories — Stock of Deer 
in the forests 21-36 

Chapter IIL — Stalking. 

"No royal road to Deernstalking " — ^Deer-driving — Sport 
defined — ^The labour incident to a Stalk — Practical hints 
by practical men — ^Two descriptions of Deer-stalking: 
the toils and humours of the work . . . 37-53 



viii Contents. 



Chapter IV.— €oubsing : Habes. 

PAOBS 

Coursing in Midlothian fifty years ago — ^Dog-breedinj^ — 
* North Briton ' — ^Anecdotes of Scottish sporting — Natural 
history of the Hare — Growing scarcity of Hares . 54-66 

Chaptee V. — ^Rabbits fob Spobt and Food. 

Fertility of the Rabbit — Tables of natural increase — Island 
Rabbits — Political Economy of the Rabbit supply . 67-73 

Chapteb VI. — ^Thb Gbousb Family. 

Natural history of the Bed Grouse — ^Enemies of the Birds — 
Which sex is the more numerous ? — Caithness Grouse the 
best — CSapercailzie : Story of its rehabilitation in Scotland 
— ^Extent to which it has bred— The Blackcock becoming 
scarce — ^The Ptarmigan . . . . . 74-87 

Chapteb VII. — Natubal EooNOifY of a Gbouse Moob. 

Mortality on Grouse Moors — How a Moor becomes re- 
plenished — ^Facts and figmres — ^Breeding and feeding 
power of a given area — ^Economic considerations — Grouse 
disease — Changing the Blood — ^The Food of Grouse- 
Arithmetic of Grouse-shooting . . 1 . 88-103 

Chapteb VIII.— The Political Economy of Spobt, 

Parliamentary Attacks on Sport— Money expended on Deer 
Forests — ^Deer or Sheep ? — ^Deliverances of Lord Napier's 
Committee — ^Would it pay to convert Deer Forests into 
Sheep Runs? — ^What Sport has done for the Highlands — 
The "Dog in the Manger •'Spirit' . : . 104-114 

Chapteb IX. — On the Hbathbb. 

Signs of the Twelfth — En route to Glen Hoolichan — Open- 
ing of the Season — Work on the Heather— The Round of 
Life on a Grouse Moor— What " Christopher North " said 
his Young Friends; 115-12 7 



Contents. ix 



Chaptkb X.--L. S. D. 

PAOS8 

Reliable infonnation as to cost of Moors — ^Pot Shooters — 
Miscellaneous Expenditure— rBents of Moors and Forests 
— ^Expenditure on Pishing — Shooting-lodge economies — 
Scotch Breakfasts — Shooting Luncheons — ^Dinner Bill of 
Fare 128-141 

GSAFTER XI. — ^PhBASANTS AND PaBTBIDGBS. 

The Pheasant in Scotland — Hatching Machines — ^Breeding 
Birds for the Gun — ^Pheasant supply — ^Numbers bred — 
The Partridge in Scotland — Scarcity of the Bird now as 
compared with forper years .... 142-153 

Chapteb Xn. — Othbb Bibds of Spobt. 

Miscellaneous Birds of Sport — ^Woodcock in Edinburgh — 
Snipe — Moorhen — Pigeons — Anecdote — The Crows — 
Rook-shooting-^Solan Geese-— Birds of St. Kilda— Gulls 
—Wild Duck shooting— Mallard— Plovers' E^s . 154-174 

ChAPTBB XIII. — ^POAOHIKG. 

Prices received by Poachers — ^Mode of Business — Jamie 
Skinners, a waif— Anecdote of a poaching Coachman — 
Poaching not a moral offence !— "Sketches of Poachers — 
Grouse-poaching — Salmon-poachers — ^Fish Tam — Salmon 
Job — ^Poaching on Tweed — A Story about Hare-stealing 

176-198 
Chapteb XIV. — Gamekeepers. 

General ttustworthiness of Keepers — An Interview with 
one of them — ^The Keeper's Round of Work — Perquisites 
and Wages — ^The Gamekeeper's Wife— Dishonest Keepers 
—The Question of" Tips" .... 199-209 

Chapter XV. — ^The Game Supply. 

Scarcity of Facts and Figures — Legal Sale of Game — Grouse 
Commerce — ^The price of Grouse — Figures of the National 



Contents. 



PAGVa 

Game Bag— Weight of Game— Value of Game— Foreign 
Birds— Scottish Venison — ^Hares and Rabbits , 210-225 

Chapteb XVI. — Game ts Labdkb, Kitohkn, and 

DlNH^G-BOOM. 

The Pheasant— About high Game — Grouse Soup— »Hare Soup 
— Other Soups — ^Rabbit Cookery — What Soyer advises — 
Woodcock — ^Wood Pigeon — Partridges — Soyer's Grouse 
Salad 226-245 

Chapter XVII. — Salmonia. 

How to Catch a Sahnon— Natural History of that Fish — 
The Par Controversy — Shaw's Experiments — Salmon 
Growth — Stormontfield — Cost of Salmon-angling — Com- 
merce in Salmon — Statistics of the Biver Tay — ^Tweed 
and its Salmon — Fishing Legislation — ^River-pollution — 
Salmon Diiiease , 246-270 



Chapteb XVHL — ^Tboutiana. 

Writing Anglers — ^Popularity of Trout-fishing — ^Loch Leven 
— Resorts of Anglers — Loch Awe — The Great Lake Trout 
— Scottish " Fisheries " — ^Howietoxm — The Solway Fishery 
—Prices of Trout Ova 280-299 

Chapteb XIX. — ^Teout and Spobt in the Bobdeks. 

Gipsies and Fishers — ^Younger and Scrope — ^" My ain flees " 
— Thomas Tod Stoddart — The Ettrick Shepherd — 
St. Mary's Loch — ^The Purdies — ^Burning the Water — 
The Abbotsford Hunt — ^Abbotsford Festivities — ^Border 
Sports 300-320 

Chapteb XX. — ^Vebmin of the Moobs and Manobs. 

Badger-baiting — Otters and Otter-hunting — ^Wild Cats — 
Diary of a Stoat^The Ratr— The Balance of Nature- 
Owls and Hen Harriersr-The Crow Family . , 321-338 



Contents. xi 



Chapteb XXI. — The Fox : Fox-hukting. 

PA618 

Natural History of the Fox — Characteristics of that Animal 
described — Fox-hunting in Midlothian — Eamsay of 
Bamton — Jamie Jack's Smiddy .... 339-348 

Chaptbe XXIL — Golf. 

A Boom in Grolf — ^History of the Game— Honourable Com- 
pany of Golfers — Club Dinners — Social Habits of Players 
— St. Andrews — ^Mr. Chambers' Description of the Game 
—Golfing Characters — Caddies — ^Note on Shinty . 349-364 

Chapter XXIII. — Cubling. 

Jubilee Celebration of the Boyal Caledonian Curling Club — 
Love of Curling — ^Diagram of a Rink — ^Description of the 
Game — ^History of the Sanquhar Club — Poetry of the 
Game 365-379 

Chapteb XXIV. — Patrons and Parasites op Sport. 

Eglinton Tournament — Sporting gentleman — " Money Bob " 
—The Squire— "Mr. Peters " — Cuddy WuUy — The 
Omits 380-389 



OUT-DOOR SPORTS IN SCOTLAND. 



INTEODUCTIOK 

Nothing in the social history of Scotland is more re- 
markable than the developments which have taken 
place in its Sports and Pastimes. At one time Curling 
and Shinty were the two out-of-doors games in which 
all who pleased to do so might take part. An occa- 
sional bout at Quoits also aflforded recreation in rural 
districts. At holiday seasons, "Shootings" for prizes, 
chiefly in kind, such as cheeses and various articles of 
clothing, were entered upon with great zest, whilst 
Angling has for a long period formed a favourite 
pastime of the Scottish people. The modern sports 
of Cricket and Football, as also Pedestrianism and 
Cycling, have during the last ten or twelve years 
attaiued a degree of popularity which was not antici- 
pated when they were introduced. 

But the out-of-doors sports for which Scotland is 
to-day most famous are Deer-stalking, Grouse-shooting, 
and Salmon-fishing. These, as will presently be shown, 
prove the means of circulating, in the remote districts 
of a country which otherwise would be poor, thousands 
of pounds, much to the benefit of those interested. The 
shootings and fishings of Scotland have from first to 
last added largely to the material prosperity of the 
country, the total sporting rental of which, all told, 

B 



Out-door Sports in Scotland. 



is not probably less to-day than half a million sterling. 
When this prosperity began, warnings were given out 
by the wise that it would not, could not last ; but, 
happily, it has gone on increasing, grouse-moor and 
deer-forest rental gradually growing higher and higher, 
whilst expenditure of all kinds keeps rising in accord- 
ance with the luxurious tendency of the time. 

It has been well said that Sir Walter Scott Tnade 
Scotland, in the sense of picturing to far-oflf peoples its 
attractions of lake and stream, and its "beauties of 
mountain and glen." The author of 'Waverley' and 
'Eob Eoy' so painted the picturesque features of his 
native land as to attract crowds of visitors from even 
distant parts of the globe; since the day the 'Lady 
of the Lake' was published, tourists and travellers 
have come upon the scene, distributing their gold 
with an open hand. No sooner had the poem been 
issued than the authorities of the Inland Eevenue 
Department began to note a steady increase in the 
amount of the Post-horse Duty then demanded in 
Scotland. 

Before Scott, Scotland, in a sense, was unknown. 
Going back a hundred years ago we might ask what was 
then the value of a hundred acres of moorland, and if we 
were to say they had no value, it would be an answer 
that could scarcely be gainsaid : a few Highland sheep 
sought their scanty supply of food upon the moors, but 
although trout were plentiful in the streams and salmon 
leapt in many of the lakes, while moorfowl were abun- 
dant on the heather, none, other than those who dwelt 
beside them, knew the fact; at that time they were 
of no commercial value. A hundred years ago the 
*Lady of the Lake' had not been written, nor had 



Introduction. 



' Waverley ' or ' Eob Roy ' made their appearance. Nor 
was it till the vivid pen of the " Wizard of the North " 
had sent a revelation of its scenic beauties throughout 
the world that "the land of the mountain and the 
flood " became so famous as to cause its salmon to be 
coveted and its moorfowl to become of value to " the 
southrons." At first, let us say fifty years since, 
" shootings " were cheap enough ; it came as a revela- 
tion to many " heather lairds," as they have been called, 
who had all their lives, perhaps, been struggling in 
their endeavours to feed a few sheep and cultivate a 
few patches of arable ground, that there were people 
ready to take a lease of their lands for the sake of the 
moorfowl upon th6m, and to rent then* streams for the 
privilege of catching the trout and salmon they con- 
tained. The small rents then offered were more thank- 
fully accepted than the bigger sums of to-day : fifty 
pounds fifty years ago was "money," and for such a 
sum the right of sporting over an area of two or three 
thousand acres, and of fishing a mile or two of good 
water, was to be obtained. As time wore on, however, 
rents began to rise, and when first steamboats, and 
then railway carriages, brought their annual thousands 
to the land of Scott and Bums, moors for which the 
proprietors had hitherto been well pleased to obtain 
fifty or sixty pounds speedily became of double and 
treble that value, whilst prolific stretches of heather, 
on \diich had been erected comfortable dwelling-places, 
were soon thought cheap at " hunners," as Saunders, in 
*Rob Roy/ calls hundreds. Gentlemen happily now 
receive in some instances thousands for moors or 
forests that their fathers were very glad to let for a 
tenth part of the sum. 

B 2 



Out-door Sports in Scotland. 



Sir Walter Scott intended at one time to write a 
chronological account of Scottish out-of-door sports, 
but from some cause he never began the task, although 
from his pen such a chronicle would have proved 
interesting, and it is therefore much to be regretted that 
it was not written. When Sir Walter touches upon 
pastime of any kind in his poems or novels, he shows 
that he feels what he writes about; and, as all the 
world knows, he wrote of Scotland and its people as no 
man ever wrote before and as no man has written since, 
and by doing so Sir Walter enriched his country and 
improved the position of his countrymen. Sir Walter 
unhappily did not live to witness the many benefits 
that have accrued to Scotland by means of his works, 
nor in his lifetime could he have formed the idea that 
Scottish moorfowl would ever become birds of such 
value as they are to-day. Various stories were at one 
time in circulation as to how the prosperity of the 
Highlands of Scotland began, but most of the tales told 
were imaginative, the following no doubt among the 
others: — "A Highland Isdrd and his lady of an am- 
bitious turn of mind, anxious to see their daughters 
weU married, used to exchange houses for a few weeks 
with an Edinburgh Writer to the Signet, who was 
passionately fond of sport and rural pursuits. The 
Highland gentleman and his wife and daughters thus 
enjoyed for a time the delights and gaieties of the 
Scottish capital, whilst the lawyer indulged to his 
heart's content in the sports of the Highlands, salmon- 
catching or grouse-shooting from dawn of day till 
sunset. Both families were delighted with the ex- 
change, and the pleasures of his Highland holiday, and 
his prowess with rod and gun, were recited by the 



Introduction. 



lawyer to troops of friends and clients, who, becoming 
in time smitten with like enthusiasm, soon began to 
look around for like opportunity." 

Facts and figures of a reliable kind pertaining to the 
progress of shooting and fishing in Scotland are diffi- 
cult to procure: two of the greatest and best-known 
Scottish sportsmen lived to see aU that took place from 
the dawn of grouse-shooting onward to the period of 
their death; but only one of those gentlemen, Mr. 
Colquhoun, has left any note of the changes that 
occurred ; the other, Mr. Horatio Boss, had he pleased 
to do so, might have penned an informing record of 
the changes incidental to his day. 

The Earl of Malmesbury, in his interesting ' Memoirs 
of an Ex-Minister,' mentions that it was in the year 
1833 that " the Highlands became the rage," and that 
deer-forests began to be made. At that time rents, 
compared with the sums paid to-day, were almost 
nominal His lordship states that he was offered the 
moors, forests, and fishings of the Island of Harris for 
the bagatelle, as it would be thought now, of £25 
a year ; in other words, he could have secured a right 
of sport over an area of 40,000 acres, which to-day 
commands a rental of £2000 per annum. Upon the 
occasion of the death of Mr. Butter of Faskally a few 
years since, a little peep was obtained at the cost of 
shootings half a century ago. In a memoir of that 
gentleman, it was- stated that two moors on his estate, 
which now let for £800 per annum, had, fifty years 
since, been tenanted at the rate of £8 ; and the tenant 
thought himself a very ill-used man indeed when his 
rent was raised. At the period indicated, the total 
game or sporting rental of Scotland and its isles was 



6 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

probably not £25,000 per annum ; to-day, as has been 
already said, it cannot be under half-a-million. 

In the first list of shootings to be let in Scotland, 
issued from Inverness in 1836, there were only eight 
entries. The rents asked were almost nominal ; in the 
year named, the shootings of Glen Urquhart and Glen 
Moriston, now so valuable, only produced' a hundred 
pounds each. Monalia was one of the first shootings 
to be let, the rent being fixed at the sum of £30, of 
which a sixth part was returned by way of "luck- 
penny." A long list might be compiled of moors and 
forests now bringing hundreds to their owners that 
fifty years ago were gladly let at sums ranging from 
five to forty pounds per annum, and if some of the old 
Highland lairds could rise from the dead and be told of 
ttie rents paid to-day for areas of heather now in use, 
they would. undoubtedly think them fabulous. 

The facilities incident to modern travel proved a 
chief factor in opening up the Highlands of Scotland to 
tourists and sportsmen. Had it not been for the aid 
afforded by steamboats and railway carriages, Scotland 
might not to-day have been so prosperous. Improved 
means of locomotion has done much for the country. 
Modem travelling is not only rapid — it is cheap. Sixty 
years since a man could not come from London to 
Inverness at less cost than about twenty guineas, now-a- 
days the journey to the " capital of the Highlands " can 
be comfortably made for a fourth, or even a fifth, of the 
sum ; but it was not till after the Battle of Waterloo 
had been fought that any mail coach ran farther north 
in Scotland than Aberdeen ! 

At one time, in the beginning of the present century, 
fishing for trout and salmon — that is to say, angling 



Introduction. 



— ^had no commercial value in Scotland, and even net- 
fishing stations on Tweed and Tay were let for a few 
pounds only that now yield hundreds per annum. 
Trout-fishing, it may be said, was everywhere free to 
all who pleased to fish, and at the time indicated no 
man in the country had probably thought that ^ day 
would come when a trout stream would bring a money 
rent The water rental of Scotland for nets and 
rods, in loch and stream, cannot, at the present time, 
be less than a hundred thousand pounds per annum, 
which sixty years since would have been thought a 
wonderful sum to be derived from such a source. But 
Scotland is the "land of the mountain and the flood," 
and the flood has helped to make the country pros- 
perous. At the present time, too, it is in the nature of 
a great fact, as will be shown on another page, that 
hundreds of thousands of trout are annually reared for 
behoof of anglers who reside in or visit Scotland in 
quest of sport upon its waters. 

Fox-hunting and coursing the hare are among the 
oldest of what may be termed the modern sports of 
Scotland, and these are now carried on with even 
greater zest than they were half a century ago. " The 
Royal Caledonian Hunt " is still an institution in the 
"Land of Cakes," in which to-day we have a dozen 
packs of foxhounds and harriers at work in the proper 
seasons. 

Horse-racing has long been an admired branch of 
sport, and the recent opening of a new racecourse in 
the grounds of Hamilton Palace, near Glasgow, has 
given quite a fillip to the "sport of kings" in "dear 
old Scotland," as Mr. Gladstone calls the country. 
One of our racing trophies, "The Paisley Bells," has 



8^ Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

been in existence for nearly three hundred years ; it is 
held by the winners from year to year, each of whom 
adhibits to the trophy a silver label with the names of 
owner and horse, as weU as the year of victory. Some 
fine struggles have been witnessed on the courses of 
Ayr and Edinburgh (at Musselburgh). The names of 
several gentlemen who have been associated with the 
sport of horse-racing in Scotland may be here recalled. 
The turf career of the Earl of Glasgow has been often 
referred to. The Earl was a kindly but very eccentric 
man, who strove hard to render racing everywhere a 
pure sport. Sir David Baird, Sir James Boswell, and 
" Eobertson of Lady Kirk," are names still remembered 
in Scotland as belonging to good sportsmen, as also 
the names of Lord John Scott, Mr. Hope Johnstone, 
" Sharpe of Hoddam," and " Eamsay of Bamton " who 
was both a racing and a hunting man of great renown. 
But before aU these may be mentioned the Earl of 
Eglinton, whose name has a sweet savour in connection 
with the turf. Mr. Merry of BeUadrum, Mr. Stirling 
Crawford and Lord Eosebery, and the present Dukes of 
Hamilton and Montrose, came later on the scene, but 
their names are familiar to sportsmen of the period, 
as also are those of Messrs. Jardine and Houldsworth. 
Among the men who promoted the pastimes of deer- 
stalking and grouse-shooting, Colquhoun of Luss and 
Horatio Boss stand out as chieftains, and to their 
names might be added others of only a lesser degree 
of renown. 

Nothing in Scotland in connection with its play- 
grounds is more remarkable than the growth of football, 
now one of the leading recreations of the country. 
There are more than a hundred first-class clubs of foot- 



Introduction. 



ball players in Scotland, and in such centres of the 
game as Glasgow splendid "* gates " are obtained on the 
occasion of particular matches being played It was 
stated lately by a local journalist that the success of 
the great Exhibition recently held in Glasgow was due 
most of aU to its football matches; on the days and 
evenings on which matches were arranged to take 
place, the recreation-ground rapidly became populous, 
while the picture galleries and courts of exhibition 
were deserted. Notwithstanding their habitual reserve 
and reticence, Scottish people have warmed to aU the 
sports and pastimes of the period, which have become 
a constant and increasing feature of Scottish out-door 
life. 

Scottish ladies, too^ in contrast to the reserve of 
their grandmothers, have taken kindly to many of the 
out-door pastimes. I recollect, when at school, some 
most respectable ladies being hissed and groaned at 
because they ventured on the ice to skate. In those 
days few ladies were seen in the hunting field, and 
it has been related of a Scottish landowner that he 
was strongly advised by his mother not to marry a 
lady who had gained his affections because she went 
to " the hunting." Now, ladies not only go a-hunting, 
but they go a-fishing as weU — ^indeed, it is diflSicult to 
teU where they will stop ; some of them even go grouse- 
shooting and deer-stalking, and there are many ladies 
who can handle their golf clubs and their bows and 
arrows with skill and dexterity. 

In Scotland to-day there is sport of a kind for aU 
degrees of people : for the masses there is football in 
particular; for the classes there are deer-staUdng and 
salmon-fishing, as well as grouse-shooting, and, with 



10 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

the intermediate bodies of people, curling and grey- 
hound coursing never go out of favour ; golfing may be 
called a middle-class game, although largely shared in 
by many of the professional aristocracy of the day. 
Itat sport of every kind is progressing in Scotland by 
leaps and bounds, is daily placed in evidence by the 
space devoted to it in Scottish newspapers, thousands 
of which are every morning sold because of their con- 
taining programmes of the day's racing. The evening 
papers, too, those published in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
especially, are disposed of every night in tens of 
thousands, more particularly in the height of the foot- 
ball and cricket seasons, when results of the day's 
doings are anxiously looked for and perused. Who, 
half a century ago, would have ventured to predict that 
in the course of one Saturday afternoon and evening of 
the present year nearly a quarter of a million evening 
newspapers would be sold in " Godly Glasgow " because 
of a football match ? Every night the results of the 
day's horse-racing are also eagerly sought after : large 
numbers of persons impatiently await the news relating- 
to starting prices and the names of the running steeds. 
Quantities of London and other sporting journals are 
also greedily bought both in Edinburgh and Glasgow, 
and, indeed, throughout all parts of Scotland. I can 
remember a time when only two copies of BdFs Life 
were publicly known to reach Edinburgh, and Bell was 
then the only journal entirely devoted to sport in the 
kingdom. 



( 11 ) 



CHAPTER L 

Scotland's Deer and Grouse Grounds. 

Of the nineteen and a half million acres of land and 
water which comprise the area of Scotland, not more 
than five millions (taking the round figures) are at 
present used for all kinds of crops, leaving fourteen and 
a half million acres as a domain for the animals of 
sport. Of this vast area of moor, mountain, and loch, 
much is inaccessible even to the keenest sportsmen, 
3om.e of it being still the home of the eagle, whilst 
nearly the whole expanse is yet arrayed in that dress 
in which it was originally clothed by the bounty of 
Nature ; much of it, indeed, has never yet been trod 
by the foot of man. 

A mere enumeration of acreage can, of course, prove 
no real guide to the deer and grouse grounds of 
Caledonia, or to the waters which contain its salmon 
and trout. It has been ascertained that about two 
million acres of the " wild land " of Scotland is taken 
up by what are called "deer forests," but these 
*' forests " are only very partially wooded, for, as sports- 
men well know, the browsing grounds of the "high- 
antler'd deer" must be clear of trees. It is in the 
Highland counties the chief forests are situated; in 
these the acreage of cultivable land bears but small 
proportion to the total area. The counties which 
furnish the best sport and possess the largest areas of 



12 



Out'door Sports in Scotland. 



deer ground, are those of Argyll, Inverness, Eoss, and 
Sutherland.* There are forests in some of the other 



* The following list of the chief deer forests in Scotland is made 
up from an official report issued a few years ago, but as some altera- 
tions in ownership or eictent may have taken place since it was 
issued, it is only reprinted here as being illustrative. As will be 
seen, the largest holder appears to be the Duke of Sutherland with 
147,010 acres, in addition to which the Duchess of Sutherland is 
the owner of 34,730 acres in the conjoined counties of Boss and 
Cromarty. His Grace the Duke of Richmond's forests cover 59,750 
acres of the county of Banff. Sir George M'Pherson Grant is pro- 
prietor of 61,090 acres in Inverness-shire. The imited forests of 
Her Majesty the Queen extend over an area of 22,070 acres. 



Forest. 


Proprietor. 


County. 


Acreage. 


Mar ... . 


Earl of Fife .... 


Aberdeen . 


80,100 


Blackmount 


Earl of Breadalbane . . 


Argyll . . 


70.330 


Reay. . . . 


Duke of Sutherland . . 


Sutherland . 


64,600 


GlenBtrathfariar,\ 
ifcc. . . ./ 


LordLovat . . . « 


Inverness . 


61,290 


Auohnashellach, ) 
&c. . . ./ 


LordWimbome . . . 


rBoss and| 
\ Cromarty / 


49,580 


Kinlochewe . . 


Sir Kenneth M*Kenzie . 


rBoss and) 

\ Cromarty / 

Inverness . 


42,750 


Amhuirmsnidh . 


Sir E. H. Scott's Trustees 


40,100 


Glenavon . . 


Duke of Bichmond . . 


Banff . . 


37,150 


Langwell . . 


Duke of Portland. . . 


Caithness . 


36,030 


Ben Arim, &c. . 


Duke of Sutherland . . 


Sutherland . 


35,840 


Athole . . . 


Duke of Athole . . . 


Perth . . 


35,540 


Glencanisp . . 
Glenquoioh . . 


Duke of Sutherland . . 


Sutherland . 


34,490 


E. EUiot's Trustees . . 


Inverness . 


34,400 


Geanacroc . . 


J. M. Grant's Trustees . 
Sir George MT. Grant 


Inverness . 


32,760 


Glenfeshie . . 


\ and 

The Mackintosh 


Inverness . 


31,830 


Craskie, &c . . 


TheOhisholm . . . 


/Inverness \ 
\ and Boss./ 


30,810 


Applecrofis, &o. . 


Lord Middleton . . . 


/Boss aDd\ 
\ Cromarty/ 


30,420 



In addition to these there are 18 forests each containing an area 
exceeding 20,000 but below 30,000 acres. 



Deer and Grouse Grounds. 13 

Scottish counties, as will presently be stated, but the 
four just enumerated are burdened, as it may be said, 
with an uncultivated area of over seven and a half 
million acres. It will not probably be any exaggera- 
tion to say that, in addition to the two million acres of 
land devoted to the deer — and in part also to grouse — 
an area of even greater extent is occupied by the 
various birds of sport, seeing that there are grouse, 
blackcocks, pheasants, and partridges in almost every 
county of Scotland. But although moors and lochs, and 
hills and dales, abound everywhere, it is undoubtedly 
in the Scottish Highlands that sportsmen of the period 
find their quarry in the greatest abundance, whether 
they seek to slay the monarch of the glen, or to capture 
the monarch of the brook. 

As the picturesque aspects of the Scottish Highlands 
have been, voluminously described by more than a 
hundred pens, it is not necessary to say anything in 
these pages about the mountains and moors, except in 
so far as they afford breeding and feeding ground to the 
creatures of sport ; but as regards individual counties, 
it is proper that a few words should here be said about 
them, taking first of all the largest county in Scotland, 
Inverness, which may be described as the deer district 
par eoDcellence, in the same way as Perthshire is looked 
upon as being the representative grouse-producing 
county of the kingdom : it is ninety miles in length, 
and fifty miles wide, and as one of our most representa- 
tive deer-slayers and salmon-killers has asked, " Where 
else in the wide world can there be found such a theatre 
of sport ? " Fish, fur, and feather abound throughout 
the county, and there are probably over two hundred 
miles of running water in which salmon and trout find 



14 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

a liquid home, whilst some of the forests are of vast 
extent ; there are stretches of heather, too, which in the 
proper season are populous with the bird of sport ; 
moors on which big bags have before now been made. 
In the county of Inverness men with plethoric purses 
will find an outlet for their sporting vigour; forests 
are there with rentals running into thousands to tempt 
the millionaires, whilst snug little " shootings " are not 
wanting at rents even under a hundred pounds for the 
season. 

Those in search of such places must look up "the 
guides," which afford copious details of shootings to 
let As the vulgar phrase goes, it positively " makes 
one's mouth water " to read of these places : " The house 
is a palace," says one advertisement ; " it contains two 
drawing-rooms, a morning-room, thirteen bed-rooms 
and dressing-rooms, large dining-room, fine entrance- 
hall, and excellent accommodation for servants, as also 
a ten-stalled stable, coach-house, and extensive gardens 
with well-stocked green and fruit houses." As to 
game, a surfeit is offered: sixty stags, half as many 
hinds, two hundred and eighty brace of grouse, with 
pheasants, partridges, blackcocks, greyhens, and other 
wild fowl galore; while sea-fishing and salmon and 
trout are, as we may say, thrown into the bargain ! Not 
Paradise surely could offer greater attractions to sports- 
men. What has been mentioned, however, is but a 
sample of the sporting wealth which may be found in 
the heart of the Highlands. There are forests which 
yield their hundred stags. What wonderful work the 
killing of these demand ! — hours of hard labour, nights 
of passing anxiety, well rewarded as the days flee past 
by the downfall at last of some antlered hero of the 



Deer and Grouse Grounds. 15 

scene, that for years it may have been the ambition 
of many stalkers to kill. 

Among the forests of Argyllshire is that of Black- 
mount, which covers an area of over 70,000 acres, and 
is good for " a kill " of about a hundred stags. It was 
tenanted for several years by the late Earl of Dudley, 
"who kept up " a fine old hospitality " and entertained 
troops of friends during the season. His Grace the 
Duke of Argyll is not, as is frequently stated, owner of 
half the county, his holding does not quite cover 
170,000 acres, whilst the Marquis of Breadalbane, who. is 
proprietor of Blackmount, possesses an area of land and 
water that is more extensive by 30,000 acres. There 
are other landowners in Argyllshire whose estates may 
range from ei^ty-five thousand to twelve or fifteen 
thousand acres. Game of every kind is found in the 
county, in which there are over one hundred and forty 
sporting estates or shootings that can be occupied at 
sums varying from £4000. to £20 per annum. Deer 
are abundant and afford excellent sport, and there is 
angling for all classes. In Loch Awe is to be found 
the " fighting ferox," or Great Lake trout, which many 
fishermen come from far distances to capture. An 
account of this fish is given in another place. 

Eoss-shire, with which is coDJoined the county of 
Cromarty, is a land of sport; in it are to be found 
some of the finest sporting grounds of Scotland. Several 
of the forests command a high rent : Auchnashellach 
figures at £4500; Kinlochluichart and Aultderg are 
let for a sum of £3300 ; Strathconon brings to its pro- 
prietor an annual income of £2500 ; other forests of 
the county and of the Island of Lewis figure at rentals 
ranging from £800 to £1600. The sums n^med are only 



16 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

stated as being fllnstrative, and most not, however, be 
taken as stereotyped, as they change fipom year to year. 
Grood bags of gionse are made in some seasons in these 
counties, and they are wealthy besides in miscellaneous 
birds and beasts, such as woodcocks, snipe, wild duck, 
as also roebucks, hares, and rabbits; whilst sea and 
river angling may be indulged in by those who are fond 
of these delightM pastimes. The feeding for the deer 
in some of the forests is good — so good that it tends to 
attract animals fipom distant, but less abundant feeding 
grounds. Park Forest, by Stomoway (Island of Lewis), 
is likely to become in time, when the crofters cease 
from troubling, a perfect paradise for sportsmen ; it is 
estimated that in early seasons a thousand brace of 
grouse will be at the command of the owner or lessee. 
Probably the whole of the ground has not yet, as has 
been proposed, cleared of sheep or cattle; but if so 
there will be 80,000 acres over which sportsmen may 
seek their prey, and within a few years' time there may 
be a hundred stags to slay. The grouse obtained are 
fine birds. 

In the county of Sutherland the chief landowners 
may be counted on the fingers. Over a million acres 
of this shire are the property of ''the Duke/' who has 
endeavoured to lessen the sporting area of his county 
by strenuous efforts at land reclamation, which, it is to 
be regretted, have not proved successful, or at all events 
have not paid in the breeches-pocket sense of the 
question. The Duke has the reputation of bdng a 
good landlord, who has tried numerous experiments for 
tiie benefit of his tenantry, and it is reported that he is 
at present endeavouring to ascertain whether it will 
pay better to feed cattie or let his land for deer forests. 



Deer and Grouse Grounds. 17 

His Grace being an eminently methodical man, we shall 
expect to be speedily told the result, in the exact 
figures of profit and loss, but we may anticipate from 
what is already known that cattle-raising will be found 
to be less profitable than the raising of stags to be 
killed at the rate of fifty guineas each. Lochs and 
rivers abound in this county; ten thousand sea and 
river trout are known to have been killed in a season 
in " the thousand waters of the Earl's high domain." 
Sutherland has not become a common arena for anglers, 
but those who know the county like it, and speak with 
approbation of the " good fishing" which can be got by 
all who choose to take the trouble to look for it. Sixty 
considerable shootings are situated in the county, for 
which tolerably good rents are exacted, and speaking 
roundly they are well worth the money usually charged 
for them ; bags on good heather range from sixty to 
a hundred brace of grouse, but birds of many kinds are 
plentiful, including blackgame, ptarmigan, and snipe. 

Having glanced at the capabilities of four of the 
chief sporting counties, Perthshire may next be briefly 
reviewed. As has been indicated, it possesses the 
reputation of being the best district of aU Scotland so 
far as sport is concerned, more especially grouse- 
shooting ; in Perthshire the sportsman can foot it over 
a million and a quarter acres of "brown heath and 
shaggy wood." There are throughout the county four 
hundred sporting estates, and adopting round figures, 
the game rental of the county, including its fisheries, 
should be about a hundred thousand pounds per annum. 

The shire of Perth exceeds in area that of Suther- 
land, covering as it does 1,656,082 acres, of which 
not so much as one-third are available for cultivation. 



18 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Although a big slice of the land is in the hands of three 
owners, there is a fairly numerous proprietary, the three 
largest land-holders being the Marquis of Breadalbane 
(234,166 acres), Duke of Athole (201,604 acres), and 
Sir Robert Menzies (98,284 acres). About one hundred 
and forty others could be enumerated, ranging isx extent 
from 76,000 to 700 acres. The shire of Perth is in 
extent the fourth largest in Scotland. Throughout the 
County game is plentiful, including partridges and 
pheasants, and 100,000 acres are devoted to deer. The 
stag aflfords plenty of exciting sport, the capercailzie 
is flourishing since its rehabilitation, and brown and 
inottntain hares are killed in abundance, whilst from 
the Tay and other streams the silver salmon adds to 
the luxuries of the commissariat. The residential seats 
are numerous, commodious, and situated in picturesque 
places. The climate of the county is somewhat diver- 
sified ; it is in some parts of southern mildness, but 
partakes in other places of northern severity. 

The fine oat and turnip growing county of Aberdeen, 
with its 614,000 acres of cultivable area, has also a 
reputation for its deer-stalking, grouse-shooting, and 
salmon-fishing. Dee and Don, the chief streams of the 
county, run each a course of eighty miles. These 
rivers are famed for their fish, and for their size were at 
one time reputed to be the most productive of the 
Scottish salmon streams. The chief landowners are, 
or were, the Earl of Fife with more than 124,000 acres, 
Colonel Farquharson of Invercauld and the Marquis of 
Huntly follow with 87,000 and 80,000 respectively. 
The Queen, it is well known, has her Highland home 
in this oounty; her xmited estates now cover over 
40,000 acres of ground, including that of Ballochbuie, 



Deer and Grouse Grounds. 19 

purchased, and that of Abergeldie, held on a long lease. 
Balmoral consisted originally of 10,000 acres. 

Aberdeenshire is studded with two hundred and 
fifty sporting estates, ranging in rental from the forest 
of Invercauld at £4500 per annum, to small but pro- 
ductive areas of heather at rents ranging from £80 to 
double that sum. Shootings known to fame command, 
of course, much larger rents ; one of these has been 
described in an advertisement as yielding some such 
bag as the following: "1400 grouse, 120 blackgame, 
460 pheasants, 1000 partridges, 200 snipe, 100 plovers, 
100 ducks, 100 woodcocks, 80 roe-deer, besides hares 
and rabbits in quantity, and, though last not least, 
250 salmon and grilse." Since the Queen took up her 
residence at Balmoral, that district of the county has 
become fashionable, crowds of tourists finding their 
way to Deeside to gaze on the " royal residence." 

In Kincardine and Forfar shires there are many 
stretches of fine heather, and both of these counties 
contain a fair supply of grouse and other birds. In 
the latter county there are two or three deer forests, 
one of which commands a rent of £3500 per annum. 
In Forfarshire there are also a considerable number 
of what are called " small shootings," let under £50 
per annum. In the counties of Banff, Caithness, and 
Elgin excellent sport is in most seasons obtained, game 
being plentiful; Caithness grouse (as also Caithness 
geese) are said to be the finest in Scotland ; in that 
county the Duke of Portland can stalk deer or shoot 
grouse and other birds and beasts on an area of wild 
land which comprises 50,000 acres. 

There are more than a hundred deer forests in Scot- 
land, the rental being on an average Is. M. per acre. 

* c 2 



20 



Out-door Sports in Scotland. 



The sums at which forests are let no doubt seem large, 
but the extent of area embraced requires to be con- 
sidered; the return to the owner is often not more 
than one shilling per imperial acre; the land, had it 
been situated in an agricultural county, would have let 
at pounds instead of shillings. In the deer-forest 
counties it is computed 4377 stags might annually be 
killed ; and at the estimated price of fifty guineas each, 
the sum total would amount to £230,000; but the 
estimate of fifty guineas per stag embraces items of 
expenditure other than rent ; a sum nearly equal to the 
rent will annually be expended by some of the tenants 
of Scottish deer forests in miscellaneous outlay. 

According to a return made to Parliament, the 
sporting rental of Scotland amounts to close upon 
half a million sterling ; the return, however, is incom- 
plete, as the important county of Aberdeen is not set 
down in it. The following are the figures pertaining 
to individual counties : — 



Argyll £39,326 

Ayr 10,650 

Banfif 11,575 

Berwick 6,661 

Bute 2,805 

Caithness 12,191 

Clackmannau .. .. 1,006 

Cromarty 427 

Dumbarton .. .. 2,584 

Dumfries 15,046 

Edinburgh .. .. 3,029 

Elgin 17,781 

Fife 9,072 

Forfar 21,666 

Inverness 86,902 

Kincardine .. .. 19,512 

Carried forward .. £260,233 



Bro\ight forward .. £244,222 

Kinross 2,089 

Kirkcudbright.. .. 14,465 

Lanark 8,436 

Linlithgow .. .. 874 

Nairn 3,685 

Orkney 630 

Peebles 3,690 

Perth 89,001 

Renfrew 3,071 

Boss 56,107 

Roxburgh .. .. 8,567 

Selkirk 2,865 

Stirling 7,881 

Sutherland .. .. 25,664 

Wigtown 7,858 

Total £495,116 



[ 21 ) 



CHAPTEE 11. 

Deer. 

" In my opinion, sir, deer are animals that teike a lot 
of studying ; the more you know about them, the more 
you want to know ; and it's only gentlemen who are 
constantly coming to the corries that learn very much 
about their habits of life, and how to stalk them." 

So said a friendly old forester whom I one day 
interviewed at some length on the subject of Deer- 
growth. He answered all my questions offhand, and 
evidently possessed abundant knowledge of the natural 
history of these animals. 

It would take up too much space to place all my 
interrogatories and his answers before the reader. I 
asked him, among other questions, if he thought the 
numbers of these animals were diminishing because 
of th« desire of men to secure fine heads. 

" Certainly not," he replied. *' On the contrary, they 
are increasing, at all events in this county " (Inverness) ; 
"all stags have not fine heads, you know, sir; but they. 
breed all the same." 

My next question was, "At what age do you say, 
from your own knowledge, that the males and females 
first come together V 

" I really do not believe anybody can tell, There is 
no rule, and some animals come to their time a good 



22 OuUdoor Sports in Scotland. 

deal sooner than others. I know personally of a hind 
calving at three years, but in many other cases hinds 
have been four, and even five^ years old before having 
a first calf." 

" And is one calf each time the rule ? " I asked. 

"My father has seen doublets dropped more than 
once, and on a particular occasion three at one time ; 
but the rule, I think, all over the country is one at a 
time. My father's story of triplets was laughed at, but 
it was quite true for all that. I have never seen more 
than one young one dropped myself." 

" And what," I Continued, " is the period of gesta- 
tion?" 

"Well, sir, in the case of red-deer it usually runs to 
full thirty-four weeks. We have often been able to 
count, although it is rare to see them cohabiting. We 
never interfere, but just leave them to old mother 
nature, who is a clever doctor when she gets her own 
way. We call the young ones waives. They are tender 
animals when just dropped, but grow rapidly, and may 
be considered out of leading-strings at six months." 

" And liow do they get on till they can be trusted to 
look about on their own account ? " 

" Well, sir, when her time comes, the hind, of course, 
is among the soft high heather, where the calf is hidden 
quite out of sight She leaves it there about all day, 
and comes back at night to feed and fondle it ; but she 
is never far away, keeping watch in case of an attack 
by a fox or wild-cat." 

" Does the little thing lie at rest all the time, then ? " 

"You see, before leaving, the mother makes it lie 
down by pressing with her nose; once down, it will 
peacefully lie all the day with its nose to its tail, and 



Deer. 23 

never look up unless some one comes suddenly upon 
it. It is liable, of course, to suffer from attacks by 
wild animals ; and in such case, at the first sound of 
alarm the mother will bound to the spot and fight 
vigorously for the life of her little one." 

Mr. Crerar, of Blair Athole, gave it as an experience 
of his that, *' if you find a young fawn that has never 
followed its dam, and take it up and rub its back, and 
put your fingers in its mouth, it will follow you home 
for several miles ; but if it has once followed its dam 
for ever so small a space before you found it, it will 
never follow a human being. When once caught, 
fawns or calves are easily made tame, and there were 
generally a few brought up every year by the dairymaid 
at Blair. I speak of hinds only ; stags generally turn 
vicious and unmanageable." 

While in Inverness-shire making inquiries into the 
natural history of the deer and grouse, I obtained many 
interesting particulars of the habits of these animals of 
sport, particularly as regards the grouse — (that informa- 
tion will be found embodied in another place)* I am 
always glad to pick up, for digestion and after use, such 
little crumbs of knowledge as can be had at what may 
be called '* first hand." Speaking personally, I rarely 
obtain half the information I require from books; 
and judging other people by myself, I fancy that every- 
body wants to know as much as I do. Merely to tell 
us " the deer is a vnld animal very common in some 
countries, and that it is hunted as a means of affording 
sport," is simply no information at all, especially to 
those, who hope one day to undergo their " baptism of 
blood " in some deer forest of Scotland. 

In the words of the ninth edition of the ' Encyclo- 



24 Outdoor Sports in Scotland. 

psedia Britannica ' (completed in 1889), "the deer family 
comprise eight genera and fifty-two species, distributed 
all over the great regions of the earth except the 
Ethiopian, and living under the most diverse climatic 
conditions/' Although occasional chronicles of deer- 
stalking have been published, few of the writers tell us 
much about the natural history of the animal. The 
most interesting work on the subject, so far as 1 am 
versed in the bibliography of the sport, was written 
many years since by Scrope, who acquired his expe- 
rience of deer and deer-stalking in the forests of Athole 
while the guest of the duke and the pupil of John 
Crerar. to whom he was greatly indebted for h\s know- 
ledge of the natural history of the deer.* Crerar was 
for a long period in the service of the noble family of 
Athole, and in addition to being an unsurpassed sports- 
man in his day and generation, was a composer of 
excellent dance music. The Crerars were for three or 
four generations identified with the sports of Scotland, 
and I often wonder none of them ever put pen to paper 
on their own behalf. 

Such accounts of the deer as are to be found in old 
encyclopaedias and dictionaries are exceedingly bald, 
and of little use to inquirers. " Deer, a wild beast of 
the forest," is, for instance, all the definition given 
in one work of the kind; but it is better to be thus 
put off than to have palmed upon us the so-called 
" information " of some other books, which, in reality, is 
of no value whatever, as those who wish to know may 
ascertain by examining it for themselves. 

As all experienced foresters and stalkera know, deer, 

* The book has recently been reprinted. 



Deer. 25 

especially red-deer and roebuck, are endowed with 
positively wonderful powers of sight, smell and hearing* 
A stag caji scent a man a long way off, and will, when 
he does so, most probably at once take alarm and run 
for his life. The sense of smell possessed by these 
animals is wonderful ; wind carries the scent to them 
unbroken, and whenever they have got, as it is called, 
" the wind " of man, they move off to a place of safety. 
. When a herd is disturbed, the deer at once betake them- 
selves to a distance ; and it is generally a considerable 
time before they again settle down to rest or feed in 
quietness. The red-deer is excessively shy, and easily 
frightened. The melancholy note of a flying plover, 
the crowing of a cock-grouse, or the running past it 
of a mountain hare, sometimes cause him to gallop in 
a state of alarm for a mile or two before he pauses 
to see what has happened; and consequently, it is 
generally the policy of the devoted deer-stalker to 
discourage the rearing of grouse or hares in his deer 
forest. 

According to Scrope, ** He is always most timid when 
he does not see his adversary, for then he suspects an 
ambush. If, on the contrary, he has him in fuU view, 
he is as cool and circumspect as possible: he then 
watches him most acutely, endeavours to discover his 
intention, and takes the best possible method to defeat 
it. In this case he is never in a hurry or confused, 
but repeatedly atopa and watches his disturber's mo* 
tions ; and when at length he does take his measure, it 
Is a most decisive one ; a whole herd will sometimes 
force their way at the very point Where the drivers are 
the most numerous, and where there are no rifles; 
so that I have seen the hill men fling their sticks at 



26 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

them while they have raced away without a gun being 
fired." 

Much has been said and written during the last 
twenty years of the desirability of " crossing," for the 
sake of imbuing herds with "new blood/' In fact, 
this is a matter that has been keenly discussed, and 
good results have already been achieved by crossing in 
four or five Scottish forests. It was the Duke of 
Sutherland, I believe, who first of all took active steps 
in the matter, a good many years since. Eed deer from 
Windsor were brought to the Duke's estates, the 
animals being the gift of Her Majesty the Queen. 
Other owners of deer forests in Scotland followed the 
Duke's example, the Duke of Portland in' particular 
sending deer from his estate at Welbeck Abbey to his 
place in the county of Caithness, to the manifest im- 
provement of the native-born animals. In Koss-shire, 
on the estate of Applecross, similar plans have been 
followed with similar advantages, and it is to be hoped 
that stUl more good will be done in this direction. In 
such forests as new blood has been introduced, deer 
generally have improved; in some of them the dif- 
ference, as noted by the keen eye of the foresters, is 
quite marked, both as regards the weight of the animal 
and the quality of the venison. Thirty years ago it 
w£is a general opinion in some districts that deer were 
"going back," and season by season losing in weight, 
and that island breeds were in active process of decay 
from in-breeding. 

With regard to the best modes of securing the 
required infusion of new blood, numerous suggestions 
have been offered. It is thought that hinds should be 
transported at an early date to English deer pastures, 



Deer. 27 

and be afterwards brought back to drop their calves in 
the forests from which they were taken. Another plan 
which has been proposed is to tsJce away very young 
stags from Scotland, feed them for a couple of years in 
England, and then bring them back — to be placed, how- 
ever, in a different forest from that they originally inha- 
bited. A practical man in the North twelve years ago 
gave it as his opinion that simple ways are always 
the best ways in the end. " Bring us yearlings or 
two-year-olds," he said, "male and female, but espe- 
cially the latter, from your finest English herds of red- 
deer, and let them mix at once with the native-bred 
animals ; they will soon make themselves at home, and 
breed through-ither, to the great advantage of the whole 
stock." In good time, no doubt, different plans will 
be tried, and in the end some practical issue will be 
the result. It is well to know, at all events, that a 
considerable degree of improvement has already taken 
place, some heavy stags having of late years been killed ; 
and it is pleasing to ofifer praise to gentlemen who 
have done good practical work rather than enter into 
such hare-brained projects as the acclimatization of the 
chamois on Scottish mountains, or the introduction of 
the buffalo. 

Should the bringing to the deer forests of the North of 
a score or two of English stags be carried out, as has in 
some quarters been proposed, the result in the course 
of a few years should be an increase of weight all 
round of probably two stones. The average weight in 
forests to which fresh blood was brought has been 
increased and is * increasing. In one deer preserve the 
increase in the weight of full-grown stags within the 
last twenty years has been quite startling ; whilst the 



28 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

flavour of their flesh has also improved, and has become 
much less harsh than it used to be, so that in time 
Scottish venison may have that market value which 
would render it greatly more valuable than it is at the 
present time. The foregoing plans have each their 
partisans, as others will that may yet come in vogue. 
His Grace the Duke of Portland is said to have found 
the first mode to be serviceable in his forest of Berrie- 
dale, where some of the finest deer in Scotland are now 
stalked. What has been done at one place can be done 
elsewhere, and we may all live in the hope of knowing 
in a few years hence that stags in Scottish forests have 
largely increased in weight and staying power. 

Some curious particulars have now and again been 
printed with regard to deer of all kinds. One writer 
asserted recently in the columns of a Society paper 
that roebuck were never foimd in " deer forests," but 
he did not say where else they were to be found. 
Presumably it was meant that the roe did not herd 
with red-deer, which is weU enough known, because 
they prefer to find out feeding grounds of their own, 
about the edges of plantations, and they remain in such 
neighbourhoods as long as they can find food. In 
winter they will dare to frequent the scenes of civiliza- 
tion, driven to them by hunger. But as regards the 
latter phase of life, the same has to be said of red deer. 
Hunger in some severe winters has driven them from 
their corries to the fields of the farmers in search of 
food. These deer congregate in herds, each herd, as 
some forester or gillie will teU you, having its king 
in the person of a fine old stag of great experience. 
Herds are composed of families, the young ones keeping 
olways under the protection of the mother hind, as long 



Deer. 2P 

as she is in life to protect them. Many generations of 
these animals may, it is averred, be represented in one 
herd; and each particular family keep to their own 
side of a forest, which, it is superfluous to say, is usually 
large enough to afford breeding and feeding room to 
half-a-dozen herds, each comprising a hundred or two 
distinct animals of all ages. Fierce fights take place 
in what is called the "rutting season," stags not in- 
frequently being killed while doing battle with each 
other.* 

Eoe deer afford better venison than the red deer of 
the stalker. This animal differs considerably from the 
other in its habits, which are more nomadic than those 
of the red deer proper, as they do not form into herds, 
but rather live in families as father, mother, and 
children. The rutting season of roe deer is in the 
beginning of October, but there are no " scenes " inci- 
dental to their breeding season, the buck being faithful 

* " Butting" begins at the end of September or early in October, 
and that is a wild and picturesque period in the history of these 
animals, as they fight at times with an energy terrible to witness. 
The noise of harts bellowing all over the forest can be beard, and 
when, as often happens, one of them is attended by three or four 
hinds, a second, and sometimes a third hart, may rush forward to 
claim the females, when there will immediately commence a fierce 
battle between the harts, which will not terminate sometimes till 
one (or perhaps two) of the combatants is killed. The most active 
of the lot speedily brings the fight to a close by goring his opponent 
with his horns; the conquering hart receives, of course, as in the 
days of chivalry, the favours of the females. 'The rutting season 
tells with terrible effect on the health of the animals, some of which 
do not for many weeks recover from their excitement, whilst one 
or two may die. At such a time a good sportsman avoids killing 
the animals ; if he did so, it would be labour thrown away, the flesh 
of a deer in the rutting season being rank and unfit for food. 



30 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

to one doe; and the result is always, or at any rate 
usually, twins. These animals are exceedingly graceful, 
and the buck and doe, as a rule, are always found 
together; a larger number, I notice, are now being 
brought to market, which may be taken as being 
significant of increasing sport. As to fallow deer, the 
finest in all Scotland are (or at any rate were, to be 
found) at the Earl of Aberdeen's, Haddo House, animals 
ready to be used as venison being plentiful. There are 
other small herds of deer in Scotland ; and on one or 
two of the islands of Loch Lomond the Duke of 
Montrose and the Laird of Luss both used to breed a 
few of these animals for table use. In some of the 
English deer parks, "crossing" is, I believe, now 
being successfully resorted to, in order to improve the 
*' venison." 

A curious and often discussed matter in connection 
with the natural history of our Scottish deer may be 
adverted to. It is that, although they shed their horns 
at stated intervals (annually), these are never foimd in 
quantity answering to the number which must be shed. 
Horns are a perquisite granted to the keepers, and, 
being valuable, are eagerly searched for, but rarely 
obtained. There are foresters who maintain that, after 
the horns are shed, they are eaten by the animal that 
sheds them, in order to provide materials for a new 
growth 1 A forester in a Sutherlandshire forest was 
one day rewarded for his trouble of watching by seeing, 
a hart in the very act of shedding his horns. ^' WhUst 
the deer was browsing, one of his antlers was seen to 
incline leisurely to one side, and immediately thereafter 
fell to the ground. The animal tossed his head as if in 
surprise, and then hegan to shake it somewhat violently, 



Deer. 31 

when the remaining antler fell to the earth. Believed 
from the weight, the stag expressed his sense of relief 
by bounding high from the ground, as if in a sportive 
mood, and then tossing his denuded head, dashed off 
rapidly," not waiting to eat the horns ! It is the hind, 
it is said, that really eats the antlers; and one was 
found one day dying, being choked by a portion of the 
horh that had stuck in her throat. On this matter a 
new idea has recently been propounded — it is, that the 
toms are eaten by field mice ! 

No pain is thought to be experienced by the animal 
shedding its horns; a little blood flows, but that 
very soon stops, and the new shoot is speedily 
seen. The infant horns are covered with a sort of 
thick skin, called *' velvet," which, by the aid of a little 
manoeuvring on the part of the animal, is speedily 
worn off. The horns of deer grow with marvellous 
rapidity; the antlers generally begin to appear at 
the end of spring, and in ten weeks are full grown. 
With twelve points the animal is known as a royal 
stag. 

" K not kiUed by the bullet of a deer-stalker, what 
age do you think a deer wUl reach, bar accident ? " is a 
question I have often asked of foresters and ghillies ; 
and the answer has always been pretty much to the 
same effect : " Oh, they last a long time ; they live till 
they are very, very old." 

That, indeed, is a general belief entertained by all 
who are connected with stalkiag. They feel certain 
evCTy deer will see out three generations of men, " if it 
live long enough," that is, if it be not wilfully or 
accidentally killed in the interim-^an opinion in all 
probability founded on old Gaelic sayings with which 



32 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

■ ■ ■■ f — — 

every Highlander is familiar, and- which in English 
read as follows: — 

" Thrice the age of a dog is that of a horse ; 
Thrice the age of a horse is that of a man ; 
Thrice the age of a man is that of a deer ; 
Thrice the age of a deer is that of an eagle ; 
Thrice the age of an eagle is that of an oak tree." 

No one can live long in a forest without hearing 
something about the longevity of deer. Stories about 
siged harts of celebrity are everywhere on hand, ready to 
be repeated at the cost of a dram, or maybe two drams, 
if the tale-teller prove loquacious. There are persons 
of credit and good intelligence who retail such legends, 
and it is only fair to say that in some instances they 
are able to adduce strong evidence in favour of their 
being true. Talking with a Highland piper at one 
of the bagpipe competitions held in Edinburgh in the 
course of the " thirties," he told me (he was a gillie at 
home) that there was a hart in his forest which had been 
marked ninety years previously, when it was calved. 

Scrope tells that a fine stag killed by Glengarry in 
the year 1826 was found to contain on its left ear the 
mark of Ewen-Mac Jan Og, a forester, who had been in 
his grave for a period of one hundred and fifty years, 
and who about thirty years before his death had 
marked every calf he could lay hold of. The animal 
killed by Glengarry, on that evidence was thought to 
be one hundred and eighty years old. The head was 
preserved, and the horns have a very wide spread. 
Unless some one had forged the old forester's mark on 
the ears of younger animals it was considered by the 
Qhief mentioned that the evidence obtained from 



Deer. 33 

half-ardozen foresters and gillies was reliable, and that 
the stag had in all probability attained the great age 
which haB been named. 

Many curious traditions are afloat in all parts of the 
Highlands of aged harts which have been known to 
generation after generation of the same family. Ewen 
M'Gillivray, who about half a century ago acted as 
porter at a popular auctioneer's rooms in Edinburgh, 
used to tell stories of the days of his young life in Eoss- 
shire, of a " muckle hart " that was never seen in the 
district except for two days once in every twelve years. 
His grandfather had seen it five times as boy and man ; 
and his father, after his grandfather's death, had seen 
it on three occasions. The beast had marks upon it by 
which it was easily recognised, and came at last to be 
looked upon with such a feeling of superstition that no 
one would take' any part in stalking it. Throughout 
the Scottish Highlands there are tales of traditionary 
deer that have been stalked at intervals during seven or 
eight years. One of these is described by Mr. St. John 
as "the Muckle Hart of Benmore," which, after six 
days' pursuit, was at length brought down, falling a 
prey to the prowess of the author. 

. . . The writer has several stories of similar purport 
in his mind's eye, but they need not be given here. 
This feature of deer biography, however, is not a little 
remarkable ; but, as Sir Walter Scott said once on the 
occasion of the bagpipers' competition at Edinburgh, 
" It would be a pity to disturb those grand old tradi- 
tional beliefs of our gallant Highland men. For my 
own part, I am greatly annoyed when some terrible 
matter-of-fact fellow comes in to prove that all such 
legends are a pack of nonsense, and so let down 



34 Outdoor Sports in Scotland. 

devoted gillies and their poetic mothers to the level of 
our prosaic lowland labourers and millwrights." 

This rather brief essay on the natural history of 
Scottish deer may be supplemented by an extract from 
a poem by no less a personage than the late Lord 
Beaconsfield. The lines are paraphrased from the pro- 
duction of a celebrated Gaelic poet : — 

" And, lo ! along the forest glade 
From out yon andent pine woods' shade — 
Proud in their ruddy robes of state, 

The new-bora boon of spring, 
With antlered head and eye elate 

And feet that scarcely fling 
A shadow on the downy grass, 
That breathes its fragrance as they pass, — 
Troop forth the regal deer : 
Each stately hart, each slender hind. 
Stares and snuffs the desert wind ; 
While by their side confiding roves 
The spring-bom offspring of their loves — 
The delicate and playful fawn. 
Dappled like the rosy dawn, 

And sportive in its fear ! 
The mountain is thy mother. 

Thou wild secluded race ; 
Thou hast no sire, or brother 

That watches with a face 
Of half such fondness in thy life 
Of blended solitude and strife 
As yon high majestic form 

That feeds thee on its grassy breast." 

Attempts have been more than once made to take 
a census of the red -deer breeding and feeding in 
particular corries. The first person who is known to 
have tried his skill at this work was the Mr. Scrope 



Deer. 35 

already mentioned ; and at a later date Mr. Bass tried 
to ascertain as accurately as possible the number of deer 
in his own forest. Mr. Horatio Ross had also before 
his death collected some illustrative facts and figures, 
which have not, however, been published. Any state- 
ment which can be made on the subject must, there- 
fore, of necessity be in the nature of a " good guess," 
and be taken as simply illustrative. There are at 
present, or at any rate there were when the Parlia- 
mBntary inquiry was held into the condition of the 
crofters, 110 deer forests, occupying an area of 1,975,209 
imperial acres. Scrope thinks that while living with 
the Duke of Athole he saw all the deer in the vast 
forest of Athole which belonged to his Grace, and 
which was then of the extent of 51,708 imperial acres, 
and he estimated the number as being between five and 
six thousand of both kinds and both sexes, but other 
persons gave a larger figure by a thousand. In the 
year 1766 the herd of deer in the forests of Athole did 
not number above one hundred animals. 

The number of stags which the deer forests of Scot- 
land annually yield to the gun has been set down as close 
upon 4500, and it has been computed that even after that 
number has been shot many more of all ages are left to 
afford future sport. Although a large percentage of the 
hinds are annually massacred — thousands, it has been 
said — a large breeding stock always remains, particularly 
in the counties of Eoss and Inverness, in which the 
majority (78) of the deer forests are situated. In these 
two counties " the kill " of deer in favourable seasons is 
seldom under 3000, in addition to the hinds which are 
shot. The yield of stags for the gun varies considerably 
in different forests; in some the number on 10,000 

D 2 



36 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

acres will be a dozen ; the same area elsewhere may 
yield a score. Economists who have studied the ques- 
tion say that for each stag that is slain 20 deer of all 
ages, from the calves of the year to the venerable harts 
of many seasons, will be left in the forests, which in 
some years, when 4500 is the number lolled, would 
indicate a total stock of 90,000 ; but if the Athole 
forest calculation, say of 5000 deer to every 50,000 
acres, may be regarded as being at aU near the mark, 
then the stock on 2,000,000 of acres ought to be 200,000 
animals of all ages, but for such a number there is 
really not food. 



( 37 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

Stalking. 

As was well said once upon a time by a famous 
Scotsman, "there is no royal road to deer-stalking." 
That is so, and, as that gentleman would continue, 
"deer-driving is not deer-stalking — driving is fitting 
sport for feather-bed sportsmen only ; it is quite pitiful 
to think that it has now become a fashion for deer to be 
forced up to the gun, just as partridges or pheasants 
are driven upon those assembled to shoot them. These 
modes may seem good sport to some — they certainly 
mean certain death to the poor animal; such sport 
only serves to remind one of the little nursery story of 
'The boys and the frogs.'" Another gentleman be- 
longing to the old school recently gave equally emphatic 
utterance to his opinions in a letter to a friend, from 
which the following is an extract : " I am thankful to 
be home once more, my visit having terminated a few 
days ago. Politeness of course kept my mouth shut, 
but assuredly I swore considerably in private places at 
what was going on. No insult to me could of course 
be intended, but for all that I felt insulted. You wUl 
naturally ask, why ? Let me tell you. Just imagine 
half a score of men hiding about two ruined huts tUl a 
battalion of some thirty beaters, guided by the foresters 
of the estate, had driven up a lot of deer to the mouths 



38 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

of their guns. I would mncli rather bring down only- 
one stag during a whole season, so that I killed it fair 
and square, than shoot half a dozen a day in the barn- 
door style. The essence of sport, in my humble opinion, 
is that the hunted animal should get some little chance 
of saving its life, which it does not obtain when it is 
driven to the gun/' 

To kill deer or other animals thus forced upon one's 
gun is certainly not sport of that good old-fashioned 
sort beloved of Horatio Eoss and sportsmen of his 
kind. " Sport " hsis, during late years, been a good 
deal sneered at, especially by certain members of 
Parliament, and not, it must be candidly admitted, 
without cause. One of the first laws of sport is to give 
the hunted animal — I am not now speaking of vermin 
— a chance for its life. Beasts or birds of sport should 
have " law " given to them, but now it is largely for the 
mere sake of killing that men equip themselves. In 
the case of herds of deer driven to guns in waiting, a 
large percentage of the animals is certain to be killed ; 
well, that kind of shooting is not "sport" as old- 
fashioned sportsmen used to interpret the word, which 
in fact requires a new interpretation. In the debates 
on the Hares and Eabbits Bill which took place in the 
House of Commons, some plain speaking was evoked 
about what an outspoken member designated as " the 
modern craze for killing a thing just for the sake of 
kilKng it" 

The keen desire to make big bags and show a great 
record has muoh to do with the arrangements of 
modem sportsmen, many of whom seem to shrink from 
the fatigue of such pastimes as grouse-shooting and 
deer-staUdng. As to what is sport and what is not 



Stalking. 39 

sport opinions will always differ, but if hard and con- 
tinuous work be admitted as a factor in the definition, 
stalking will carry the day. Eabbit-shooting, for 
instance, in some of its phases, is not sport in the 
manly sense of the word. Who could think it sport, 
shooting among a thousand rabbits, where one could 
not miss if one tried, and where one, to save time, had 
three men to load for one ; nor is it sport in a sense, 
although it is a time-honoured pastime, for thirty or 
forty hounds to chase one poor little fox, with sixty or 
seventy men in attendance. It is, however, use and 
wont so to hunt the fox, which is vermin, and it is the 
way our fathers and grandfathers used to kill the same 
animal, " a custom of the country," so to put it, and 
the ride with the hounds, it has to be said, is exhila- 
rating in a high degree, but many like better to see a 
single-handed encounter, even with animals to which 
some persons would give no " law." * What, then, is 
sport ? will naturally be asked. Well, it is sport, and 
the best of sport, for one man to kill a twenty-pound 
salmon, although it is not considered sport for a man 
to take a haul of twenty of these fish in a net : such an 

* " The hunt is a most valuable institution, it affords the oppor- 
tunity of frequent reunion for country gentlemen, magistrates, the 
clergy, and for such of the tenant farmers as choose to take ad- 
vantage of ' the meet.' County topics are discussed, politics and 
poachers are criticised, good wishes exchanged, and new introductions 
effected. As A mere sport, fox-hunting is 'not in it' with deer- 
stalking, partridge-shooting, or grouse-killing; but it is an old- 
established fashion to chase the fox with hounds, and for men to be 
there to see 'the kill.' So be it. As a social custom I am an 
advocate of th^ sport and like it myself, although if given a choice, 
I would prefer to himt the otter or stalk the red-deer." — From the 
Note-book of the late Colonel Mannering. 



40 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

act comes under the category of a commercial function, 
although there is excitement even in that sort of fishing. 
Sport should never be allowed to degenerate into a 
" matter of business/* but should be pursued as personal 
recreation. It is a feature of grouse-shooting (as now 
carried on) that it cannot be made to pay. The same 
rule applies to deer-stalking and salmon-fishing. 

It is, perhaps, because there is no royal road to deer-* 
stalking that many sportsmen have praised it so highly, 
looking upon it as the very poetry of sport, and who, 
in pursuit of the wild red-deer, display an enthusiasm 
that no labour, trouble or disappointment can damp. 
Men will tramp long miles of uneven ground, crawl 
in damp moss, climb rugged rocks, wade breast high 
through foaming streams and placid lochs, or tear along 
with determined face for miles in the rough furze or 
underbush, and, after enduring six or seven hours of 
such hard pedestrian work, may yet be disappointed in 
their search, never see the horns of a stag, and return 
home, shooting by the way a few mountain hares to 
hide their chagrin. Other men, however, find deer- 
stalking hard work poorly rewarded, even when they 
succeed in grassing their quarry, and the monarch of 
the mountain side lies dead before them. A business 
man, hailing from an English manufacturing centre, 
became quite indignant over troubles and toils en- 
countered while engaged in stalking. " I shall not try 
this sort of thing again, it is far harder work than what 
is allotted to any of my people at the mills, and as for 
the cost, it is something awful. I am losing flesh 
rapidly, but with all my efforts I have not yet killed 
anything larger than grouse, and these are plentiful 
enough." 



Stalking, 41 

Wonderful execution is every season done in the 
deer forests by men who delight in the work. The 
fatigue sometimes undergone by deer-stalkers, the 
distances which they traverse, and the corporeal powers 
which they exercise with such patience and determi- 
nation, cannot be easily described. Some lucky men 
obtain an easy stalk, whUst others may toil after the 
deer for a long day and then have no story of victory 
to relate. It took Mr. Fox-Maule, better known as 
Lord Dalhousie, over forty hours to stalk "Grand- 
father," a well-known stag of his district, which, 
speaking figuratively, had for six or seven years looked 
with scorn on all who tried to shoot him: the late 
Lord John Eussell, while at Balmoral, attending on 
Her Majesty, is said to have signalised his debut as a 
deer-stalker, while on a visit to Sir Alexander Duff, at 
Corrie Mulzie, by shooting a well-known but "very 
old-fashioned" hart, which had for years defied the 
prowess of several deer-stalkers. 

As has been stated in the preface to this book, it 
makes no pretence to teach sportsmen how to sport ; 
probably many who take the trouble to read it will be 
better able to teach the author, but some of his experi- 
ences may afford hints to beginners. " Crack sports- 
men," writing for men like themselves, often neglect 
to put forward many little matters of information that 
novices would gladly know. No finer animals for good 
sport exist than red-deer and roebuck, and sportsmen 
delight in killing them, the doing so being a capital test 
of skill and endumnce. Deer- stalking is undoubtedly 
hard work, but is worth engaging in, for a fellow, who 
can bring down a stag or two on our Highland hills 
is a fellow who should be able to make his way. 



42 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

The time to get the sport at its very best — I allude 
to stag-shooting — is about the middle of September. 
Young stalkers have much to learn before they can 
pass muster as masters in the art. If they have such 
a chance, they should, so to put the case, take private 
lessons in the work. I would recommend any fellow 
who has not yet been baptized to avoid a " drive," and 
to practise stalking with a couple of foresters and a 
friend or two. As to " dress and deportment," these 
are matters that should be studied as the work goes 
forward from day to day. Old clothes are good enough 
to stalk in, but the garments should, if that can be 
arranged, suit " the tone of the locality " where the 
work is to go on. Highland scenery is exceedingly 
changeable, some spots iEixe sombre enough, others are 
bright. Novices may rest assured of good coaching 
when the time comes for them to put in a first appear- 
ance at a stalk. Foresters and ghillies will be quick 
to evince an interest in the green hand; their best 
advice will be at his command as it had been at the 
disposal of his predecessors when making their delmt 
in the forests ; a supply of " palm oil," an article now 
well known in the Scottish Highlands, will, bring out 
the hidden secrets of the most experienced professional 
deer-stalker. The following scraps of information, 
which cost at first hand a couple of sovereigns and the 
larger portion of perhaps a dozen flasks of whisky, are 
heartily placed at the service of the reader; but I 
cannot say positively that the instructions obtained 
are original; at all events they will often have done 
duty. 

" Well, sir, first of all you will have to find your 
deer, and to do that needs a lot of practice ; in fact, to 



Stalking. 43 

discover them easy is a sort of gift, as they are ill to 
see even with a powerful glass — they are so like the 
ground on which they are at rest. Whether you stalk 
on the open hill-side or in the scrab, you must take 
precautions to note the wind — observe and study the 
wind. It is not easy for men who don't know their 
habits to believe the long distance at which these 
animals will smell you, so that young stalkers, too 
eager for 'the fray,' often lose their opportunities by 
crossing the breeze to avoid taking a long roimdabout, 
although in the end that is always best." 

" Look you," said an experienced hand, " for any sake 
keep mind o' the deer's nose, it has full command o' 
the air. You can outwit the beastie wi' colour, you 
may get quite near him on some occasions, but take 
care no' to cross his nose ; if you should do that, he 
will smell you in an instant, and before you can look 
about you almost he will be a mile away. He knows 
that the smell of a man forbodes his doom." 

" That's aU true, sir, as true as death," said another 
old hand, "the sum total o' deer-stalking is to get 
within shootin' distance o' the deer ; a' the rest is easy 
enough, if you can only keep cool in the head and quiet 
in the hand." 

Many similar "stage directions," as they may be 
called, might be cited, but enough is better than a feast 
To get to the deer, to steal up to him, till near enough 
to fire, requires qualities of endurance and nerve which 
are not the gift of all. To get within range of deer 
without being either seen or " smelt," is a qualification 
of the stalker that cannot be underrated, and to achieve 
this desirable end no labour is thought hard. " The 
rifle plays a subordinate part ; it is not of much purpose 



44 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

to shoot well if the hunter knows not where to look 
for, or has not learned how to approach, his prey ; when 
engaged in doing so he must possess a keen eye, much 
promptitude and vigilance, as well as a thorough know- 
ledge of the habits of the animal." 

Many good stories of deer-stalking adventures have 
been written by men well versed in the sport, some of 
them indeed being brilliant chronicles. The writer of 
this work has one or two such narratives in his posses- 
sion that possess the merit of being descriptive of the 
actual work accomplished ; two of these may be pre- 
sented here as affording contrastive pictures of the 
sport ; they represent pretty fairly what may be called 
the prose and poetry of deer-stalking. 

"Although almost unable to hold a pen, in conse- 
quence of my hand being in a rather paralytic condition, 
I hasten to tell you that I have taken part in a ' stalk,' 
and been present at the killing of no less than three 
stags, one of which fell to my gun ! Pray don't be 
angry with me, but to tell you the truth, I was not 
from the beginning at all enamoured of the business, 
which I found vastly fatiguing — aplenty of hard work 
and not a great deal to show for it, besides a suit of 
good clothes spoiled in the bargain ; but as you know, 
the gods have not made me poetical, and I can never 
find either sermons in stones or books in the running 
brooks ; I leave that sort of thing to our friend Bel- 
chamber, from whom you will doubtless hear, with a 
brilliant chronicle of our stalk, which he says he will in 
all time coming look upon as the event of his life best 
worth remembering. So be it. I shall remember it 
also — for the deuced hard work it entailed. I must 



Stalking. 45 

have walked or crawled some twenty miles, I think, 
over hill and dale. Happily I started on that best of 
all foundations, a capital breakfast. Attend and envy 
me : ^^em first, a steak of broiled salmon ; item second, 
a helping from a pie composed of jellied sheep's head 
nicely seasoned and palatable; item third, a savoury 
omelet piping hot; item fourth, haK of a rizzard 
haddock ; add to these home-baked bread in the form 
of scones and oatcakes, as well as honey, marmalade at 
discretion, plenty of cream and real good coffee, and 
you will give me credit for having breakfasted There 
was a dram after, but that is never counted, although 
the whisky is well disguised in several tablespoonfuls 
of heather honey. We started for the seat of war about 
seven o'clock, mounted on hardy ponies, and in about 
an hour we had arrived at the beginning of our stalk, 
which we inaugurated by tossing off * nips ' of whisky 
all round. Our commander-in-chief was Hughie Mill- 
roy, who, as you know, is the laird's chief forester, 
and has been on the estate since he was bom. 
He is a most despotic character when on duty, and 
kept us in plenty of work, but I shall not bore you 
with too many details, and may at once express the 
opinion that the game is not worth the candle, any 
way you like to take it : a clean stag of twenty stones 
would not bring in Glasgow, or any other large city, 
twopence a pound weight as " butcher's meat." Well, 
we went on and on in a long tail, up one side of a hill 
and down another, in search of our quarry, crossing 
quagmires, and wading across various watercourses, not 
at the time, as it happened, a difficult task, as the 
summer had been a somewhat dry one. At length, on 
climbing the rocky spur of one of the Hoolichan hUls, 



46 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

a glimpse of deer was obtained ; at all events Hughie 
spied a horn projecting over a rock. ' Down, all down ! ' 
became then the order, and down we squatted accord- 
ingly, till Hughie had taken stock of the surroundings ; 
yes, there were deer at hand, but too near to be of 
immediate use, and a detour was at once undertaken 
in order that we might come upon them at the right 
distance for a fair shot We now skirted the 'hips 
of Hoolichan,' as the place is designated; two semi- 
circles, that require more than half an hour's work. 
Assured that the animals were feeding at the other 
side, all were in good spirits, except your humble servant, 
who was rapidly getting into a state of temper at the 
sort of work he had been called upon to perform, for 
which, I need not tell you, he felt himself unsuited. 
To make a long story short, we got at length to the 
right place, but the deer either saw or heard us, or 
rather, as Hughie said, they had * snuffed us,' and went 
ofiF at a gallop. Very provoking ! We all went on again, 
creeping from crag to crag to another vista, looking up 
which we again saw the enemy. Then we had to crawl 
to a small thicket of birch trees. Here misfortune 
again overtook us. I could not resist laughing loud at 
Belchamber's breeches ; he had been sitting in a mossy 
place, and they were really a sight to be seen. My 
cackling set the deer off again, to the disgust of the 
party. Hughie looked as if he could kill me, but was 
a little mollified by an apology and the offer of my 
flask. At length, after another short spell of mixed 
walking and creeping, we came within gun-shot of the 
animals, one of which, by a wonderful stroke of luck, 
fell to your correspondent's gun. Hughie was delighted, 
and, putting a knife in the animal, sprinkled me with 



Stalking. 47 

its blood — ^that little civility, I may as well tell you, 
cost me a sovereign. In time we got back to dinner, 
and as I had the appetite of an ogre I enjoyed it 
exceedingly. We sat down to table at 7.50; grouse 
soup, salmon, braised turkey poult, roasted blackcock, 
excellent champagne and Chambertin, and a good 
dessert. Au revoir ! " 

The following jubilant and somewhat poetic de- 
scription is jfrom another correspondent who took part 
in the same stalk : 

" I have at length been made free of the forest ; 
have killed my first stag, and been baptized with blood ! 
It was glorious work, and seems now as if I had dreamt 
it rather than taken part in the business as one of 
the actors therein. Do not, pray, deem me verbose 
in narrating to you s^ interesting an event; I know 
you are ftdl of sympathy, and everything that occurred 
was full of importance, to me at least. On the Sunday 
afternoon w,e held a council of war and determined 
on a stalk for the benefit of the novices next morning. 
To speak the truth, I became not a little excited over 
the projected expedition, and was astir very early and 
enjoyed a good plunge in the Maiden's PooL I could 
not eat much at breakfast time, and after a pick or two 
was off and away with one of the gillies who was 
going on with the dogs in a spring waggon, and we were 
speedily a mile ahead of the main cavalcade, which we 
waited for at the spring of Blamathrapple, where the 
business of the day was planned to commence. 

" As I jogged along with Eoderick on the waggon, 
in the bliss of solitude, I felt somewhat depressed as 
I looked at the mist which played on the hill-tops and 



48 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

'■ 1 — 

ever and anon was forming itself into fantastic shapes. 
In these pictures of nature I saw a noble deer being 
pulled down by three gigantic hounds ; then giant 
horses with pigmy riders ran a Derby race along the 
mountain-sides, followed by troops of cavalry in 
marching order ; marine animals of huge proportions 
floated past on the vaporous background ; anon the sun 
would disperse the watery gloom, and one solitary 
sublime-looking rocky peak — ^a Tenerifie of the High- 
lands — hidden just a moment ago from the view by an 
impenetrable veil, burst on my sight, revealed by the 
magic of nature. Another moment or two passed, and 
then a breath of wind dispersed the whole phantas- 
magoria of the scene for ever. The heather-bells were 
encased in crystalline dew globes, and the cries of some 
wild birds gave life to the scene as we trotted along by 
the side of a brawling Highland streamlet. * Halt ! ' 
said the Doctor, as we arrived at a little clump of 
birches at the Silver Well * We cannot take the ponies 
through the pass, and may as weU send them home at 
once. Come up, Angus, about six to Craig Derig, and 
bring two other ponies with you; I fancy we shaU 
want them,' said the cunning son of Esculapius. 

" The wind unfortunately was with us, which vexed 
Hughie considerably, causing him to take a long round- 
about, over a mile, walking, or rather scrambling, on 
the brow of a rugged hill, studded every here and there 
with projecting rocks, fast and loose, in great plenty, 
not to speak of almost impassable ruts in the side of 
the mountain caused by the rains and snows of winter 
swelling the little rills that then trickle down its sides 
into an occasional torrent. I felt no fatigue, however, 
but rather a sense of jubilation ; I was determined to 



Stalking. 49 

make my mark as a stalker, and besides I enjoyed the 
sublime solitude of the moors and mountains around 
me, as well as the intoxicating atmosphere, and beheld 
a series of views that would have made the fortune of 
any painter who could have successfully transferred 
them to canvas : in the foreground a brawling stream 
overhung with the wild greenery of nature, and in the 
immediate distance receding into far perspective a 
series of sun-tinted mountain-tops, while behind lay 
miles of moor-ground and desolate stretches of grouse- 
bearing heather. 

" The labour of deer-stalking demands great muscular 
exertion and power of prolonged endurance, as well as 
a cool head and a firm hand, but I find I can stand it 
very well. At one place we required to cross a stream 
of some breadth, with water up to our waists. I took 
off boots and breeches and got over. At another place 
we had to creep for three-quarters of a mile along the 
channel of a mossy rivulet, the bed of which was more 
damp than dry ; and after leaving the bed of the stream, 
we came in sight of a big stag standing on a mass of 
rock, a ' King of the Corrie gazing proudly around ; ' 
but seeing us he fled at once, and we had to round 
what one of the gillies called * the big hip of Houlichan,' 
that is one end of a long range of hills, which being 
achieved, Hughie once more, by the aid of his master's 
Dollond, saw deer. The information put us in such 
excellent spirits that, as of one accord, we halted in 
order to look our satisfaction in each other's faces. 
The Doctor was beaming, and at once ordered a liba- 
tion, and so the mainbrace was spliced ; Hughie, for 
his good news, being rewarded with a very full quaich 
of the real Glen Houlichan blend. 

E 



50 Ovt'door Sports in Scotland. 

" Being again cautioned we started, taking our way 
in the very rough bed of a streamlet, as that aflforded 
us a short cut to the point we were making for. We 
had absolutely to crawl, so as to avoid being seen 
through the cut. It was unpleasant but necessary, 
and was not prolonged, for we speedily found better 
walking ground, where we left the stream at the end 
of a crag, and here Hughie got his glass on haK-a-dozen 
deer, four of them fine stags, three being at once 
singled out as worthy of our guns. An unfortunate 
burst of hearty but unseasonable laughter on the 
part of young Belchamber sent the animals off at a 
gaUop to the other side of the crag, thus undoing our 
spell of hard work. It was really mortifying, and I 
believe, had I understood the Gaelic language, I would 
have become acquainted with some strange oaths which 
fell thick and fast from the head forester, who was red 
with rage and jumping sky high. Our mortification 
having been drowned in a ' wee drappie,' — a * wee 
drappie,* as the Doctor says, is a balm for many of the 
ills that are attendant on sport — well, 'Turn again, 
Whittington,' became the order of the day. By this 
time it was about one o'clock, and back again we came, 
hoping to find the same deer on a spot of heather we 
had passed an hour before. Great caution required 
now to be observed, and our work was very slow. We 
trod our way through a slit in the crag, and, winding 
up another of the innumerable waterways, we were 
able unobserved to creep behind some projecting 
masses of rock. Another hour was thus taken up, and, 
that we might get into good humour and have time to 
steady our nerves, the Doctor gave the word for 
luncheon ; and, although it was a slight affair that did 



Stalking. 51 

not occupy many minutes, we were glad of the bite 
and the rest afiforded us. A council of war being then 
held, Hughie was deputed to mount and take an 
observation, which he did with the agility of a boy. 
With a celerity wonderful for a man of sixty-three 
summers, he worked his way up the stones, and, 
crawling to a point of vantage, we soon knew by his 
way of working one of his arms that he had ' found.* 
* But they canna be got at very weel frae here,' said 
Hughie to Doctor Bulwer, when he rejoined us, 'we 
maun gang roond to yon ither crag before we can have 
them at oor mercy.' ' So be it,* whispered the Doctor, 
for none dared to speak above his breath. Another 
toilsome half-hour was expended in reaching the base 
of our new operations, and after a welcome "nip" 
the order of battle was arranged. During our palavers 
and reconnoitrings the dogs had become impatient, 
looking as if they smelt blood. It was arranged that 
Allister Beg and the Doctor, with two dogs, should go 
half a mile round to be at the open ground in case any 
one failed to bring down his prey. Belchamber was 
deputed to fire first, I was to have the second stag. Sir 
John the third ; but at the supreme moment Sir John 
and I changed places. It took nearly an hour to get 
to a favourable spot. All this time, as you may 
suppose, I was not a little excited, being kept in a 
constant fever of expectation. No one spoke a word, 
not even a whisper was permitted by the tyrant in 
command — Hughie, who played the part to perfection, 
speaking in most impressive dumb show and working 
his arms like a semaphore. At length he got us 
arranged to his mind, allowing us to rest quietly for 
seven or eight minutes in order to compose ourselves, 

E 2 



52 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

during which I noticed he was the recipient of a nip 
from the Doctor's bottle. 

" At length came the grand finale ; we were all at 
attention, and from the position occupied I had perfect 
command of the stag which Hughie had assigned to 
my gun. Giving us a warning look, full of meaning, 
as much as to say, ' Now, then, be ready to do or die,' 
Hughie lifted a loose stone of considerable size and 
hurled it down the slope, and it rattled over the 
boulders with suflBcient noise to startle the deer, which 
in a moment were flying from us. Crack ! crack ! went 
the guns, and I saw one fall dead, while another came 
to his knees. The stag allotted to me was only 
slightly wounded, and had made off, but ere I could 
reach the foot of the slope I noticed that he had been 
turned by the dogs. The Doctor, who had come by a 
short cut from the place where he had been stationed, 
kindly handed me his gun, •and in the course of a 
second or two the animal lay dead, just as he was 
about to leap over a bum. The remaining stag fell to 
a second shot, but being rather excited I failed to 
notice who killed it. All's well that ends well, and I 
can tell you that after my exertions I quite enjoyed 
the liberal jug of whisky and water which the Doctor 
prescribed. 1 need not describe our triumphant march 
home; Hughie was jubilant at having successfully 
engineered the stalking which ended in the death of 
three such heavy stags. 

" P.S. — I had almost forgotten to mention that as 
soon as Hughie had put his knife in the animal, in 
order to 'gralloch' it, as disembowelling is called, he 
made the sign of the cross in the gore of the deer on 
my forehead, and so I obtained my baptism of blood. 



Stalking. 53 

It is a ceremony, I believe, that is never omitted when 
the green hand kills his first hart. I felt distinguished, 
it being somewhat of a feat to kUl a stag at the first 
trial." 

The foregoing narratives outline the work of the 
stalker pretty well. It shows that chasing the deer is 
a sport — it has been caUed " the pastime of princes " — 
that requires pluck, patience, and endurance. From 
daybreak to sundown has often been spent in trying to 
circumvent the monarch of the mountain ; but often, 
after a hard day's work, the noble hart has got the 
better of his pursuers, and found his way to a place of 
safety. The red-deer is at aU seasons diflBcult of 
access : a suspicious and wary animal. The stag mUst 
be watched from afar with a powerful telescope, the 
anxious stalker and his gillies requiring to be circum- 
spect in all their movements. As an intelligent 
forester told the writer : " You creep on your stomach 
like a serpent ; you crouch as you go like a collier at 
work ; while, to make sure of your prey, you may have 
to walk a couple of miles, even though you are just 
about within range. You must force your way through 
the morass, and, if necessary, go a few hundred yards up 
to your middle in water — that is all in the way of busi- 
ness, sir, when you go deer-stalking. A slight rustle, 
or the displacing of a stone on the mountain-side, as 
you laboriously creep or cUmb to overlook your quarry, 
and your chance is gone; the deer being perhaps a 
mile away before you can realise the fact that you have 
disturbed him." 

These words contain an epitome of the work of deer- 
stalking. 



( 54 ) 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Coursing: Hares. 

My recollections of coursing events and of coursing 
men and dogs are not, perhaps, of great value, although 
they extend from the days of " Eamsay of Bamton " to 
the present time, but during these later years I have 
not seen so much of the sport In Midlothian, during 
the palmy days of Barnton, coursing was always in 
vogue and much enjoyed in its season — from about the 
middle of September to the end of February one could 
hardly proceed a mile on a country road without 
seeing a couple of greyhounds being led from place to 
place by a trusty keeper's assistant or some smart farm 
lad. Around Edinburgh — or, as I may say, through- 
out the three Lothians (Linlithgow, Edinburgh and 
Haddington shires) — there were, in those days, some 
(locally) famous breeds of these dogs in private hands. 
As a matter of fact there were at the time indicated no 
public trainers, so far as. I knew. In the neighbour- 
hood of Davidson's Mains (then called Mutton Hole), 
three miles from Edinburgh, there lived two or three 
men who had usually a couple or more of such dogs 
for sale. 

On one occasion a sensation was caused in " Jemmy 
Jack's Smiddy " — a. favourite meeting-place during the 
' thirties " for the sporting characters of the parish of j 



Coursing : Hares. 55 

Cramond — at the price obtained by a person who bred 
a few greyhounds. For a couple which he sold to 
Mr. Liddell, the Bamton keeper, who purchased them 
for an English gentleman, a friend of his master, 
thirteen pounds were asked and paid, which at the 
time, and by the class of people breeding them, was 
considered "a big, big price." The breeder in this 
instance, a "labouring man," as he was called, had a 
good strain of blood to breed from, and the two in 
question — they were both bitches — had done wonders 
in a couple of trials on a farm to the west of Corster- 
phine Hill. Whether the price was a big one or not, 
on its merits, I am unable to say, but to the breeder of 
the dogs it would be, indeed was, at the time, a sort of 
godsend ; a sum of thirteen pounds being in those days 
"money" to a man who could only earn about ten 
shillings a week all the year round. *' What will Tarn 
Shedd do with the siller ? " was, I well remember, a 
question which agitated the village. It was answered 
in time by the sensible purchase of a cow in calf to a 
noted Ayrshire bull of the neighbourhood, which calf 
(female) its owner sold within a few months for sixty 
shillings, which was thought at the time a most profit- 
able deal. " Tam " was afterwards called " Tammas " 
by his neighbours as a proof of their rising respect for 
him. He died an elder of the Kirk, and for some years 
before his death was well known as " Mr." Shedd, the 
potato merchant. This, however, is a digression ; but 
I think the little story not devoid of interest, although 
in all probability there are those who will be inclined 
to set it down as a chronicle of the small-beer sort. 
Be that as it may, the sale in question, and one or two 
that followed it, gave a distinct impetus to greyhound 



56 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

breeding in several counties of Scotland. Mr. Wilson, 
so well known as a coursing critic under the worn 
de plume of "North Briton," told me in Edinburgh 
a few years since, that he remembered the sale referred 
to, and was of opinion that it gave an impetus to 
breeding, especially throughout the Lothians. 

It would serve no purpose to give details of coursing, 
as one run is so like another, but no Scottish sport 
comes in for more attention among a certain class than 
coursing. Besides being an open pastime at which many 
can look on, it is a sport that has existed in Scotland 
for a very long period. Near Glasgow, in Lanarkshire, 
there is a farm which is said to have been gained by 
the running of a greyhound ; the laird of the land 
coveted the dog, and the price asked for it was the 
ground which the animal could cover on being slipped 
to a hare. 

" Country-side coursing matches " have always been 
popular in Scotland, and in far-away places neighbours 
for miles around go to look on, harvest being over and 
care banished for a time. On such occasions laird and 
tenant meet on terms of perfect equality, the best man 
being the man who for the time has the best dog ; and, 
when a greyhound of one locality is matched against a 
greyhound of another locality, the interest rises to what 
may be called white heat. The sport, however, has 
this great disadvantage, namely, that men can do no 
more than look on, while the dogs do the work. There 
are those who call coursing a cruel sport, but there are 
people who are never satisfied. "Hares apparently 
were created to be coursed," said Dr. Gregory, " and, 
vhen killed, to be made into soup." On a fine day in 

^,tober there is no more exhilarating exercise of its 



Coursing: Hares. 57 

kind than that required to keep up with the judge and 
his slipper ; it is positively pleasant to see the aged 
ones of the district fighting the battles of their youth 
over again, putting on' a spurt in the excitement of the 
moment, and clearing hedges and ditches, drains and 
dikes, in their enthusiasm that they would shrink from 
encountering were " the steam " not up. It is wonderful 
to note the excitement which prevails at a coursing 
meeting, how keenly the desperate dodges of poor puss 
are watched, how the turns of the despairing little 
animal evoke alternate bursts of sympathy and regret, 
and how relieved many of the spectators seem to feel 
when the final wrench and kill denote that all is over. 
Many amusing and interesting anecdotes connected 
with Scottish coursing meets might be easily collected. 
A good laugh was once enjoyed by the members of a 
Midlothian club. Each of the committee-men used to 
offer a contribution to the dinner, which was usually 
arranged to take place on the occasion of a meet. One 
day the cook of the club received seven gigots of black- 
faced mutton and seven bottles of claret. Every one of 
the donors had unfortunately selected a similar joint 
of meat as his contribution, at which it may be readily 
surmised there was much merriment Such a contre- 
temps did not, however, occur very often ; indeed, as a 
rule, there was much variety. The Duke of Buccleuch 
usually sent a fine haunch of park-fed venison. Major 
Hamilton Douglas a haggis, Mr. W. Sharpe a pair of 
ducks. Lord Melville a cut of pork, Mr. Wauchope a 
perigord pie, and Sir Graham Montgomery a gigot of 
black-faced mutton. At the coursing meetings held on 
the diflFerent farms of a country-side, creature comforts 
are liberally provided: whisky and ale, bread and 



58 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

cheese, and a cold round of corned beef, with perhaps a 
sheep-head pie, being set out on the dining-table of 
the farmers, of which homely fare all are welcome to 
partake. Then, early in the afternoon, the day being 
short, there is " high tea " for the farmers' wives and 
daughters, and a dram for all before they depart in gig 
or waggonette to their respective homes, much pleased 
with a day's sport that has given a little variety tio 
their monotonous round of life. 

From deer-stalking to hunting the hare and. snaring 
the rabbit looks a far descent, but none of the animals 
devoted to sport during the last twenty years have 
attracted more attention than hares and rabbits, which 
many farmers anathematise, whilst landlords protest in 
reply. Economists, too, political and social, have 
lectured about the poor little rodents and their hundred- 
and-one evil deeds, till everybody ought to be familiar 
with the subject; moreover, the legislature has aided 
the farmers, while the newspapers carefully chronicle 
all that is said and done. Some farmers move heaven 
and earth to get into a good farm, and then the moment 
they obtain possession begin to grumble about the 
excess of game. As all farmers know, there must be a 
greater or lesser stock of hares and rabbits on land, 
and if that is to be made a grievance, they should 
abstain from renting it. No person is forced to take a 
farm against his will. Good landlords are never slow 
to recognise out-of-the-way or abnormal degrees of 
damage to crops, by awarding liberal compensation to 
their tenants. No doubt, on many farms hares and 
rabbits were at one time over-preserved; but farmers 
did not suffer from that circumstance, because such 
farms were marke^i, and their rents were less in con- 



Coursing : Hares. 59 

sequence. Under the Ground Game Act there is now, 
of course, less to grumble about. 

The natural history of the hare affords room for a 
vast amount of inquiry and investigation. . The writer 
has taken a great deal of pains and expended much of 
his time with the view of being able to compile a 
correct biographical sketch of that animal. Opinions 
vary greatly as to the reproductive power of the hare, 
and always have done so. Forty or fifty years ago it 
was the general belief that the hare only bred once a 
year, giving birth as a rule to two young ones, and that 
no hare under the age of twelve months was capable of 
repeating the story of its birth. Now we know better. 
Hares generally breed three or four times in the course 
of a year, producing two, three, four, and occasionally, 
but rarely, five young ones at a litter ; and cases have 
been known of the young ones breeding within the 
* year of their birth. More than once a leveret has been 
found quick with young. 

In a 'Dictionary of Sport,' once in great request, 
some interesting particulars of the hare are given : it is 
described as " a beast of venery, or the forest, peculiarly 
so termed in the second year of her age ; in the first 
she is called a leveret, and in the third a great hare. 
By old foresters the hare is called the king of all 
beasts of venery. There are four sorts of hares ; some 
live in the mountains, some in the fields, some in the 
marshes, and some everywhere, without any certain 
place of abode. The mountain hares are the swiftest ; 
the field hares are not so nimble ; and those of the 
marshes are the slowest ; but the wandering hares are 
the most dangerous to follow, for they are so cunning 
in the ways and mazes of the field." N"o account of 



60 OtU'door Sports in Scotland. 

the breeding power of the hare is contained in the Dic- 
tionary referred to, nor is the age at which it becomes 
reproductive stated, but it mentions that the animal 
lives seven years. 

An account of the hare is contained in the new 
edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica/ but all that 
is said about its powers of reproduction is comprised in 
the following extract : — 

"Hares all possess long ears, and in most species 
the hind-legs are much longer than those in front. 
They are without exception timid, defenceless animals, 
although during the breeding season two males have been 
known to fight together for possession of the female till 
one was killed ; while all the species are protectively 
coloured. They occur in all the great zoological regions 
of the world, but are especially characteristic of the 
northern and temperate areas of both hemispheres. . . . 
The hare is a night-feeding animal, remaining during 
the day on its ' form,' as the slight depression is called 
which it makes in the open field, usually among grass. 
. . . Hares are remarkably prolific. They pair when 
scarcely a year old, and the female brings forth several 
broods in the year, each consisting of from two to five 
leverets. They have their sight at birth, and after 
being suckled for a month they are able to look after 
themselves." 

In ' Chambers's Encyclopaedia ' we find the follow- 
ing:— 

"Being evidently designed to seek safety from 
enemies by fleetness, the hare, however well supplied 
with food, never becomes fat. It ordinarily lies quiet 
in its form during the day, and goes in quest of food in 
the evening and morning. When through game pre- 



Coursing : Hares. 61 

serving it is abundant, it does no little damage to 
crops. It is a prolific animal, although not nearly so 
much so as the rabbit. The female produces from two 
to five at a birth. The young are covered with hair 
and with the eyes open. The common hare (brown 
hare) is not found in Ireland. The Irish hare has 
been described as a distinct species." 

Harking back to one whose writings used to be 
frequently referred to, Thomas Pennant, we find him 
thus speaking of the hare : — 

"The hare never pairs, but in the rutting season, 
which begins in February, the male discovers and 
pursues the female, by the sagacity of its nose. The 
female goes with young one month; brings usually 
two young at a time, sometimes three, and very rarely 
four. Sir Thomas Brown, in his treatise of Vulgar 
Errors, asserts the doctrine of superfoetation, i.e., a 
conception upon conception, or an innovation on the 
first fruit before the second is excluded, and he brings 
this animal as an instance, asserting from his own 
observation that after the first cast there remain succes- 
sive conceptions, and other younglings very immature, 
and far from the term of their exclusion ; but, as the 
hare breeds very frequently in the year, there is no 
necessity of having recourse to this accident to account 
for their number. . . . Being a weak and defenceless 
animal, it is endowed, in a very distinguished degree, 
with that very preserving passion, fear ; this makes it 
perpetually attentive to every alarm, and keeps it 
always lean. To enable it to receive the most distant 
notice of danger, it is provided with very long ears, 
which (like the tube made use of by the deaf) convey 
to it the remotest sounds. Its eyes are very large and 



62 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

prominent, adapted to receive the rays of light on all 
sides. To assist it to escape its pursuers by a speedy 
flight, the hind-legs are found to be remarkably long, 
and furnished with strong muscles ; their length gives 
the hare singular advantages over its enemies in 
ascending steep places ; and so sensible is the animal 
of this, as always to make to the rising ground when 
started. The various stratagems and doubles it uses, 
when hunted, are so well known to every sportsman as 
not to deserve mention, except to awaken their at- 
tention to those faculties nature has endued it with, 
which serve at the same time to increase their amuse- 
ment, as vToQi as to prevent the animal's destruction." 

In answer to communications having for their object 
the desire to obtain trustworthy information as to the 
breeding of hares, and which were sent to gamekeepers 
and other persons likely to be well informed on the 
subject, a few interesting notes were forwarded to me, 
of which the following lines are a summary : — 

From the English Midlands, — ^Hares, as I dare say 
you are already aware, do not breed so prolifically as 
rabbits. A healthy female hare will not probably yield 
more than three litters in the season, the first of which 
may be two, the second time three, and on the third 
occasion there may even be five; four is a usual 
number, however. Another correspondent writes some- 
what dogmatically \ " Year-olds never litter oftener 
than once; they usually have two, but have been 
known to drop three. Older animals have generally 
two litters in the course of a season — one late in March, 
or early in April ; another about the middle of August. 
I only write what I know." A third opinion is as 
follows: "Breeding depends greatly on place and 



Coursing: Hares. 63 

weather. A fine strong hare in the south of England, 
where breeding begins early, will have ten, or even 
twelve, young ones in the year, or season, running from 
the middle of March to the end of September. Two, 
three, four, and five have all been known in a litter." 
One of my correspondents reminds me of an old experi- 
ment made to ascertain the breeding power of the 
hare. A couple, being enclosed early in the season in a 
large and well-stocked garden in a salubrious part of 
the country, were left undisturbed till late in autumn, 
when it was found that they had so increased as to 
number fifty-six, along with the parental pair. 

Scottish opinions, — " I think," writes a very intelli- 
gent keeper, " the female hare breeds four times in the 
year, and in fine warm seasons even more than four 
times. Upon two occasions I have seen litters of five, 
and a Mend of mine in Wales once saw a litter of 
seven. A very great deal depends on the weather ; in 
genial seasons all nature is up and blooming at an 
early date." The following " memorandum " speaks for 
itself. The writer, it will be noted, is cautious. He 
says : " I have talked the matter over with a few 
friends, but not one would commit himself to a distinct 
verdict. The general opinion is that the breeding 
power of very young hares does not go beyond the 
production of five or six young ones in the year ; older 
ones become more and more prolific, and may deliver as 
many as four litters in the course of a season, of perhaps 
fifteen or sixteen in all. In very early seasons young 
of the first litter will breed and produce one or two. 
Exceptional cases aboimd, but the hare nowadays is 
80 quickly dealt with, chiefly by the poaching fraternity, 
that it does not live long enough to afford much oppor- 



64 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

tunity for observation. I regret not to be able to give 
a more definite answer to your questions." A dealer 
with whom I have had occasional business relations 
has given me some additional information. " Keep in 
mind," he says, " that hares do not pair, and that one 
' Jack ' is sufl&cient for the service of numerous females ; 
the male discovers his opportunity by the seasoning of 
the female, and acts accordingly. The female carries 
for about thirty-five days, and then finds relie£ The 
littering places of the hare are exceedingly primitive ; 
a place in a plantation or at the sheltered side of a 
hedge sufiices for puss's procreant cradle. The female 
suckles her young for about a month or five weeks, 
after which they look after themselves. Many leverets 
fall an ^asy prey to their enemies, which are numerous, 
and increase in the same ratio as their prey." 

The hare has been often made the hero of many little 
anecdotes and narratives, and the subject, as one may 
say, of much folk lore. Most of the more curious 
stories regarding the natural history of the animal have 
proved to be mere vulgar errors, unworthy of belief ; as 
one instance, the old idea of the double and treble 
conception of the female hare, representing the animal 
as a kind of machine for the reproduction of its kind 
by superfoetation, teaching the idea that after the first 
cast there still remained the fruits of successive con- 
ceptions, has been proved to be erroneous. Another 
story of hare life was at one time firmly believed in, 
and is given in an old account of the hare, which says : 
" They have certain little bladders in their belly, filled 
with matter out of which both sexes suck a certain 
humom', and anoint their bodies all over with it, by 
which they are defended against rain." Here is an old 



Coursing : Hares. 65 

wrinkle from the same source : " As for such hares as 
are bred in warrens, the warreners have a crafty device 
to fatten them, which has been found by experience to 
be effectual ; and that is by putting wax into their ears 
to make them deaf, and then turning them into the 
place where they are to be fed, where being freed from 
the fear of hounds and for want of hearing, they grow 
fat before others of their kind." 

Unfortunately for the commissariat, hares are yearly 

becoming scarcer in Scotland. There is not a lowland 

parish in the coimtry in which the brown hare is at the 

present time so abundant as it was ten, or even seven, 

years ago ; in Highland districts also white hares are 

being killed in a greater ratio than their breeding 

powers will warrant. In East Lothian and also in 

Berwickshire, where these animals were once quite 

numerous, so much so, that almost no heed was paid to 

their preservation, it is now complained that the animal 

is likely to become extinct in the course of a very few 

years. A Glasgow poulterer, who used at one period 

to receive large consignments of hares from many 

estates in Lanarkshire, Eenfrewshire, and Stirlingshire, 

does not at present get a fourth of the number. In the 

counties of Fife and Forfar the scarcity is becoming 

even more pronounced; and a similar tale has to be 

told of Kincardine and Aberdeen shires. The hare, as 

has been shown, is, in a comparative sense, a slow 

breeder, not having been endowed with the fertility of 

the rabbit. It is almost impossible, in the face of the 

persecution to which it is at present subjected, that it 

can long hold its place aiaong the animals of the chase. 

A bill is before Parliament for the protection of this 

animal by means of allowing it a close time during its 



66 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

breeding season, but it seems to hang fire. At the 
present time the hare is often killed even when it is 
quick with young. A series of inquiries has elicited 
the information that this spring [1889] fewer breeding 
hares have been seen than is usual, and that leverets 
are " anything but plentiful." 



( 67 ) 



CHAPTER V. 

Eabbits for Sport and Food. 

As is generally known, rabbits are wonderfully fertile. 
Were they suffered to breed without interraption, they 
would speedily be numbered by tens of millions. As is 
shown in another part of this work, an enormous 
supply is annually brought to market, the contribution 
to the national commissariat from this source being a 
factor of importance in the national food supply. As 
an economist of some note recently wrote : " Were it 
not for the supply of these rodents, the price of butchers' 
meat would probably become prohibitive to at least a 
third part of the population/' From every Scottish 
county a supply of rabbits is now obtained during 
nearly every month of the year ; there being no close 
time for these animals, they are constantly being killed, 
sometimes it has to be confessed when they are most 
unfit for food, as a glance at the supplies in the poultry 
shops will show. Less happily has of late been heard 
of the damage done to farmers' crops by rabbits, and 
farmers themselves admit that the case against them 
was much exaggerated. 

The natural history of this food-yielding animal lias 
often formed a theme of discussion, and there has loiii^ 
been much diversity of opinion on the features of its 

F 2 



68 Out 'door Sports in Scotland. 

breeding power. In Pennant's ' British Zoology,' it is 
stated, " Eabbits breed seven times a year, and bring 
eight yonng ones each time; on a supposition tliis 
happens regularly during four years, their numbers 
will amount to 1,274,840." Dr. Daniels says these 
rodents begin to breed at six months, will bear seven 
times annually, and bring five young ones each time. 
Were this " to happen regularly during the space of 
four years, and that three of the five young at each 
kindle are females, the increase will be 478,062." It 
is the popular opinion that rabbits breed for a period 
of from six to eight months in each year, according to 
the openness of the season, having a litter of from 
three to seven each time ; and, as they have five litters 
and sometimes six, one female may produce as many 
as forty young ones, nearly all of which in the course 
of about twelve months will have begun to breed. In 
a state of nature the rabbit is known to be monogamous, 
and the sexes pretty equally divided. 

One of my gamekeeper friends who, day by day, 
notes many matters of natural history that come under 
his observation, and writes down his observations, tells 
me that he has seen females barely three months old 
ready and eager for the buck, and has known, although 
he believes it is rare, of three generations in one year ! 
Such stories — indeed, all stories illustrative of the 
natural history of wild animals — must be received 
with caution, but I have every reason to place con- 
fidence in the above statement. Eighty years have 
elapsed since Pennant promulgated his figures of rabbit 
breeding, and they have done duty ever since, being 
frequently "requisitioned" by writers of sketches of 



Rabbits for Spori and Food. 69 

natural history, but it is not difl&cult to arrive at some- 
thing like correct figures if a calculation be ventured 
upon within the lines of present knowledge. 

It is only in very fine seasons, when the preceding 
winter has been what is tenpied very open, and the 
spring time more than usually warm and mild, that 
rabbits breed six times, and the first two or three 
litters do not as a rule number more than four in- 
dividuals. Taking it for granted that circumstances of 
all kinds will be favourable, a pair of healthy young 
rabbits, of a litter of the preceding August, will multiply 
and replenish in the following ratio: namely, five 
broods of four each time, making twenty in all. Three 
at least of these litters will become reproductive in the 
same season, and will yield, in all probability, ten 
animals, whilst probably three pairs of the second series 
of litters will also have become reproductive to the 
extent of a pair each, giving a stock of, say, thirty- 
eight rabbits, including the parental pair, which pro- 
vides us with nineteen pairs of breeders for the second 
year's work. But, to facilitate calculation, let us con- 
clude that we have twenty couple on hand. These 
may be expected to breed as in the previous season, 
five times, but the older members of the family will 
have become more productive than they proved in the 
previous year, not dropping less certainly than five 
each time, so that every couple will fall to be credited 
with twenty-five young ones. 

To make matters plain, it may be as well to tabulate 
the results in a simple way, so that the progress made 
in breeding during the second year may be shown at 
a glance : — 



TO Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

Number from 20 pairs as estimated « . 500 
Number littered in June from Marcb brood '^ g/v 

of 30 pairs / 

Produce of same 30 pairs in August . . 90 

„ „ „ October . . 120 

September, litters from 45 pairs bom in June 135 

Leaving as stock at the end of the I qqk r-vKifg 
second season a supply of . . ) 

adding to that number the 20 pairs brought forward, 
gives a grand total of 975 individual rabbits, or, let us 
say, as our figures have been throughout modestly 
stated, 480 pairs. 

Barring all incidents conducing to mortality, which 
in the case of wild animals is invariably going on at a 
high rate, the increase in rabbit production from our 
original pair begins in the third season to bulk very 
large. The produce of the breeding stock of 480 pairs, 
calculating that an average of five will be littered each 
time, and that as usual there will be five litters from 
the 480 pairs in the course of the season, should in the 
course of the third season result in the following 
fashion : — 

Produce of 480 pairs on five occasions at j -.^ qqq 

the rate of five each time . . . / ' 

Add in June from March brood of 6000"^ -. g qqq 

pairs, at the rate of three per pair . / ' 

August produce from March brood . . 18,000 

Littered in October from March and'^ og aqq 

August broods / ' 

September, from litters dropped in June . 24,000 

Add original stock of 480 pairs . . 960 



Making a total at the end of the) ^^q q^^ 
year of . . . . . f ' 

individual rabbits. 



Rabbits for Sport and Food. 7 1 

These figures are not given in other than an illus- 
trative sense, and must be taken with a more than 
ordinary allowance of salt. It would serve no purpose 
of utility to extend the calculation farther ; but, admit- 
ting that 54,000 pairs were left to breed from in the 
fourth season, the produce of such a number on 
their five occasions of littering, at the rate of five per 
litter, would of course be the production of 1,350,000 
single rabbits, and, adding the produce of the pairs 
littered in March, June and August (second and third 
generations), the grand total would prove enormous, as 
curious readers may calculate for themselves. 

Fifty years ago there was a warren on Cramond Island 
in the Firth of Forth, opposite Dalmeny, the estate 
of Lord Rosebery. It was a small affair, comparatively 
speaking, the surface not being very many acres ; but 
small as it was, and cheap as were rabbits at that 
period, the business was extensive enough to afford 
support to a family. In those days rabbits as food 
were not expensive, but for many years their skins 
were of considerable value and realised in some 
seasons almost as much as the flesh of the animal. 
At the period in question skins were more in demand 
than the flesh of the rabbits, which could not be 
utilised in consequence of the very slow modes of 
conveyance incidental to the time. Despite the pro- 
visions of the Ground Game Act, rabbits are really as 
plentiful as they were ten or twelve years ago, when 
they were so hotly denounced by a body of political 
agitators, who posed as friends of the farmer. The 
coney has often been set up on the political chess- 
board. Much was advanced in the course of the dis- 
cussions which ensued on the Ground Game Act, about 



72 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

the destructiveness of rabbits, and the public were led 
to believe that, with the killing of these "vermin," 
would come the days of cheap mutton ; yet here we 
are, and mutton is as dear as ever, and so are rabbits ! 

"Three rabbits eat as much in a season as a 
sheep ! " Such was the tale told by the Parliamentary 
friends of the farmer, " and it stands to reason,'* said 
these gentlemen, " that for every three pair of rabbits 
you kill ofiF you will be able to feed a couple of sheep 
more than you now do." That was all very fine 
theoretically, but in point of fact just so much non- 
sense ; and, if all the rabbits and hares in the country 
were killed off -to-morrow, I question very much if two 
thousand sheep additional would be fed. If the breeding 
figures that have been indicated in a previous page 
could be ensured to go on productively for a period of 
eight or ten years, the country would then be overrun 
with rabbits. To exterminate such an animal looks to 
be impossible; but all must bear in mind that the 
aforesaid calculations are hypothetical : they ignore 
those dangers to which wild animals are subjected, and 
which keep their numbers down. The seasons, too, 
form an important factor in their breeding power ; in 
cold, ungenial, and backward years, their food is scarce, 
and it may be accepted as an article of faith that 
plentifulness of food is a wonder-working element in the 
rabbit's power of productiveness. It must, however, be 
admitted that the rabbit will not be so easy of exteHni- 
nation as the hare ; it will thrive and multiply its kind 
in places where no other animal of value to man could 
live and breed, to any advantage. 

I shall not say anything about this breedy creature 
as a factor in Scottish sport ; there are many who are 



Rabbits for Sport and Food. 73 

glad enough to lend a hand in kiUing the rabbit. 
'* Ferretting " is not bad fun, and under certain cir- 
cumstances it is not quite so easy to shoot a coney as 
some folks think; but in places which are crowded 
with these "vermin," as many designate them, the 
killing of them is a good deal in the nature of poulterers' 
work. As the late Mr. St. John once said, " the rabbit 
is not so much an animal of sport, as a moving target 
at which our boys may be trained to shoot." 

With respect to island rabbits, I may be permitted 
to say a word or two, having had frequent opportunities 
of studying and — eating them. The breed on Cramond 
Island, just referred to, was excellent, their flesh was 
delicious, and their skins met with a ready sale. As a 
rule, however, island-bred rabbits are lean, and conse- 
quently poor in flavour, resulting from two circum- 
stances, one of these being the fact of there being 
generally too many rabbits for the area of ground, the 
other being degeneracy from in-breeding. I recently 
read that on one of the islands of the Hebrides the 
stock had so degenerated from this cause, that it was 
thought best to destroy the whole lot and institute an 
altogether new breed, which was done with signal 
success. Care should be taken to procure an infusion 
of new blood to keep up the health of rabbits as well 
as other animals — grouse and pheasants included. 



( 74 ) 



CHAPTEE VI. 
The Grouse Family. 



The bird of sport, 'par eoccdlence, is the red grouse 
{Lagopus scoticus) ; and, of the four species of grouse 
which are found in the British Isles, it is of most 
importance, as being the bird that has attracted sports- 
men to the Scottish moors, and rendered these vast 
stretches of heathery waste profitable to those who own 
them. The head of the family is the Capercailzie 
{Tetrao uro gallus), which shaU of course be noticed : 
a few words must also be said about the black game 
(Tetrouo tetrix) and the ptarmigan (Lagopus albus). 
The red grouse always breeds true, and its geographical 
range is well known, ranging from Derbyshire to Shet- 
land, where it has lately been introduced, and it is found 
in most of the Scottish islands. These birds breed in 
every county in Scotland, and also in some parts of 
Ireland and Wales, but they do not naturally occur 
beyond the limits of the United Kingdom. Opinions 
differ a little on some points of the natural history of 
this bird (the red grouse), but the following details 
may be relied upon, having been compiled from personal 
knowledge, or obtained as the fruits of anxious inquiry 
from persons able to impart information founded on 
long years of observation. 



The Grrouse Family. 75 

Grouse begin to come together about the miiidle of 
March, a little earlier or a little later, according as the 
season is mild or rigorous. During a warm spring- 
time, all the birds and beasts of the fields and the 
forests awake, as it were, to a new life and to the duties 
of recuperation, a full fortnight earlier than when the 
spring proves to be late. On a Galloway moor, a nest 
containing five eggs has been seen very early in April ! 
but as a rule the end of that month passes before many 
nests are seen, and in some seasons the close of that 
month is reached before shepherds are able to report 
the heather as likely to be populous. Opinions differ 
as to the average number of eggs deposited by the hen ; 
many widely different figures have been named as an 
average, but it may, without exaggeration, be put at 
eight Nests are occasionally heard of containing nine, 
eleven, thirteen, and even sixteen eggs, although there 
are far more with from six to seven, but that as many as 
a dozen eggs have been again and again seen in a nest 
is well in evidence, and I feel sure the bird cannot com- 
fortably cover more. The great question, however, that 
grouse-moor economists have to face is not so much the 
number of eggs produced as the number of birds which 
are hatched, and the percentage of these that become 
food for powder. Grouse have a hundred enemies 
lying in wait to do mischief — to destroy the nests, 
suck the eggs, or kill the tender brood; nor are the 
parents spared, when the enemy is their superior in 
strength and cunning. Walk the heather in June and 
July with an observant eye, and note the damage which 
has been done during the breeding season by foes, both 
quadruped and biped. See yonder carrion crows, how 
deftly they sweep down on spots of heather populous 



76 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

with nests and young ones ! And what a delicious titbit 
for stoat and weasel do the day-old " cheepers " afford ! 

Many a gallant battle is fought by the male grouse 
on behalf of his mate and her eggs, as he does not 
hesitate to defend them from the greedy crow, nor is 
he afraid even of the blood-sucking weasel. These 
enemies, each and all of them, keep up day by day a 
never-ceasing warfare, the impelling power, of course, 
being "the sacred rage" — ^hunger! I am sure I am 
well within the mark in estimating that thirty per cent, 
of eggs and young pay tribute to their ever-devouring 
hosts of enemies in the breeding season. There are, it 
appears, birds and beasts quite as well able to appreciate 
a suck at the backbone of a grouse as the epicure of the 
genv^ homo. The weasel, in particular, has a most pro- 
nounced taste for young and tender birds, and in the 
course of a season a score of weasels will eat many 
hundred birds. But, whenever danger threatens, the 
cock-grouse is up in arms, ready to do all he can for 
the protection of madame and her chicks. Before 
twenty-four hours have elapsed, the nest in which the 
young ones have been hatched seems to be no longer 
necessary for rearing purposes, and is consequently 
forsaken ; the parents and their family take to a nom- 
adic Ufe, travelling with about a rapidity which is 
wonderful, considering the tender age of the brood. It 
is also a curious circumstance that one or two birds of 
almost every nest come to maturity at an earlier date 
than their brothers and sisters — ^the percentage that 
displays this precocity of growth being about two out 
of every seven ; and it is a saying of the shepherds that 
"these are the cock's own birds." 

Both parents are attentive to their young ones, and 



The Grouse Family. 77 

tend and nurse them with assiduity and care ; but the 
birds which are specially looked after by the male 
" come on/* it is thought, the quickest. The father of 
the brood, however, seldom takes in hand to pay atten- 
tion to more than three members of his family, no 
matter how numerous may be the total number hatched. 
The cock-grouse is a brave parent ; and, in addition to 
being courageous, he is cunning as well ; in times of 
danger he frequently outwits his enemies by his 
superior resources. He is often able, when his brood 
is threatened, to find a safe hiding-place for them, 
or is skilful in devising modes of escape from sudden 
danger ; many a time a bold cock-grouse has valiantly 
fought and conquered a carrion crow in search of prey. 
Those who have studied the habits of this bird — 
and in doing so some of the hill shepherds play an 
intelligent part, having so many opportunities for ob- 
servation — ^tell us that the young ones commence a 
nomadic life in about twenty-four hours after being 
hatched, and never again return to their infantile cradle. 
It is a remarkable circumstance that these little ones 
soon become able to bear the fatigue of travel. It is 
known, for instance, that two tender birds, which were 
well identified by deformed legs, had travelled nearly 
seven miles in the course of two days and two nights. 
I call the very little ones " runners " ; in a few weeks they 
may become " cheepers," but as a rule they do not fly 
so quickly as some sportsmen think. The parent grouse 
are most attentive, and watch their young ones very 
assiduously. The " father grouse " is, I think, the better 
parent of the two ; he acts also as superintendent of 
madame and the rest of the family, being in the truest 
sense " cock of the walk," giving the daily marching 



78 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

orders and heading the little army, the mother acting 
as whipper-in. 

It would be interesting if we could know for certain 
that the cock-nursed chicks become from the first the 
best and strongest birds of the covey. There is another 
feature of grouse life about which I have never been 
able to obtain reliable information. Some years since, 
in writing on the subject in Baily*s excellent Magazine, 
of Sports and Pastimes, I asked the question, ** whether 
or not the male or the female bird is the most nume- 
rous ? " and appealed to readers of the magazine to aid 
me by giving me their opinions and information, but I 
was not favoured with many communications on the 
subject To my own personal inquiries replies were 
made in the following fashion : — 

" Oh, the cocks undoubtedly predominate," said one 
person who was consulted on the subject ; " The hens," 
replied another gentleman, " are as two to one " ; whilst, 
as if to confound confusion, an old shepherd, who has 
lived on moors all his life, says that the sexes are as 
nearly as possible equal, which, however, is not my 
own opinion. As showing how such matters escape 
observation, I may mention that a very intelligent 
dealer, who puts four or five thousand birds through 
his hands in the course of a season, "never gave a 
thought to the subject." One other point in grouse 
life has always interested me : If both parents are 
killed while the brood is of tender age, do the young 
ones die ? I rather think not. There is, at all events, 
not wanting evidence that mere " cheepers " have been 
pulled through ly the aid of the two or three larger birds 
trained by the cock already allvded to, which appear in 
some degree to supply the place of the parents. Of 



The Grouse Family. 79 

course, if the little ones are quite able to seek their 
own food, they are more likely to thrive " right away," 
and grouse soon become capital feeders, but they are 
dainty withal, and prefer the tender buds of the sprout- 
ing heather to grosser sorts of food; the birds of a 
district speedily find out a stretch of heather which, 
having been fired early in the previous year, contains a 
rare show of buds. That grouse will migrate from the 
heather to the corn-fields, and greedily feed on the 
grain, we know. A pot-shooter, who had rented a bit 
of heather, made it into a gold-mine by purchasing 
from a farmer a score of sheaves of com and setting 
them up on a part of his moor. Grouse came at once 
from distant shootings to feast upon the oats, and were 
easily shot in the act of feeding ; the person referred to 
sent to his poultryman by this plan about five brace of 
birds for other sportsmen's two, and so paid his rent 
and put money in his purse. 

The red grouse found in the county of Caithness are 
considered by good judges to be the finest produced in 
Scotland, and the birds of different localities have diffe- 
rent qualities, some being remarkable for plumage, 
others for flavour, as in the case of those of Caithness- 
shire. They cook to perfection, and " come early to 
the spit" ; two of the birds of that county, it has been 
said, are equal in weight to three of the grouse of many 
counties of Scotland ; again, Scottish birds are thought 
to be superior in flavour to those of England and 
Ireland, as the palate of an epicure is quick to deter- 
mine. As between a heather-fed bird and one fed on 
the com-stooks there need be no hesitation in declaring 
the bird of the heather to be the finer of the two. As 
food the flesh of the red grouse is much esteemed. The 



80 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

grouse is a bird of solitude : as man intrudes on its wild 
domains it recedes from him, and the fair inference 
would be that with a lessening venue the supply would 
fall ofiF, yet the contrary is the fact ! Let the heather 
be desolated by disease, let particular moors be shot 
over till they are exhausted, "the cry is, Still they 
come ! " To-day, on the moors of Northern Scotland, 
it is believed there is a larger stock of breeding birds 
than there probably ever was in any previous year. It 
has become a saying in regard to grouse, that "the 
more that are shot the more there are to shoot," and 
they seem to be five times as numerous as they were 
fifty years ago, despite the lessening of the area they 
breed upon. 

Seeing that fifty years ago there was a greater 
expanse of heather than there is now, the increased 
abundance of game is not a little remarkable, though 
the apparent increase may partly be accounted for by 
modem methods of suppressing moorland " vermin." 
Formerly, hawks, carrion crows, stoats, and other grouse- 
foes roamed the moors comparatively unmolested, com- 
mitting great havoc. Nowadays, gun and trap are used 
to destroy those creatures, and secure a larger head of 
game to the sportsman. That being so, grouse are sent 
in larger quantities to market in order to be sold, much 
to the benefit of the general public. 



II. 

Coming to the capercailzie, some sportsmen are 
afraid that the re-introduction of the " cock of the 
woods" may prove hurtful to established sporting 
interests ; one gentleman, whose word is entitled to 



The Grouse Family, 81 

attention, is of opinion that they drive away other 
game and spoil the trees; but that is probably an 
overdrawn picture, as the capercailzie occupies its own 
ground; its home being in the pine plantations, it 
cannot, therefore, in the woods and forests do any harm 
to grouse, partridge, or pheasant. It wiU likely be 
found ere long that the usefulness of the bird in eating 
up grub arid other vermin which infest the trees will 
far more than counterbalance the evil it can commit. 

A member of the grouse family — which, it is thought, 
may suffer from the introduction of the capercailzie — 
is the blackcock {tetrao tetrix), which, along with its 
mate, the gveyhen, affords tolerable sport. That bird, 
which is of beautiful plumage, is much larger than the 
common moor grouse, but still not quite so large as 
the capercailzie, which in many instances reaches the 
size of a small turkey. Blackgame, it is said, are not 
nearly so numerous in Scotland as they were wont to 
be, the clearings now being effected in many counties 
being greatly inimical to their increase. 

Restored to its old-time place of abode, the cock of 
the woods may be heard crowing to-day in many of the 
Northern pine-tree plantations. The capercailzie has mul- 
tiplied astonishingly in Scotland during the last twenty- 
five years, so that its rehabilitation may be, I think, 
taken for granted. As many sportsmen know, the bird 
was at home in Caledonia a long time ago, and is said 
to have disappeared with the Stuart race of kings in the 
days of " bonnie Prince Charlie." 

In re-introducing the bird, the first attempt was made 
at Mar Lodge about sixty years ago, but the experiment 
being tried on an inadequate scale the result was a 
fiasco, only a single cock and .hen having been obtained. 



82 Out-door Sports in Scotland. - 

the hen dying, however, before it could reach Scotland. 
Another pair were procured, which reached Scotland 
in safety, and began to lay in January or February, 
1829 ; in all two dozen eggs were produced, only eight 
of which, however, were saved for hatching, the rest 
having unfortunately been destroyed. Only one of the 
eggs produced a chicken, which died almost as it came 
to life. Although in time several eggs became pro- 
ductive, the Braemar experiment ultimately ended in 
failure, none of the young ones having lived for any time. 

It is to the late Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton that the 
credit of the bird's restoration is largely due. That 
gentleman having been for some time the guest of Lord 
Breadalbane at Taymouth Castle, became desirous of 
making some return to his lordship for the hospitality 
he had so much enjoyed in the North, and with that 
view had placed himself in communication with Mr. 
Lloyd, the author of the * Game Birds and Wild Fowl 
of Sweden,' who had been endeavouring to find some 
nobleman or gentleman possessing an estate in Scot- 
land willing and able to try the experiment of restoring 
the capercailzie to that country. In the year 1836 
Sir Thomas gave instructions to Mr. Lloyd to procure 
the requisite number of birds in order to their acclima- 
tisation in the woods of Perthshire. 

To aid in selecting and bringing the birds safely to 
Taymouth, Sir Thomas sent his head-keeper to Sweden 
on two different occasions, so that particulars of the 
importation of the birds are not difl&cult to obtain, a 
very full account of the keeper's journey in his own 
words having been published. Two batches of birds 
were brought from Sweden, and reached their future 
home at Taymouth in safety : the first flock of twenty- 



The Grouse Family. 83 

nine birds included thirteen cocks and sixteen hens ; 
these were followed by another batch of sixteen hens in 
the year following (1838), making forty-five in all, two 
or three of which, however, did not reach Perthshire, 
having been sent to Norfolk. 

The restoration of the capercailzie was now assured. 
By the year 1839 it was calculated that a stock of 
between sixty and seventy young ones had been suc- 
cessfully reared, and in the course of a few years the 
flock had become largely augmented. Great pains 
were taken in the beginning to ensure the hatching of 
their eggs, many of which had been placed under grey- 
hens (the greyhen is the mate of the blackcock). 
Some of the imported birds were introduced to their 
new homes in the following manner : they were carried 
out at night in closed baskets, and placed in plantations 
near the house, and early on the following morning, 
the covers of the baskets being removed, the birds were 
at liberty to wander about at their leisure, and become 
accustomed to their new dwelling-place. 

Calculating that twenty-five of the hens would each 
lay ten eggs, and that eight of these each produced a 
fowl, we have thus 200 in addition to the parent 
birds ; the mortality under such circumstances being, 
however, always considerable, ten per cent, must be 
allowed under that head — which leaves at the credit of 
the account 180 young capercailzie. Eepeating the 
same figures for the second year, the flock of young 
ones totals up to 360 birds, of which 300, including the 
original breeders, would be capable of breeding ; let us 
imagine 200 of this lot to be laying hens, and it will at 
once be apparent that the power of reproduction would 
be largely increased, taking it at the modest figure 

G 2 



84 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

given above. lu 1862-3 it was computed that the 
total number of capercailzie in the district of Taymouth 
would not be less than 2000. The birds may now be 
said to be native to all parts of Scotland ; they have, by 
this time, spread themselves over a very wide district, 
and capercailzie are occasionally announced as being 
shot in most unexpected places, both in the north and 
south. A great deal of trouble was taken a few years ago 
by Mr. Haxvie Brown, the well-known ornithologist, to 
find out to what places in Scotland the capercailzie had 
extended its range ;* it was then found, as was natural 
enough in the circumstances, that the fine county of 
Perth, the best county for varied sport in all Scotland, 
was well stocked with these birds, and that the adjoining 
county of Forfar also contained a considerable number, 
and up to the present time nests have been seen in at 
least half-a-dozen other counties, particularly in Kinross, 
Fife, and Stirling shires, as also in the Island of Arran. 
The blackcock and his mate the greyhen, so well 
known in nearly all parts of Scotland, are becoming 
iscarcer and scarcer as the seasons roll bn, which, in 
respect of their being table birds of really good quality, 
is much to be regretted. Several reasons have been 
given for the decrease of their numbers, but there is 
one on which nearly all sportsmen are agreed, and it is 
that the shooting of these birds is timed to begin a full 
fortnight too soon, at a date in fact when the young 
ones are unable to protect themselves. Blackcock 
ought not, it is thought, to be shot till about the middle 
of September, as the present time of commencing finds the 

* * The Capercaillie in Scotland.' By J. ^A. Harvie-Brown, 
F.Z.S. Edinburgh : David Douglas. 



Tlie Grouse Family. 85 

birds immature and quite unable to fight for their lives, 
in other words they are heavily handicapped in favour 
of the sportsman. At maturity for sport the black- 
cock is a strong and cautious bird, well able to take 
care of itseK, more especially after exposure for a 
season to the gun. The cock bird is a free lover, and 
fights desperately with his companions when there is a 
lady in the case. As breeding time approaches the cocks 
in crowds seek the hens, and then begin their quarrels ; 
the birds being at times terribly pugnacious. Blackgame 
breed abundantly, the hen laying about nine eggs on 
the average; nests are made in rushy fields near a 
plantation. Eggs of the greyhen have been sold for 
those of the plover ; . in some districts this has tended to 
the decrease of the birds, which used at one time to be 
abundant in many of the counties of Scotland, living 
on the borders of plantations and among thick scrub in 
rocky places, nesting comfortably on the ground pro- 
tected by a tree or bit of rock. So long, of course, as 
the close time is fixed to terminate on 20th August, 
blackcock may then become lawfid prey ; many gentle- 
men say, "We are willing to let the bird have a fort- 
night's grace, but that would be of no avail unless our 
neighbours agree to join us." The proper i^an would 
be to get the close season legally extended. 

In the southern counties, where blackcock were once 
abundant, they are less plentiful, having some years 
ago been massacred in large numbers on a systematic 
plan. A respectable Scottish game-dealer being in- 
terrogated on the subject was good enough to inform 
me that he does not nowadays receive one blackcock 
and greyhen for the half-dozen he used to obtain some 
sixteen or twenty years ago. 



86 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

The "white grouse," as ptarmigan are sometimes 
called, are found above the snow line of the mountains 
of the northern and western Highlands ; these birds are 
not very plentiful in Scotland, although the females are 
pretty good breeders, laying on an average eight eggs, 
which are hatched in about twenty days, the nest being 
usually found on the bare ground ; and in the summer 
time it requires a practised eye to discover and shoot 
them on the hillsides, they look so like the stones 
among which they shelter and form their rough nests. 
In winter time the ptarmigan assume white robes, and 
live a life of solitude among the snow. It is an 
exceedingly beautiful and chameleon-like animal. 
Once upon a time, when skirting a mountain in the 
Highlands of Scotland, I alighted from the dog-cart to 
pick up a beautiful stone which I saw in the distance ; 
just as I got to the spot that stone became covered 
with feathers, and endowed with wings, arose and flew 
away — that stone was a ptarmigan ! Now a man may 
be in the very midst of a flock of these animals and not 
know it, they look so much a portion of their surround- 
ings, and at all times it takes a cute sportsman to stalk 
these birds. Ptarmigan, as stated, have become scarce, 
from what cause it is, however, difficult to say. This 
bird is really pretty just before it begins to cast its 
summer plumage and assume its winter feathers. 
" Ptarmigah-staUdng," as some sportsmen caU it, is 
'* fine fun," so many mistakes being made ; but so far 
as aiding the commissariat may be an object with those 
following the bird, there is nothing commendatory to 
be said. 

As a table bird the ptarmigan is rather a failure, its 
flesh being dry and strong, not nearly so palatable 



The Grouse Family. 87 

indeed as the flesh of many wild birds that can be 
obtained with much less trouble ; " but then it is bad 
to find and ill to kill," which gives zest to its pursuit, 
and the food question is never, therefore, a factor of any 
consequence with zealous sportsmen. The bird, in fact, 
is so scarce, that it can only be got in certain places ; 
and to get one at a time, and not many, is all that can 
be hoped for. Moreover, the close time prevents it 
being sought for after December. It is interesting to 
know that ptarmigan were at one time found on the 
hills of Galloway, but it is about fifty years since any 
of these birds were seen in the south of Scotland, which 
is to be regretted. As an object of natural history no 
other member of the grouse family presents so many 
features of interest 



( 88 ) 



CHAPTEE VII. 
Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 



As all who are interested know, it has been legally 
ordained that grouse shooting must not begin till the 
12th of August, and that it must end on the 10th of 
December is imperative. But birds on some moors in 
favourable years are ready for the gun, positively 
" wild " indeed, before that day, and might be shot in 
the last week of July, while on some areas of heather 
grouse are not ready till September has begun. It 
would not be easy, however, to fix upon a day that 
would be suitable for every moor in Scotland, and it is 
better therefore to let well alone, and stick to the day 
that has been ordained by statute ; but much can be 
said as usual on both sides of the question. 

" The case " for an alteration has been " put " by an 
economist in the following fashion. Grouse shooting, 
it must be kept in mind, has become more than mere 
sport. Even very wealthy gentlemeui in view of the 
large outlay involved in leasing a moor, axe compelled 
to send a large number of their birds to dealers, in 
order to aid their accounts by a credit entry from the 
game dealer, which, to speak the truth, never comes to 
much. The case then as regards a hard-and-fast line 
of commencement stands as follows : men whose grouse 
are ready for the gun, and who are themselves eager to 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 89 

commence, begin most punctually on the 12th, and, if 
prices should rule high, they secure a good figure for 
the early birds. On the other hand, if men whose 
birds are not ripe for the gun, begin to shoot them at 
the appointed time, their grouse would not command a 
good price ; while if they delay for a week they run 
the risk of the markets being glutted, no uncommon 
occurrence in these days of rapid transit. 

Some of my ideas about the economy of sport are no 
doubt a little behind the age; one of them is that 
whenever the commercial element obtains an entrance, 
sport ceases to be sport in the fine old-fashioned sense 
of the word. What, for instance, is the difference 
between " grouse driving " and the capture of salmon 
in wholesale quantities by a net ? To me the difference 
does not seem difficult to define, and to avow the simple 
truth, I am against " driving," as has been stated in the 
case of the deer. It is in no sense sporty to have the 
birds you are to shoot driven up by a zealous crowd of 
beaters to. the very muzzle of your gun ! To sit in a 
hut and fire at a flock of birds resistlessly forced to 
pass a given spot is, in my humble opinion, only 
poulterers' work even at its very best ; and those who 
make a practice of "driving" are but feather-bed 
sportsmen. It is always a pity when the commercial 
element is allowed to intrude itself into sport; it 
would be far better if men would be modest in their 
desires, and so regulate their expenditure as to leave it a 
matter of no moment how many head of game they and 
their friends should kill, or at what price birds were 
being quoted in Leadenhall Market. If birds were not 
marketed, it would not matter much to a man whether 
he began his work on the 12th or the 20th of August. 



90 Out-door Sports in Scotland. , 

Some of the more easily discerned features of grouse 
life have been described in the preceding chapter, but 
much yet remains to be discovered and related. For 
instance, we are all so ignorant of its natural history that 
none of us (in saying us I allude both to sportsmen 
pure and simple and men like myself, who dabble a 
little in the natural history of sport) seem to be able to 
explain how birds should be plentiful one season and 
scarce in another. That grouse possess an unequalled 
faculty of recuperation is well known. On occasions 
when moolrs have been largely depopulated by disease, 
they have become within two or three seasons more 
populous than ever they were. It is certain that in the 
course of every winter a large percentage of birds die 
in consequence of the inclemency of the weather, and 
from various other natural causes ; yet in the course of 
the next shooting season some positively gigantic bags 
will be made. What I want to know is, how that 
comes about ? I have studied and observed, and asked 
till I am tired: all I can make out of the situation 
is, that after all moors only breed and feed a limited 
number of birds, and that when that number is ex- 
ceeded, and the heather becomes overstocked, and food 
is scarce in consequence, Nature at once begins her 
remedial measures. Till moors are full the work of 
reproduction assiduously goes on, there being plenty 
both of food and space for the wants of the birds, and 
so long as these conditions continue, the sportsman 
may enjoy sport to the top of his bent. The severe 
storms of December and January probably help to 
purify the heather ; they certainly weed out thfi weak- 
lings of the flock. 

It is difficult to determine what number of birds can 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 91 

be bred and fed on a hundred acres of heather. We 
can only guess ; but this much has been ascertained, 
namely, that a moor situated in a lowland district, 
which was literally without a single brace of grouse 
one year, quite swarmed with these birds in the third 
season following. 

A few years ago Mr. Andrew Lamb, a well-known 
game-dealer in Scotland, made up for my use the 
following statement, the figures and conclusions of 
which may be held as being on the whole pretty 
correct, taken, of course, for merely illustrative pur- 
poses. They refer to the moor just alluded to, in which 
the gentleman referred to had a pecuniary interest. 

Supposing not one brace of grouse to have been left 
on five thousand acres of heather in the year one; 
comparatively few birds were seen in the year two ; but 
two hundred and seventy brace were shot on said moor 
in the year three. Taking it for granted that some 
fifty pair of birds migrated to the vacant heather in 
the autumn of year two, and that each pair success- 
fully bred and brought up a covey of ten young ones, 
that would have yielded a stock in the year three of 
five hundred birds, which would not be nearly enough 
to afford the number shot and leave a breeding stock. 
It would require at least one hundred brace of grouse 
to have begun the replenishment of the moor ; but it 
is abundantly curious that barren moors are speedily 
found out by the birds and quickly re-stocked. In 
some seasons certain moors became so thickly populated 
with birds as to have been estimated to contain dozens 
to the acre ! We know really little about the grouse ; 
it is a shy bird, and recedes as far and as fast as it can 
from the haunts of man. 



92 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Year by year grouse become more and more abundant, 
and many there be, both sportsmen and naturalists, 
who marvel at their reproductive power. In some 
winters the mortality is known to be excessively high, 
but lo ! on the twelfth it is announced that birds never 
were so plentiful. Anon an epidemic courses through 
the heather, and grouse die in hundreds or even 
thousands, but in a year or two the moors, we are told, 
are positively over-stocked. How was it with these 
birds a hundred years ago ? Then there was a larger 
expanse of heather for their accommodation than there 
is to-day, and if the moors were as populous then as 
they are known to be at present, what became of the 
birds ? Were their foes more numerous or their food 
more plentiful a hundred years ago than in the present 
year ? As shall be shown in the proper place, hundreds 
of thousands of these birds now reach the markets* 

Sixty years since, in the days of Sir Walter Scott, 
"moor-fowl" were seldom sold; a few were given in 
presents, and a hundred or two might reach the markets. 
Now there is an incessant demand at what may be 
called fair prices, and in consequence, much is done to 
provide a constant and increasing supply; and to 
ensure this supply, enemies of the bird are being care- 
fully and constantly extirpated with remorseless vigour. 
The " bird of sport " has numerous foes. The peregrine 
falcon is constantly teasing them all the year round. 
That dreadful vagabond, the " hoodie crow," is death 
upon the grouse. So say those who know. One natu- 
ralist writes, " I have heard of an estate on which, in 
1864, there lived in great peace and prosperity a dolony 
of crows. One year 400 of. these were killed, and in 
that same season there were only about 100 grouse on the 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor, 93 

estate ; after the lapse of a season or two, when the 
crows had been so reduced that only a colony of 40 was 
left, over 400 brace of grouse were obtained. Moral — 
If you grow your crows you exterminate your grouse ! " 
All statements as to the havoc played by crows and 
other vermin in the game preserves have usually two 
sides to them, and must therefore be accepted with 
caution. An endeavour will be made in a future 
chapter to show which of the vermin are really dan- 
gerous on the grouse moors and partridge preserves. 

On many of the chief points of grouse-moor economy, 
very different opinions are known to prevail ; no two 
persons, for instance, will agree as to what number of 
birds a hundred acres will bi^ed and feed. A clue of 
a somewhat dubious kind is afforded by the rent exacted 
from tenants. Each brace of grouse is supposed all 
over to cost the lessee of a moor one pound, and the 
rents of moors run from tenpence to half-a-crown an 
acre, with houses on them. Many sportsmen put the 
average at two shillings (which is, perhaps, rather liigh), 
but for illustrative purposes that figure will serve for 
the present. At this rate a shooting of one thousand 
acres will cost in rent alone a sum of one hundred 
pounds, and that area of heather ought to yield one 
hundred brace of grouse, whilst fifty brace should be 
left as breeding stock. Counting that there will be 
about a hundred nests on a thousand acres, and that 
each of these will contain seven or eight eggs, that will 
give a total of say 750, but as a matter of course a large 
percentage of these will be lost. The account at the 
termination of the hatching season should about stand 
as follows : — ^Addled eggs, 34 ; eggs lost in consequence 
of accidents to parent grouse, 46 ; eggs destroyed by 



94 Out-door Sports in Scotlatid. 

the forces of Nature, such as rain, snow, &c., 52 ; eggs 
which fall a prey to vermin of various kinds, 48 ; total, 
180, which leaves 570 to produce young birds, of which 
200 are shot, the remainder being left as stock, leaving 
the parent birds and those over from sport to furnish 
food to their numerous enemies, or to be destroyed by 
" the disease " and weather influences ; the percentage 
doomed to destruction may look large, but. there are 
men who, from long observation, will say the number 
is not exaggerated. 



IT. 

Few persons know much of the economic considera- 
tions which govern the letting and the leasing of a 
grouse moor or a deer forest. On behalf of the leasing 
class, it may be weU to state a few of the more 
pertinent facts which are incidental to taking and 
occupying a grouse moor. There are moors and forests 
of many sizes, ranging from fifty or sixty acres to an 
expanse that has to be measured in miles. The rents 
exacted are suitable to purses of every kind, and the 
conditions of " tack " vary considerably. A stretch of 
heather may be shared with one, or, it may be, several 
brother sportsmen, or one may become the exclusive 
lord, for a season or two, of ten thousand acres ; as 
the showman has it, " You pays your money and you 
takes your choice." Your moor may cost but forty 
pounds a year, or it may be ten or twenty times as 
much ; it is all a matter of extent and bargain. 

Having, as the saying goes, " made his market," the 
tenant, it may be assumed, will be on the ground in 
good time to begin the business of the season. Till 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 95 

" the twelfth " dawns he is quite in ignorance of how 
his bargain may turn out. On the eventful day, or 
soon after, he may discover to his great mortification 
that he has been " done," and that on his moor there 
are very few birds to kill. Such events have happened 
pretty often — ^indeed these things are always happening, 
although they are seldom brought under public notice. 
And on occasion barren moors have been let in complete 
good faith, the heather having been shot bare by the 
preceding tenant without the knowledge of either pro- 
prietor or factor. There are still left a few members of 
the old pot-shooting band, who used to go about in 
search of moors on which to perform their deadly 
mission. Those are simply " poultrymen," with them 
"sport" is of no moment,, their ideas of shooting being 
sordid in the extreme. They stain the heather with 
the blood of every bird they can find. I remember 
when many of the lesser Scottish moors were taken 
during several seasons by gangs of men who shot only 
for profit; they were not particular as to times or 
seasons ; to get the grouse they killed early to market, 
so as to secure the top prices, was what they cared for 
— to harry the ground was essential for their success ; 
they had no care 'for those whose destiny it was to 
follow them; if they could help it, not one brace of 
birds would be left to provide a stock for future 
sportsmen. 

It is not to be wondered at in the face of such doings 
that lairds and factors became stem and unbendiner 
as to terms of lease, of which there are many kinds, 
most of them, however, containing clauses regulating 
the annual slaughter of the birds. As a rule, in the 
case of the shorter " tacks," lairds insist upon their own 



96 Oiit'doov Sports in Scotland. 

keepers and gillies being employed. Some shootings, 
it is well known, are rented on the conditions of a lease 
being granted extending over several years, other 
stretches of heather are only taken for the season, hence 
the precautions hinted at. Happily, all over Scotland 
there are moors on which the birds never fail, and seem 
to know no diminution, no matter how briskly the sport 
may be carried on. There are delightful stretches of 
heather on which it is at all times a pleasure to take 
one's daily modicum of sport. There dwells in the 
chambers of my memory three or four pleasant shoot- 
ings on which grouse have never even been attacked by 
the disease, and where large numbers have been killed 
in the past, and where, let sportsmen work their very 
hardest, there seems as if there would be no falling off 
in the future, bar such a calamity as "the disease" 
breaking out. When such a calamity does occur, the 
grouse in thousands fall a prey to that mysterious 
malady, for which, as yet, there has not been found a 
cure, the origin of which is unknown, and the end 
difficult to foresee. Like the potato blight, the salmon 
disease, and other mysterious calamities, the malady 
which occasionally attacks the " bird of the heather," so 
far as cause or cure is concerned, or, what would be still 
better, " prevention," remains to be dealt witL As most 
sportsmen can doubtless remember, there were seasons 
when the grouse were so thinned down by " the disease" 
that no sport to speak of was obtained. But, as has 
been indicated, the recuperative power of the bird is so 
wonderful, that in the course of a short time the heather 
becomes again alive with its familiar occupants. 

Speculation has of late been excited as to how breeds 
of grouse might be improved, and so strengthened as ti» 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 97 

render them constitutionally impervious to disease. 
But when the hand of man is intruded on such occasions 
it sometimes does mischief. In the case of wild animals 
" in-breeding " cannot be prevented, and to in-breeding, 
among other evUs, the periodical outbreaks of grouse 
disease have by some economists been ascribed; but it 
is a fact within the ken of natural history students, that 
wild birds circulate themselves by force of instinct, 
and it has been found in the case of a depopulated 
stretch of heather, that birds flock to it during the 
next breeding season even from distant moors, so that 
the breeding stock speedUy becomes sufliciently aug- 
mented to provide the necessary population, and in 
four years birds may be again as thick on the heather 
as they were before. Grouse of different districts can 
easily be distinguished from each other. A dealer 
will readily tell a Caithness bird from one grown on 
the wilds of Wigtownshire ; just as a fishmonger can 
easily distinguish a salmon of one river from that of 
another. 

The strengthening of our breeds of grouse has, in the 
face of the periodical outbursts of disease, been recom- 
mended by all who take an intelligent interest in sport. 
The extinction of that bird, which it was at one time 
feared might happen, would prove a serious calamity to 
Scotland, and it is well that several gentlemen have 
already begun experiments with a view to " changing 
the blood." His Grace the Duke of Hamilton has been 
a moving spirit in experiments of the kind. With 
the view of improving his birds, his Grace on two occa- 
sions transferred a number of grouse taken from his 
moors on Lanarkshire to the heather of the Island of 
Arran, at the mouth of the Clyde, and happily success 

H 



98 OiU-doar Sports in Scotland. 

attended the experiments ; his island grouse soon became 
" as good again as they used to be," I was told by a 
keeper who had helped at the business, and I have been 
also told that the Arran birds have continued ever since 
to feel the beneficial effects of the new blood. Several 
similar experiments in the way of placing birds have 
been made during the last three or four seasons, but 
with what result has not become public. 

Various modes of efifecting a "change of blood" 
among the grouse have from time to time been discussed, 
with pretty much the usual result, however, namely, 
that no uniform plan has as yet been agreed upon — 
those operating in the matter doing what seems in 
their opinion to be the right thing, but it is thought 
that some plan of dealing with the eggs is the likeliest 
to prove successful. A hill shepherd with whom I had 
some conversation on the subject is of that opinion, and 
shepherds as a rule know far more about the grouse 
than keepers or gillies, and the shepherd of the grouse 
hills is a man to be cultivated — he has much in his 
.power. 

The person just referred to is Sandy Coghill, a 
man to whom at various times I have been greatly 
indebted for reliable and out-of-the-way information 
about sporting matters and the natural history of the 
birds and beasts of the chase. Sandy has passed all 
his days on the heathery braes of Glenshangie, and has 
been engaged in many different avocations in connection 
with country craft ; he began the working time of his 
life as a herd boy when nine years of age, and, as became 
the son of a crofter, had a trial at " the fishing," and 
had been " at the herring " for several consecutive years ; 
then he was employed as gillie, and carried the bag, 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 99 

or rowed a boat on the salmon water for nearly all the 

tenants of Glenshangie, till in the decline of his days 

he settled down in charge of a flock of sheep. He is 

familiar with the sights and sounds of nature, by day 

and night, in all seasons of the year. Sandy has seen 

the sun rise and set day by day, and known the vast 

stretches of purple heather when they were bright as 

the morning and beautiful as a painting, and he has 

been on the moors when the fierce winds of winter were 

sweeping over them with a power that was irresistible, 

and when the heather was buried in snow his footsteps 

were deeply printed on it. Sixty-three "twelfths" 

have dawned on Glenshangie since Sandy first saw the 

light of day, and he has followed to the grave in the old 

kirkyard the coffins of two lairds and of a host of 

friends ; but Sandy himseK is well preserved, and talks 

as briskly as ever he did. 

" I can tell you, sir," were his words to me on one of 
my visits, " how you can do that job best ; it's not by 
bringing strange birds to strange moors that you will 
do it, for the beasties will die before they have time to 
know where they are ; if they are chicks, the old ones will 
most likely kill them, or vermin will get at them, and 
their time is up. The right way is to change the eggs ; 
that can be done easy enough, and will be likely to 
succeed, because if an egg or two be dropped into a 
nest the bird will never know the difference, and will 
hatch them with her own. Tm sure there is not, a 
better way of doing the thing, and that will be seen 
when it is properly tried ; but I am really not sure if 
it's worth doing at all ; you may be quite sure, sir, 
that the Creator of the birds provided for all the 
contingencies and vicissitudes of their lives." 

H 2 

102436 



100 Out- door Sports in Scotland. 

But ill grouse breeding, as in everything else, " doctors 
dififer," and there are men who hold that the mission of 
" Nature " is only to show the way, and that whenever 
possible we must follow up her teachings, and, guided 
by our intelligence, complete the wondrous tale of 
creation. But in doing so I fear we fall into errors. 
We sent the rabbit to the Antipodes, where it has 
become a curse; we gave America the sparrow, and 
now America reviles us for the gift. 

My friend Sandy has also expressed on various occa- 
sions some very pronounced opinions of his own as to 
" the disease," and about heather burning, of which he 
is an ardent advocate. His opinion that the disease is 
" a belly question," in other words, that it arises from 
the eating of improper food, is now coming to be a belief 
in the miiids of numerous intelligent sportsmen : and a 
preventive, and it is an easy one, consists in systematic 
burning of the heather, not of course all at once, but bit 
by bit, here and there, so that a yearly succession of 
tender buds may be at the service of the young birds. 
Burning, as a rule, is rather late in being accomplished ; 
would it not be better to burn on extensive moors just 
as the sap descends from the rank old heather, say at 
the end of December and beginning of January instead 
of in March and April, as is now the custom ? By the 
present mode young shoots are few and far between till 
a year has elapsed ; new roots have, however, been found 
in the summer immediately following burning. On a 
moor covering an area of, say, two thousand acres, the 
burning may extend over three, four or five years — 
neither lairds rior tenants being agreed as to time — ^the 
space burned in any one season being, say, from four to 
six hundred acres in patches of from fifty to a hundred, 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 101 

at several places as may best suit the contour of the 
ground. In this way a constant succession of palatable 
young heather might be obtained, and how the tender 
buds delight the chicks can be seen by men who are on 
the tramp about the time the little ones have commenced 
to run. 

" It's the fine young sprouts o' the heather, sir, that's 
best for the birdies," said Sandy, " and when there is a 
fine natural year, that is, as ye ken, when the spring 
does not come on till the proper time, say in March, 
you're sure to have a fine supply of meat for the 
wee chirpers that leave their nests in May and June, 
because, ye see, there is no interruption to the growth 
of the heather ; but when the buds come too soon, and 
then get nippit by the frost, it's a very bad case for 
the birdies both old and young." 

Of late years " the disease " has happily been rare, con- 
sidering the enormous head of grouse on the Scottish 
heather. Many economists hope that, by constant sys- 
tematic burning and by means of intelligent " mixing " 
of the breeds of distant districts, the disease might be 
altogether prevented, a consummation devoutly wished 
for both by landlords and lessees. As to "how to 
shoot a moor," who shall dare to give directions ? It 
is a point on which few of those most interested can be 
found to agree. In the " hurry scurry " that now takes 
place at the opening of the season, some men rush 'to 
those parts of their moor which are known to be crowded 
with birds, and these are remorselessly shot down, the 
next best beat being then selected, and so on throughout 
the twelve or twenty days that can be afforded for the 
sport. There are economists who plan their sport in a 
different fashion, and who prefer to take first of all the 



102 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

outlying beats, or what may he termed the fringes of 
their moor ; these gentlemen shoot home, and are con- 
tented with smaller bags, perhaps, than their neighbours. 
On many moors it has now become a fashion to conclude 
the sport of the season with two or more drives, at 
which great execution is often done, hundreds of birds 
being killed. 

In Scotland the arithmetic of grouse shooting has 
never been very precisely expiscated, and in England 
the figures, unless those pertaining to a few big bags, 
are still less known. In the " land of the mountain 
and the flood," an economist has calculated there are 
about 3000 shootings, great and small, which on 
the average of years wiU yield from 300,000 to 
400,000 birds. "This," he says, "is the way I arrive 
at my conclusion : — ^Assuming, on the average, that five 
persons will have a few days on each stretch of heather, 
that gives fifteen thousand sportsmen ; and, were each 
gun to bring down twenty-five brace, that would make 
up the grouse harvest of an ordinary year. An average 
of only five persons may seem a rather scanty number ; 
but many moors are so small as scarcely to yield sport 
for even one gun. On the other hand, relays of visitors 
arrive at larger shooting-lodges, in a hundred of which 
there may be assembled at one time a dozen death- 
dealing shots." 

This estimate, viewing it all round, is, I think, 
moderate ; it simply means little more than a hundred 
brace for each Scottish moor, and one would think that 
number might be easily obtained, seeing there are 
moors which yield three to six times the number; 
in some instances a thousand brace — ay, and more than 
that. The liberal figures given by the press as to 



Natural Economy of a Grouse Moor. 103 

the abundance of the grouse supply have often been 
called in question ; but, read in the light in which 
I have just placed them, they have certainly not been 
over-stated, five hundred thousand brace of grouse 
having before now been put down as the yield of the 
Scottish moors, which means, of course, one million 
birds, and a million, as every person knows, represents 
a vast number, as will be obvious when it is stated that 
one man shooting at the rate of fifty brace per diem 
would require over 9000 week-days, or about thirty 
years, to Mil such a quantity of grouse 1 

The grouse-shooting season of last year (1889) had 
no sooner ended than pessimistic prophecies, consequent 
on a partial outbreak of the disease which had occurred 
on some stretches of Scottish heather, began to be 
circulated. A most calamitous season was predicted 
in 1890, while the two following years, it was said, 
would prove little better. Happily, at the time of pre- 
paring these pages for the printer (May 1890), no signs 
are observable of any disease; hatching is going on 
most favourably, and good sport on "The Twelfth," 
and many days to follow, is being anticipated. Good 
judges, indeed, are of opinion that with the improved 
conditions of heather-burning which are now in vogue, 
and the exertions that have been made to improve the 
breeds, disease will never again prevail in the virulent 
forms it assumed some years since ; but that of course 
remains to be seen. 



( 104 ) 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

The Political Economy of Spoet. 

Sport has of late years been much discussed in political 
circles, and it is not perhaps too much to say that these 
discussions have been carried on in a rather "dog in 
the manger " spirit. 

Eepeated attacks have been made in Parliament on 
the owners of "forests" for occupying land with deer 
which might be turned to more valuable uses, but the 
area given up to the stag is tmfit for cattle or sheep- 
feeding; as an outspoken member of the House of 
Commons said, "It would take thirty acres of such 
ground to graze a snipe ! " As sheep-feeding areas the 
deer forests will never be of much account, five acres of 
such land being required as a rule to afford food for one 
sheep. The contention as between cattle and sheep- 
feeding, or the continued use of the land as deer forests, 
has of late been elevated into the region of sentiment, 
but the whole question lies in the matter of rent : no 
proprietor of a deer forest can be expected to accept 
ninepence an acre for his ground as a sheep run, when 
he can obtain a shilling or more for it as a deer forest. 
A red-hot Eadical, a landed proprietor recently elected 
to represent an important Scottish county in Scotland, 
was accused at the time of his candidature of bein^ in 



The Political Economy of Sport. 105 

possession of a deer forest ; his reply was, " The ground 
is only fit for wild animals, and as a deer forest it is 
put to its best use." 

It has been proved that very large sums of money 
have been expended in the Highlands by owners and 
tenants of deer forests; one gentleman gave it in 
evidence, that his expenditure over a period of eighteen 
years embraced a sum of £105,000 ; another gentle- 
man expended eighty thousand pounds more than 
that. Quite as many men are employed on a deer- 
forest estate as there would be on a sheep run of the 
same area, and at rather better wages. The persons 
employed in the forests and on the grouse-shooting 
grounds are drawn chiefly from the crofter population, 
and they like their employment, many of them, indeed, 
being able to save small sums of money, which in other 
circumstances they would not have been able to accu- 
mula;te. It is, perhaps, not necessary to remind the 
reader that had it not been for the " sporting interest," 
the Highlands of Scotland would have differed little to- 
day from the condition they were in a hundred years 
since. By means of railways and the steamboat the 
country has been opened up so widely that all parts of 
it are now accessible to the tourist and the sportsman, 
whilst hundreds of persons find employment in connec- 
tion with the traffic at remunerative wages. 

Some fifteen years ago the figures in dispute as 
between deer forests and sheep runs were carefully 
worked out by an economist, who took great interest 
in the question, and who has frankly admitted, on the 
strength of his own figures, that deer forests are more 
productive than sheep walks. The same writer was 
among the first to expound what may be termed the 



106 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

political economy of the question, in respect to whether 
deer forests or sheep runs would be of most benefit 
to the poor labourers of the Highlands. His contention 
was (he died three years ago) that the tenant annually 
spends a sum equal to his rent; his — ^the tenant's — 
commissariat is derived from immediate towns or 
neighbouring hxm^ ; he gives employment to a numerous 
band of servants and hangers-on, watchers, gillies, &c. ; 
money is liberally expended in repairs and buildings, 
roads have also to be maintained. All who labour in 
the districts are benefited sooner or later by the tenants 
of the shooting lodges. Benevolence abounds: the 
ladies are charitable, and the deserving poor obtain the 
benefit. With the land under sheep or cattle, no 
expenditure on the lines indicated is called for, while 
for each shepherd or cattle-herd that might in such case 
find work, the deer forest employs two or three men. 

Following in the line of the foregoing statements, 
it may be now remarked that out of Parliament 
there are politicians, or rather " agitators," who insist 
that grouse-shooting and deer-stalking should be " put 
down." These persons, it is almost superfluous to say, 
speak in ignorance. '' Perish all such sports," says one 
sentimental Member of the House of Commons, in 
speaking of hunting and other field sports. That 
gentleman is one of those "friends" by whom the 
working classes suffer so much. He would, by his 
" putting-down " process, probably deprive fifty thousand 
persons, who are now earning wages by means of the 
sports and pastimes of the country, of their livelihood. 
That legislator has forgotten, or probably has never 
known, that heather is only a home for grouse, or at its 
best affords scanty food for a few flocks of sheep, and 



The Political Economy of Sport. 107 

also that the filmost boundless tracts of land in the 
heart of the Highlands devoted to deer would be of 
less value — that is, they would produce less rent — as 
grazing ground for cattle. The economic aspect of 
these vast areas has often been discussed, and it is 
well that two Members of Parliament (on the Liberal 
side of the House) have recently had the courage 
to tell the "plain truth" regarding deer forests for 
breeding and feeding oxen, or for farming. It is 
perfectly true that in some forests there are scattered 
areas of fine pasture grass ; but were cattle to be 
fed upon these, that circumstance would militate very 
much against the letting of the whole tract as a 
deer forest, the proprietor thinking, and thinking no 
doubt rightly in his own interest, that it is better 
to obtain at the rate of one shilling and sixpence 
per acre for the whole of the area than to let two or 
three hundred acres at the rate of a pound each, and 
have the remainder left on his hands, because cattle 
and deer will not herd together. On the grouse moors, 
however, sheep may be fed, where these animals can 
find food, without detriment to the birds; and in 
all districts of the Highlands sheep are still being 
largely fed. 

Although the information obtained by means of 
Lord Napier's Committee has now been at the service 
of politicians for several years, they seem determined 
not to make use of it. As a matter of fact, it tends to 
confute their long-cherished "imaginative" facts and 
figures, and leave them destitute of much of the 
capital with which they carried on their work of agita- 
tion. Their fine-spun theories and sentimental deduc- 
tions were undoubtedly shipwrecked by the report of 



108 Out-door Sports in Scotland, 

the Committee in question, but they refuse to Sjee it. 
That five acres of the kind of land " devoted to deer 
instead of to the use of animals that would contribute to 
the food of man " are required to feed one sheep has 
been proved beyond doubt. "We believe," says the 
report, "that on the best forest land it takes about 
four acres to graze a sheep, and on the worst perhaps 
eight acres ; but these are both extremes, and over the 
greater portion of the land devoted to deer forests we 
believe the average number of acres required to graze 
a sheep cannot be less than five." That statement 
effectually disposes of the absurd contention that sheep 
can be grazed throughout the Highlands on a space of 
an acre and a-quarter for each animal. 

It is not the case, as some "agitators" have been 
maintaining on various political platforms, that deer 
have totally superseded sheep in the Highlands, con- 
siderably over two millions of these useful contributors 
to the national commissariat being still (chiefly) 
summer-fed in the northern counties. Want of space 
forbids me to enter iiito full particulars of Highland 
sheep-feeding, although it would probably prove inter- 
esting to describe the economy of that particular 
business, the incidence of which has been changing 
considerably throughout the last ten or twelve years ; 
a visit to some of the " wedder farms " of Eoss-shire, 
places where ewes could not be fed, would prove 
interesting. The wonder of strangers used at one time 
to be greatly excited by the lengthened trains of sheep 
in course of being transported to the Lowlands for 
winter keep. "Ah, sir," said a small farmer to the 
writer, " sheep-farming hereabout is not so good as I 
can remember it, the border farmers don't find the 



The Political Economy of Sport. 109 

business pay anything like so well as it once did either 
for flesh or wool ; I have been told that they can nowa- 
days bring mutton all the way from the other side of 
the world at a cost of a ha-penny the pound, and you 
can grow sheep in New Zealand till they are fit to kill"* 
for three or four shillings each." 

Were the red deer of Scotland to be totally exter- 
minated or to become greatly reduced in numbers, and 
sheep to be put on the land at the rate of one to every 
five acres so gained, that would only mean the addition 
of 400,000 more sheep than there are at the present 
time, or a total for the four Highland counties of 
Argyle, Inverness, Eoss, and Sutherland of say two and 
a half millions. But more sheep, it is said, are being at 
present bred and fed in the north than can be sold at 
remunerative prices. Far-away countries are sending 
us their cheaply-fed mutton, and are able to undersell 
our home breeders in their own markets. About all 
this the Napier Commission made painstaking in- 
quiry and gave a reasonable deliverance of their 
opinion, the gist of which was as follows: — "We 
believe that if it were not for deer forests, and if 
the present condition of sheep farms is prolonged, 
much of the land in the Highlands might become 
temporarily unoccupied or be occupied on terms ruinous 
to the proprietor." 

In other words, the conclusion bound to be arrived at 
is exceedingly simple, and resolves itself into the very 
easy question of which party can afford to pay the 
biggest rent. If a proprietor can obtain Is. M. per acre 
for his land to be occupied as a deer forest, would it be 
just to compel him to let it for any other purpose at 
Is. per acre ? On this point the Commission gave no 



110 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

uncertain deliverance: "We have considered it our 
duty," they said, " to record unequivocally the opinion 
that the dedication of large areas exclusively to the 
purposes of sport, as at present practised in the High- 
lands, does not involve a substantial diminution of food 
supply to the nation, and we have amply recognized 
the various benefits which are in many cases associated 
with the sporting system, where it is exercised in a 
liberal and judicious spirit." 

Another much-made-of contention of the agitators 
was shown by the report of the Committee riot to be 
founded on fact. A few lines dispose effectually of 
the matter. "The number of persons permanently 
employed in connection with deer forests as compared 
with sheep farms is about the same, the persons em- 
ployed all the year round being foresters in the one case 
and shepherds in the other ; and in regard to temporary 
or occasional employment the advantage is in favour of 
deer forests." 

The conclusion of the whole matter as regards the 
vast area of land now occupied as deer forests may be 
summed up by the assertion that it is put to the most 
profitable use for its owner that could be found for it. 
Of that fact no other evidence is required than that 
sheep-feeders find it would not pay them to ofifer a 
higher rent than what is now paid by sportsmen. 
There can be no doubt whatever that an increase of 
twopence an acre of additional rent would at once 
be accepted. The whole question involved in the con- 
troversy of " Sheep or Deer " is simply one of rent, and 
with mutton and wool at present prices the flock- 
masters are unable to compete with the deer-slayers. 
Nor would the people as a whole, as I have endeavoured 



The Political Economy of Sport. Ill 

to show, benefit so largely from Highland sheep-feeding 
as they do now from deer-stalking. 

I noticed lately with some regret that a politician, a 
Member of Parliament, who runs a popular weekly 
newspaper, busied himself in sneering at lessees of 
grouse moors who sell a portion of their birds. But 
what, I wonder, could be done with them, other than send 
them to market ? Birds are liberally enough given in the 
way of presents ; but when the lessee of a grouse moor 
has at his command twelve or fifteen hundred brace of 
grouse, what can he do with four-fifths of them other 
than sell them for what they will bring — although 
the sum received will not probably be a fifth part of 
what they cost him ? Nor can the heather be turned to 
any ' better use. In some parts of the Highlands 
portions have been, or are in course of being reclaimed, 
but, as a rule, reclamation does not pay. As one of the 
sporting lairds said a year or two ago, " I should be 
very glad indeed if I could change a few hundred acres 
of my heather into fields of golden grain or into potato 
or grass land, but alas, for my ambition to do so, it can 
only be accomplished at the rate of about thirty-five 
shillings to the pound, and I cannot afford it." As to 
the selling of superfluous grouse, I cannot see why a 
gentleman who publishes and sells a sixpenny news- 
paper, even though he is a Member of Parliament, 
should take objection or think the doing so an ignoble 
act. 

It is sport that has been the largest factor in the 
present prosperity of the Highlands, where may now 
be found in many places, at one time untrodden by the 
foot of man, schools and churches well attended by an 
intelligent and God-fearing population, as well as 



112 Oui'door Sports in Scotland. 

houses and whole villages, the building of which and 
the construction of the necessary roads from place 
to iplace has afforded remunerative employment to 
hundreds of the population; and to-day sportsmen 
require an army of retainers who earn a fair living 
for themselves and families. Those employed on the 
moors and in the deer forests — gamekeepers, foresters, 
and gillies — are nearly aU men and boys who have 
been reared on the scene. The persons indicated and 
the mechanics and tradesmen dependent on them for 
employment or the sale of their goods, would be unable 
to keep up their schools and churches were it not for 
the large contributions which the rates derive from 
sporting tenants. Many additional pages of this work 
might be devoted to arguments and illustrations for and 
against the continuance of deer forests, but there is one 
factor of the case that cannot be set aside ; it has been 
already referred to, and represents the logic of the whole 
case, namely, that graziers can have as much land as 
ever they like at the same rent as sportsmen. 

" Down with fox-hunting ! " is assuredly one of the 
most absurd cries that a Member of Parliament pro- 
fessing friendship for the working man can start a 
career of agitation with. Fox-hunting is one of the 
sports that requires to be ministered to by a perfect 
array of artizans, saddlers, bootmakers, tailors, black- 
smiths, weavers of horse-cloths, hatters and others; 
whilst the erection of kennels and hunting stables has 
been largely a means of giving employment to the 
building trades. Farm servants are employed in raising 
fodder for the hunting horses, for which a regiment of 
attendants are required at fair wages all the year round. 
And yet there are men actually elected to serve in 



The Political Economy of Sport. 113 

Parliament by working men who exclaim, *' Down with 
fox-hunting ! " 

Other sports might be mentioned that have come in 
for deniinciation by political agitators, who, having 
themselves no soul for sport, would reduce aU to their 
level. No kind of property is safe from these levellers. 
One may have bought, at a cost of many thousand 
pounds, a fine deer forest, only to find himself confronted 
by a Bill in Parliament to open up his land to all and 
sundry, and to give over his trout and salmon streams 
to those who like to fish them. This may seem an 
exaggerated way of putting the case, but it is founded 
on fact. Some of the " dog in the manger " men, who 
do not care for sport themselves, and seem not to be 
able to endure that other men should possess these 
sporting amenities for which they have paid, are 
zealously advocating the opening up of other people's 
moors and mountains (to those who did not pay for 
them), and th6 handing over of their streams to men 
who would speedily make short work with the fish, 
which are everywhere in need of more protection than 
is now afforded them. It almost looks as if in late 
years the law-breakers in sporting districts had been 
encouraged by men who ought to have known better ; it 
was painful to read a little time ago of the sympathy 
accorded to the deer-slayers and salmon-poachers of the 
Island of Lewis, and the sad want of sympathy evinced 
to the lady who owns the land, for whom not one of the 
'* agitators,*' or liberal newspaper writers, had one word 
of commiseration, although she could not get payment 
of her rents from her crofters, who lately did their best 
by their lawlessness to scare away the big tenants who 
did so much for the island by the payment of the heavy 

I 



114 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

taxes exacted from them. The crofters of the period 
have been adopted by the " agitators/' who have made 
the very most of them, they have been sympathized 
with as having in the past been rack-rented, the fact 
being that most of them only paid a very small portion 
of the rent agreed upon, and have now been legally 
relieved of about half of the sums which had accumu- 
lated in the name of " arrears." More than that, some 
of the " agitators " desire that the holdings of their 
protigis should be increased, and that men who have 
not capital enough to crop and cultivate eight acres of 
land should have twelve or twenty acres handed over 
to them ! 



( 115 ) 



CHAPTEE IX. 

On the Heather. 

The incidence of grouse-shooting, as is well known, has 
undergone some changes. I remember when many of 
the moors be^an to be occupied in the beginning of 
July, or even earlier where there was good fishing, and 
on which the tenants would remain till October, and 
often enough till the middle of November, whilst very 
keen sportsmen, with an occasional break of a fort* 
night, would make out the whole period during which 
it is lawful to shoot. 

Nowadays, not a few of our very best sportsmen 
are well content with ten days at the grouse, whilst 
a six weeks' sojourn is a long time for many of them ; 
but as a gentleman of my acquaintance says, " Such 
flying visits won't do for my money; I must have 
a couple of months at least on the heather, and to 
that resolve my wife says ditto, whilst my young folks 
would make a longer stay if they were permitted. My 
railway fares to and fro, for self and household, cost me 
over a fifty-pound note — it would be hard, wouldn't it, 
to expend such a sum in travelling for a mere ten or 
fifteen days on my grouse moor ? " 

Signs of the " Twelfth " begin to be noted here and 
there in the North at an early date, when some active 

I 2 



116 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

member of a southern sportsman's family comes to spy 
the land and " prospect " the hill-sides of his father's 
shooting in order to find out how the birds are 
thriving. But even earlier in the year, some time in 
June most likely, the keeper will have forwarded a 
homely report to his master as to how the old birds have 
wintered and how the young ones are thriving, or the 
lessee of the moor may in propria persona have visited 
his shooting about the end of May, impatient to know 
how matters are looking. Near the grand day in some 
places, family parties arrive on the scene. The three 
great lines of railway leading to Edinburgh and 
Glasgow soon begin to indicate that the twelfth is well 
in view. Sporting dogs, bundles of fishing-rods, guns 
of many kinds, and other paraphernalia which will be 
called into use when they get " there," are seen on the 
platform. Ladies in happy parties may be descried 
in the carriages shaking their children and themselves 
into comfortable positions, men-servants are making 
themselves useful, whilst the gentlemen of the party, 
with fragrant cigars in their mouths, are taking it 
coolly till the signal to start is given. 

From Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield. 
. contingents, as August draws nigh, are seen en route to 
Scotland, on their way to the moors. Note, for 
instance, the address on yonder trunk; it is "Mrs. 
Lancashire, Glen Hoolichan Castle, by Killih, Perth- 
shire," and besides the trunk a full score of other boxes 
and packages, similarly addressed, are to be seen, and 
there are a dozen persons in the party, counting maid- 
servants and men-servants, likewise masters and misses, 
radiant with delight, of course, as befits the occasion. 

It \yiU be worth while to follow this party. 



On the Heather. 117 

The Glen Hoolichan heather is well worthy of a 
visit ; it is thirteen miles from the burial-place of the 
Macnabs, and rich in grouse and other " material for 
the gun " ; not infrequently a fine hart, and every now 
and then a roebuck, appears on the ground, and after 
" the first," on the lower districts the metallic twitter 
of a covey of partridges is full often heard. Then 
there is the Loch of Hoolich, with its occasional salmon 
and its wealth of trout, fine two-pounders that, seeming 
to know their value pretty weU, tax the powers of 
those who angle for them. As for the miscellaneous 
birds and beasts, they are almost numberless, and 
Robert Lancashire exacts tribute from the lot with 
persistent punctuality. 

" Some of them wild birds," he says, " are better to 
eat than grouse." 

At Edinburgh the party are met by Sandy Fraser, 
a favourite gillie, whom the ladies and children 
examine and cross-examine rigorously about all the 
living things at the Castle — dogs, cows and pony-pets ; 
not forgetting the Castle retainers of all degrees. Sandy's 
face breaks out into one great all-over smile as the 
train slows into the station. Jumping on to the plat- 
form, the children have fifty questions to ask about their 
favourite ponies and dogs, and the gillie, nicely got 
up in his " Saabath day's " grey kilt and dull red hose, 
needs all his wits to make his replies. Mr. Lancashire 
has also questions to ask, nor is Mrs. Lancashire silent, 
whilst one of the young ladies falls in love at first 
sight with Sandy's splendid deerhound. As for Mrs. 
Lancashire's own maid, she has been all the time quite 
in a fever to attract the notice of the handsome 
Highlander. 



118 Out-^oor Sports in Scotland. 

A night at Grieves' comfortable Waterloo Hotel 
affords refreshing rest, and in the morning children 
and servants and a couple of fine dogs depart, under 
the escort of Sandy, for their autumn home on the 
heather. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lancashire remain a day or two to 
visit the Forth Bridge and to see other things in which 
they are interested, as well as to wait for a lady and 
gentleman to accompany them to the Castle. 

The route to KiUin by Stirling and CaUander is 
exceedingly picturesque, as all who go to fish for 
salmon in Loch Tay, or to seek the great lake trout in 
its beautiful home of Loch Awe, are aware. In going to 
these parts of Scotland the traveller is enabled to feast 
his eyes on the finest of scenery. Dunkeld and 
Aberfeldy, though not on this route, are grandly placed, 
and their surroimdings are beautiful, exceedingly so in- 
deed ; but of all the county of Perth the same may be said. 

Before reaching Eillin the travellers will have passed 
through Glen Ogle, and looked upon the heaven-kissing 
hills round and about the base of which the Callander 
and Oban Railway has been constructed. There can 
be no more beautiful railway route; it skirts Loch 
Lubnaig and Lochearn Head, and the train dashes past 
streams well filled with speckled beauties ; rapid 
running streams populous with lively fish, causing 
many an angler's mouth to " water," as the saying has 
it. Then among the beech-trees and hazlewood copses 
there may be discovered an occasional pheasant, or " a 
covey " may be descried on the edge of a field, whUst 
not far off the " bird of sport " itself, the red grouse of 
the country, awaits the sportsman on the bonny bloom- 
ing heather. 



On the Heather. 119 

The drive to the Castle is always delightful when 
the day is fine; the route is picturesque, the road 
winding along the heath-clad glens of the district, and 
by the side of little streams of brown and foam- 
speckled water that rattle every here and there over 
a miniature fall. The children on their ponies, eager 
to welcome papa and mamma, come into view, as the 
open carriage containing the master and mistress and 
their two friends dashes round the base of Ben Hooli- 
chan, and the Castle is seen in the distance, with its 
grey crow-stepped towers and its plantings of waving 
birch-trees. 

Mrs. Gramish, a culinary artist from Glasgow, who 
has successfully held the post of cook and housekeeper 
at the Castle for a period of five years, awaits her 
mistress. Dinner is timed to be early, and already, 
with Mrs. Lancashire's two brothers, who have been 
fishing for a week, there is quite a party, twelve 
persons sitting down to table. To-morrow is Saturday, 
and after a morning at the trout, Mr. Lancashire 
proceeds to make up his calendar. The dates of arrival 
and departure of every guest are carefully entered, the 
diflferent beats to be shot, and the days on which there 
is to be fishing only are marked out, and all arrange- 
ments made in the most busiaess-Uke fashion. Mr. 
Lancashire prides himself on being a man of method, 
and acts accordingly. 

Mrs. Lancashire also gets through her part of the 
arrangements. After breakfast she interviews Mrs. 
Gramish, and makes a tour of the store-room, kitchen 
and other offices, which is generally satisfactory. The 
days on which there is to be a dinner-party, at which 
some half-dozen of their neighbours will be present, 



120 Out-door Sports in Scotland, 

are fixed, and a general plan for the first two or 
three arranged. The concurrence of *' Eobert " has, of 
course, to be obtained; but that is a matter about 
which no diflSculty is ever experienced by Mrs. 
Lancashire. The wine cellar is well filled, and Mr. 
Lancashire is a pleasant and^ companionable host. 

All attend the parish church on Sunday, and listen 
with an attentive ear to the Eeverend John McWhirr's 
homely discourse — an excellent one of its kind. After 
sermon, the party walk to the Manse and partake of a 
taste of Athol Brose and eat a m,orsel of oat-cake. 
Then, after inviting the reverend gentleman and his 
wife to dine at the Castle on the twelfth, the car- 
riages come to the door, and the drive home of two 
miles begins : on arrival it is time to dress for dinner, 
which on Sundays is always set to be an hour earlier 
than on week-days. 

At length comes the red-letter day of the season, by 
which time two more guests have arrived. Breakfast 
takes place at an early hour. Sandy, Allister, and old 
John and his son, have been waiting with the dogs and 
guns for half-an-hour ; by half-past eight o'clock all are 
on the march to a fine stretch of heather, folly three 
miles from the Castle, on which it has been resolved to 
commence the business of the season. For a period of 
three hours and a half the sharp report of the fowling- 
pieces is sure to be heard, and the blood of many a braw 
moorcock will stain the heather. By lunch time, as 
Sandy is careful to show, there has been a death-dealing 
rain of lead, and four-score grouse are spread on the 
heathery carpet to be viewed by the ladies, who have 
arrived on the scene. 

Sport in the afternoon is not so briskly carried on as 



On tlie Heather. 121 

it was before luncheon, over which, enlivened by the 
presence of the ladies, the men linger longer than is 
usual ; but the surroundings are inviting, especially that 
delightfiil view of a long strath, in which meanders a 
narrow stream of water, the eternal hills in the dis- 
tance looking almost Italian as the strong August sun 
glints upon them. But to one of the sportsmen there 
is a greater attraction. With the other ladies and the 
children has arrived on horseback Miss Cairns, the 
lovely daughter of the laird of Drumshougie ; and as 
young Bob Lancashire gallantly lifts her from the 
saddle, it is not difficult to prophesy that at no distant 
date church bells may ring a merry peal on the 
occasion of a union between the houses of Lancashire 
and Cairns. 

When the men turn their faces to the Castle the bag 
soon assumes larger dimensions, and, in addition to 
sixty-five brace of grouse, " all fine birds whatever," 
according to old John, there is the usual mis- 
cellaneous heap of other wild fowl, as also two couples 
of brown hares and more than a dozen of rabbits. 
" Not so bad for a beginning," says Mr. Lancashire, as 
his soft-stepping butler hands round a dram in the 
entrance hall to Sandy and his assistants, as is use and 
wont at the fine old Castle of Glen Hoolichan. For 
dinner the flag falls at seven, and it is a rule of the 
house that all must be in the dining-room to the 
minute. 

It is not necessary to chronicle what takes place 
during this dispensation of the sacred rites of hos- 
pitality ; the dinner bill of fare is, happily, one of Mrs. 
Garnish's brightest efforts. About ten the minister 
and his wife are sent home in one of the Castle 



122 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

carriages, and along with them two brace of grouse, a 
couple of rabbits, and a good heavy hare. The night 
wears on ; young Mr. Lancashire lingers in the drawing- 
room ; Miss Cairns, who is to remain at the Castle for 
a few days, being there. The other men are playing 
billiards and enjoying at the same time their pipes and 
grog ; in the pauses of the game they shoot their birds 
over again and recite stories of the successes of former 
seasons. Seated in his business room, Mr. Lancashire, 
attended by Sandy and old John, is busy with the 
arrangement of the morrow's campaign. Anon two or 
three of the men will spend an hour at nap, and then to 
bed. By the time one strikes on the great bell in the 
stable yard all is quiet 

The rules of etiquette are not very strict at the 
Castle, Mrs. Lancashire wisely considering that it is 
as well to dispense with much dressing and a good 
deal of ceremony ; but on two nights of the week full 
dress is de rigioeur-— on these nights outside guests 
come to dinner. 

I know another Castle — ^it.is in another county — 
where etiquette and ceremony reign from morn to night, 
and a visit there before its close comes to be rather 
wearisome ; one man, I have been told, became so tired 
of his stay that he wired to a friend to wire for him to 
come home at once on urgent business : a Belgravian 
mansion with all its airs and graces in the heart of 
the Highlands is too much. When people go to the 
country they want simplicity and are anxious to 
dispense with form and show. Nowadays, in some 
shooting boxes, there are pines and peaches, and choice 
vintages of France and Germany, along with other 
tempting luxuries of the table. 



On the Heather. 123 



The other Castle to which I have alluded is that of 
Sir Paul Ludgate, the well-known bill discounter and 
bullion broker of Lombard Street. There life is as 
stately and as much hemmed round with etiquette as 
in their residence in Grosvenor Square. Her ladyship — 
she is the only daughter of Lord Ingot — when a friend 
of my own happened to be visiting Sir Paul, came 
down to breakfast in a beautiful robe of painted muslin 
bedecked with dainty ribbons, her fairy-like feet in 
French-made slippers of bronze; then after breakfast 
she arrayed herself in a fancy dress in which to visit 
her dairy and hen-house ; next she came out in riding 
or carriage costume; five-o'clock tea saw another 
change, when she made her appearance in a Marie- 
Antoinette robe and coquettish cap ; in the evening 
(dinner at eight o'clock), full dress was, of course, 
necessary. Poor Jjudgate had to give in to all his 
lady's whims, and was compelled to dress in three or 
four different costumes every day. At five-o'clock tea 
he appears in velvet shorts and black silk stockings ; 
but, as he tells his friends in confidence, "it is best 
to give in, less trouble, you know, than fighting 
her." 

Thus time passes on the heather. But all sportsmen 
cannot afford to live in a castle, and to rent an area of 
11,000 acres of land to shoot over, and have a trout 
loch and salmon river thrown into the bargain. There 
are shootings and shootings, and life on some of 
them is Ttot luxurious. I have in my mind's eye a 
" shooting-box " so called, which once upon a time was 
a corn-barn ; but three merry fellows spent a long month 
in it and greatly enjoyed themselves, their attendant 
being a ploughman's wife, who acted as housemaid and 



124 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

"did up" the place as soon as they had taken their 
departure to their shooting-ground. They lived chiefly 
on tinned meats, and were glad to obtain the services of 
a boy of thirteen years of age to go to the post-office 
for their papers and letters and carry their birds to 
the railway station. Life on the moors is varied, but 
the sport has a fascination that is all its own, and 
no fear of personal hardship will ever deter its votaries 
from indulging in it. 

Mr. Lancashire was not dictatorial, he never dictated 
to his friends how they were to shoot. His ideas on 
the subject were simple exceedingly. "You have got 
your bird to kill," he would say ; " well, then, kill it as 
clean .as you can, but don't attempt to bring down 
more than one at a time, or you may come off second 
best," which was good enough advice of its kind. 
There are lots of critics (men, I presume, who have 
themselves failed as sportsmen), who are always ready 
to lay down the " law," and dictate as to how you 
ought to hold your gun, how you should take aim, 
and the precise moment at which you should fire, as 
also how you should command your dogs and teach 
your keepers. But there exists a race of men who 
disregard use and wont and refuse to be taught, and 
who most determinedly insist upon dairying on their 
sport in their own way, and not in any cut-and-dried 
fashion. These men will not work their heather in 
any stereotyped manner, but will come and go pretty 
much as they please. Style they leave to others; 
the birds are what they want, and they like better to 
see them fall on the heather than fly away. In shoot- 
ing, as in most other things, experience is by far the 
best teacher. As an old keeper says, " This is a game 



On the Heather. 125 

which it is best to let everybody play in their ain 
fashion." 

Mr. Lancashire always wound up the season with a 
drive or two. " I pay for my pound of flesh and I 
shall have it," he says. " All I can do, even with the 
aid of my friends, does not produce my tale of birds, as 
nominated in the bond, and therefore I hold a dijve to 
get the number made up ; but for personal enjoyment 
I prefer to go out with the dogs." 

One of Mr. Lancashire's friends, an enthusiast about 
matters of sport, lays down the law of an evening, 
whilst enjoying a pipe after his glass of grog. " Now 
let me tell you this, gentlemen; the best mode of 
grouse-shooting is to tramp the heather, with your dogs 
well in hand. Never mind how you handle your gun, 
let others pose and look picturesque, attend you to the 
business in hand, manoeuvre to get well at your birds, 
and then be sure you kill them. Give me a fine 
glowing day with a nice gentle breeze blowing, and let 
me grass a score of grouse ; that amount of sport wUl 
satisfy me. Others may have an ambition to kill 
double or treble that number ; let them. I shall not be 
led into that temptation ; a five-mile tramp out and a 
five-mile tramp home, and a bird every here and there, 
satisfies me in the amplest possible fashion. So also on 
the stubbles. I have no ambition to be a partridge 
butcher, nor in the park preserves do I desire to pot 
more than a couple of dozen pheasants, even when they 
are brought to the gun in hundreds." 

Here is what "Christopher North " once said on the 
subject. It was one of his breakfast mornings, when, 
clad in his shooting-jacket, he was entertaining a little 
party of his students, in his house at Gloucester Place, 



126 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

to good cheer and cheerful chat, as was often the case 
during the University session. 

Some of the men being due on the moors on the 
coming twelfth, to make their debiU amid the moor- 
fowl, he thus addressed them : — 

" Now, my lads, don't be in a hurry when you go on 
the heather, don't attempt to shoot all your birds in one 
season. Gk) to work deliberately, and don't make a toil 
of what is a pastime. Sport is implied not so much in 
quantity as in quality ; play a waiting game ; you are 
young, and in the fulness of time you may see many a 
year come round on the heather-covered moors. Let 
your eyes follow the birds you raise with tenderness, 
let no spirit of revenge enter into your mind as you 
view your moorcock, do not fire at the bird as you would 
at some wild cat or wolf ; bear in mind the days to come, 
there will be for you a long procession of to-morrows. 
Don't think it poor sport if you only bag a score of 
birds for your day's work ; remember you are sportsmen, 
not poulterers. And I pray you look well around, and 
study and learn all you can. Be on the look out for a 
lesson if you can get one. Shoot, by all means, and 
take the necessary pains to shoot well ; attune . your 
thoughts to the scene, keep your mind's eye open, there 
are other things on our vast stretches of heather 
than grouse. The forester (and his gillie as well) is 
most probably a character worth your studying; he 
may entrance you during luncheon by the narration of 
some wonderful old legend or awe-inspiring story of 
second sight, or he may read the clouds as they float 
along over the distant moimtain-tops, their edges gilded 
by rays of sunshine, and foretell, perhaps, fix)m their 
weird-like and ever-changing shapes some lines of your 



On the Heather. 127 



destiny. I confess to many such experiences. Ian or 
Donald may not be scholars as you are, not learned in 
logic, and ignorant of what Eeid or Hamilton or Brown 
has made plain to you, but both Donald and Ian have 
much acquired knowledge. Donald, with the rudest 
possible machinery, can lure the trout from its home 
with an ease and precision that the best upholstered 
angler could never hope to compete against, while Ian 
will find you at three minutes' notice a grouse or 
blackcock with imerring instinct. Donald, with a quick 
glance at the heavens in the early morning, will fore- 
tell the weather for the next twelve hours as correctly 
as if he had the making of it; and both men have a 
presence of mind in situations and times of danger that 
excites the wonder of all who have occasion to know 
the fact." 



( 128 ) 



CHAPTER X. 

L. S. D. 

I. 

It will be as well to include under one heading such 
information of a reliable kind regarding the cost of 
sport in the deer forests, and on the grouse moors and 
salmon rivers as I have been able to gather from 
reliable sources, and is likely to prove interesting to 
the general public, or to sportsmen intending to visit 
Scotland for the first time. The expenditure incidental 
to these sports has of late years grown enormously, and 
is annually increasing. Only men, indeed, who have 
the good fortune to possess plethoric purses can afford 
a month or two on the moors or in a deer forest 
As for salmon-fishing, it is the most costly of all 
Scottish sports, small fish even costing the fisherman 
in some districts the better half of a five-pound note. 
As to the expenditure incurred in shooting, fishing, 
or stalking, much depends on the shrewdness of sports- 
men, one man being known to pay a hundred pounds 
for that which another had at one time obtained 
for half the money. In out-of-the-way localities, in 
some of the more distant counties or islands, tolerably 
productive areas of heather can still be leased at 
moderate rents, say from fifty to eighty or a hundred 
pounds per annum. Shootings, however, which are 



L. S. D. 129 

nearer at hand — those, for instance, in the fine 
sport-aflfording county of Perth — ^require still to be 
paid for at about the usual rates, tenpence to two 
shillings an acre, according to accommodation and 
amenity, and in accordance with the number of birds 
guaranteed or likely to be shot by the tenant and his 
fnends. An area of ten thousand acres, well stocked 
with birds, along with a roomy shooting-lodge, can 
sf Idom be leased under five hundred pounds per annum ; 
whilst, if there be also a right of salmon-fishing, and 
a plentiful supply of ground-game, as well as a fair 
stock of blackcock and a few partridges, if there be 
turnips or stubble at hand, it may cost an additional 
fifty or sixty, or mayhap a hundred pounds ; and, even 
although a liberal rent may have been fixed, the tenant 
wili, as has been stated in a preceding page, be rigorously 
tied down to severe conditions, the number of grouse 
he may kill will be set forth with due accuracy, 
and all that he may do, or may not do, while taking 
the use of his moor, will be duly nominated in the 
bond. 

All classes of sportsmen can nowadays be accommo- 
dated in a manner suitable both to time and purse. 
Gentlemen who are simply desirous of having a turn at 
the grouse, by way of whetting their appetites for the 
work of the partridge preserves, may want only a fort- 
night on the heather. They can get it, and do not 
require to pay for any longer period, as some other 
gentleman is pretty sure to want the place for Sep- 
tember, to be succeeded perhaps by a tenant who 
prefers to be on the moors in the fine shooting month 
of October. There are enthusiastic sportsmen, indeed, 
who remain in the Highlands till Martinmas, or even 

K 



130 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

till the close time begins. As bearing on what has 
been said in a preceding page, I may here allude to a 
case of abject pot-shooting on the moors which was 
some years ago exposed in the newspapers of the day. 
A party of three Highland " chairmen " (street porters) 
from Edinburgh made their appearance one " Twelfth " 
on a Wigtownshire moor, which within three weeks' 
time they cleared of every bird upon it, and, by dex- 
terously laying down a few " stocks " of corn at the 
boundaries of their own heather, they managed likewise 
to obtain a hundred brace from adjacent shootings. 

These chairmen, it was said at the time, made "a 
very good thing of it," while others, of higher 
social position than Highland chairmen, have been 
known to combine a little business with their sport 
and so ensure payment of rent and other expenses. 
Such conduct has often led to much unpleasantness. 
Lairds, not aware that their heather had been harried, 
let their moors next years as usual ; and tenants, findiDg 
birds to be rare, thought they had been swindled of 
malice prepense, and stormed accordingly. Honourable 
sportsmen, however, experience no trouble in getting 
aU they ask, and many gentlemen do not hesitate 
to take a lease for three or four years of a stretch of 
moorland they may fancy. 

The rental of a choice deer forest, and the working 
expenses of such a luxury, can only be borne by the 
few. There is, however, one gentleman now stalking in 
Scotland for whom one forest does not suffice, he has 
leased some five or six ! These vast tracts of country 
now bring to those owners who let them twice, and, in 
some instances, three times the sums obtained for them 
twenty-five or thirty years back. The tenants of such 



L. S. D. 131 

sporting estates do not get any more than they bargain 
for, the right of lolling as many stags ; the privilege of 
stalking, in short — as has been shown, a most fatiguing 
pastime, and in a monetary sense absolutely profitless. 
On a deer forest outlay is the order of the day ; there is 
no income, red-deer venison being of very little value ; 
in some great Highland houses, it has been said of late 
that the domestics have declined to eat hashed venison, 
or even venison pasty, just as in the olden times 
apprentices are reputed to have bargained against 
being compelled to eat salmon oftener than once a 
week. 

An English gentleman who recently rented a pretty 
extensive forest was very glad when his lease came to a 
conclusion. He gave the following summary of his 
experiences : '' 1 am more than thankful to announce to 
you that my Jease of Benmackwhappie deer forest and 
grouse moors has at length come to a close, I have 
had the confoimded place now for three seasons, and it 
has cost me in that time not less than ten thousand 
pounds all told, in addition to no end of small sums 
of which I grew tired of keeping a note. Believe me, I 
have never before worked so hard — ^not even when I 
wore the clogs in my father's dye-shop — as I have done 
at deer- stalking. Had I time to narrate all my experi- 
ences, comic and serious, you would get many a hearty 
laugh out of them. For a couple of hours at a time I 
have walked with the water of a running stream well 
over my boots. A suit of clothes has been done for in 
a day's time, twice or ihrice I have sunk up to my 
chest in a moss, once I fell over a precipice and startled 
a herd of deer, much to the disgust of my forester, 
AlUster Mackenzie, whom no quantity of whisky 

K 2 



132 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

would pacify. He sulked over the event during the 
remainder of the day, and doubtless he thought my hurts 
were well deserved and not severe enough for the sin I 
had committed. On one occasion whilst out fishing on 
Loch Whappie, I fell overboard, and was not fished up 
till I was nearly drowned. On another occasion, when 
I was creeping about in a plantation of young larches, 
I was fired at by one of my own gillies, who said he 
mistook me for a ' beestie,' of what kind I know not, 
but I fancy I had a rather narrow escape. Per contra, 
I have on five occasions brought down a good stag) 
at an extra cost aU round for my baptism. So much 
for my career as a deer-stalker in the Highlands of 
Scotland." 

The " miscellaneous '* expenditure incidental to Scot- 
tish sport is now very onerous, and has increased within 
the last quarter of a century by some 30 per cent. 
The Southrons are considered fair enough game by 
many of the Highland people, who make them pay 
pretty well for any service rendered. No amount of 
money seems to satisfy the persons who let out boats, 
and their servants are always looking for more tiian 
they are given. Thirty years ago, if you asked a 
Highlander the road to any given place, he would take 
great pains to show you; he thought it no trouble 
to walk a mile or two with you, to see that you did not 
take a wrong turn ; and had you offered him a gratuity 
he would have felt offended. To-day, if you were to 
ask a little boy if that building is a church, he would 
expect you to give him sixpence after he had said, 
" Yes, sir." If the total rent-roll of the Scottish deer 
forests were to be • included in the cost of sport, 
that of itself would prove a formidable item. There 



L. S. D. 133 

are one hundred and ten of these forests in Scotland, 
occupying, an area of land of about two million 
acres, as can be seen from the list already given, 
the rental of which varies according to size. From 
£2500 to £4000 is not an uncommon rent; but the 
best way to obtain the figures of rental is to average 
the area occupied at a given sum per acre, which may 
be taken at 2s. &d, all over, making a total for the vast 
acreage stated of £150,000. The cost of living, and the 
extra outlay of different kinds, will certainly increase 
the amount by the sum of £50,000, showing a grand 
total for deer forests of £200,000. 

Grouse are found in every county in Scotland. It 
has been calculated that each brace of birds shot costs 
the owner or tenant of a moor one sovereign. The 
number of grouse moors cannot be stated with precision. 
In several instances two or more are occupied by the 
same tenant, whilst a few big moors are divided into 
two, and in some instances into three or four sporting 
estates. There will, however, not be less than 2400 
shootings, in addition to the deer forests, on most of 
which grouse and other birds of sport are found. In the 
charming sporting county of Perth — ^thebest in all Scot- 
land for varied sport — there are about 400 distinct estates. 

The head of grouse annually killed in Scotland is 
large, in a good season it has been calculated that 
500,000 brace will be shot. Supposing each of the 
2400 grouse moors to yield on an average only 200 
brace of birds, which is a modest calculation, that 
would represent 480,000 brace, or 960,000 single birds, 
which at the old-fashioned price of a sovereign per 
brace would represeni a rental of £480,000. Travelling 
and living expenses must, of course, be provided for. 



134 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Taking it, as has been estimated, that there are 2500 
shootings and stalkings in Scotland, and that each in 
the season (striking an average) is visited by only ten 
sportsmen, we would thus have 25,000 persons (many 
of the sportsmen being accompanied by ladies, children, 
and servants) paying travelling expenses for themselves 
and their impedimenta. At the rate of £20 each that 
will add £500,000 to the account. These figures are 
simply stated by way of " illustration," and like those 
given by an economist on a preceding page, must not 
be taken for more than they are worth. 

A wonderfully large sum of money is nowadays 
expended on " fishing." To catch the salmon of Loch 
Tay involves an expenditure of thirty shillings a day, 
and no fish guaranteed. While passing a few days 
in the hotel at Killin I heard a gentleman say 
that the salmon caught by him during his fortnight's 
fishing had cost him not less than a shilling an ounce ! 
But there are places where anglers are charged for the 
privilege of fishing, and have to give up all they catch 
to the landlord ; this, however, is an experience that I 
have never personally encountered. It has been com- 
puted that there are about forty thousand anglers in the 
kingdom who will expend at least on an average one 
shilling weekly in railway fares to and from the place 
of their pastime. Supposing they do so for twenty 
weeks in the year, the amount as a whole becomes 
considerable, and, if the sum annually expended on 
fishing gear of all kinds be added, it may not be fer 
short of the truth to estimate that as much as a hundred 
thousand pounds are disbursed every year in this 
pleasant pastime. 

Coming now to consider the question of domestic 



L. S. D. 135 

expenditure, I am able to lay before my readers the 
advice of an old sportiiig hand. The following is 
worthy of all attention : 

"Make your moor as nearly as possible provide 
your table. Don't spare your keepers or other out-of- 
door servants ; they ought not to be idle, where there 
are trout in the lochs and streams, as well as hares and 
rabbits running about everywhere, ready to be killed. 
A liberal table can always, by good management, be 
spread in your shooting lodge, almost nothing of what 
is served being immediately purchased. You have 
plenty of vegetables for your hotch potch, choice joints 
uf black-faced mutton — than which no flesh can be 
more delightful. You have an occasional salmon trout, 
fresh from the water ; you have rabbits to curry, and 
barn-door fowls to roast, in addition to mountain hares 
for soup, and, as the redoubtable Meg Dods, of the 
Cleikum Inn, used to say, *What soup is better, tell 
me that, if you can ? ' You have your grouse, of 
course — ^the shattered ones for soup and pasties ; you 
have black game and an occasional taste of venison 
when a stray stag comes upon your land, and, if you 
have selected your location well, you will not lack for 
a brace or two of partridges when September comes 
upon you. The miscellaneous birds will be found in 
scores on your marshy lands, many of which are 
delightful and well worthy of a place on your table ; in 
short, there need be no commissariat better furnished 
than that of the lessee of the kind of shooting I have 
tried to picture. Your cow you will be able to dispose 
of at a profit when you flit, and from the bee hives in 
your garden plenteous suppUes of honey will be made 
sure." 



136 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 



IL 

Shooting lodge expenditure has of late years been 
much increased by the cost of extravagant luncheons 
served on the heather. This is especially so where 
constant relays of visitors are arriving; happily the 
practice has begun to be frowned down, certainly not 
too soon. I read a few months ago of a shooting on 
which about a dozen of champagne was consumed on 
the moors daily during the grouse-shooting season ! It 
goes without saying that, when champagne is sent on 
to the heather in such quantities, the luncheon served 
will be in keeping therewith — ^hot and recherche, and, as 
a matter of course, costly. Such absurdities are sure 
to bring about a change; luncheon on the heather 
should, in the opinion of all sensible men, be a most 
simple affair, and it is gratifying to know that many 
good sportsmen are striving to make it so. 

The following ideas on a kindred subject were pro- 
mulgated several years ago by a fine Scottish sportsman 
of the olden time, Mr. Sharpe of Hoddam, in the 
steward's room on Musselburgh racecourse. He was 
addressing the son of a friend who had recently come 
of age : — 

" Beware of those heavy hunt breakfasts, my lad, and 
eat little and drink sparingly. You cannot without 
danger go into action after a hearty meal — the less 
inside weight you carry the better day you will have ; 
I am an old stager and speak from experience, as your 
father will tell you. Avoid the hock and seltzer, the 
tumblers of ' phiz ' and the goblets of claret. If you 
want a great big drink, wait tiU you have accomplished 



L. S. D. 137 

your work. Take breakfast at home an hour before you 
ride over to the meet, and see that you make a good 
meal, then reading your Courant will while away an 
hour, after that the canter, take it leisurely, to join the 
dogs will be advantageous. Dine when you return, and 
have a friend or two to partake of your hospitality. 
An hour or two at billiards or pool before going to bed 
will do you good." 

Dismissing Mr. Sharpe for a time, a word or two may 
be said about breakfast. The sportsman when at work 
on the heather should fortify himself for his day's 
labour by making a very hearty meal. In all Scottish 
shooting lodges a splendid breakfast is served in plenty 
of time. Salmon steaks and other kinds of fish, cold 
grouse pie, savoury omelettes, a roasted grey hen, ham 
and tongue, poached eggs, tea, coffee, porridge, honey, 
marmalade, flour scones, oat cakes and plenty of 
cream, with daily changes equally wholesome and 
palatable too numerous to mention. It was happily said 
by an English bishop while staying in a Scottish 
country house "that the breakfasts of Scotland are 
better than the dinners of England,** which may be 
taken as a great compliment. Scottish breakfasts have 
been celebrated since the days of Bailie Nicol Jarvie of 
Glasgow, and why not ? "A Scottish breakfast, with 
its cold corned beef and sheep's-head pie, its kippered 
henings and finnan baddies, its grilled ham, its mar- 
malade, heather honey, and bramble-berry jam, its 
delicious cream and oaten cakes, its fresh baked flour 
scones, its porridge and sweet mUk, and its veuried 
background of potted meats of all kinds, would create 
an appetite in the most dyspeptic of mortals." So said 
the bishop. After making a satisfactory meal the walk 



138 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

or drive to the place agreed on for the work of the day 
should be reached in leisurely fashion — but in good 
time for business, as an early hour or two among the 
birds is valuable ; it is the period at which most is done 
for the filling of the bag. 

Having so breakfasted no sportsman will require 
very much in the shape of lunch, and that species of 
refreshment cannot be too light or too simple. Much 
has been of late written about this phase of life on the 
heather, and the conclusion that is being generally 
arrived at is that what is most wanted is an hour's rest, 
a drink of good pure water, and a smoke by lovers of 
the weed. The best time for luncheon is when the heat 
has sent the grouse into deeper cover than usual, say 
between one and two o'clock. An hour's cessation from 
work will then be grateful. No elaborate " spread " is 
required, *' let each man look after his own wants " is 
now the rule of some shooting places. A choice of 
" luncheon matter " is laid out in the dining-room and 
each guest carries a piece in his pocket according to 
taste; one will take a couple of rolls cut open and 
spread with marmalade, another will make up three or 
four sandwiches. An excellent sportsman recently told 
the writer that he always gets best through a hard day's 
work when his luncheon consists of a piece of buttered 
oatcake well spread with gooseberry jam, washing his 
mouth afterwards with half a tumblerful of cold tea. 
This gentleman long ago gave up the whisky-and- water 
which used to follow his mid-day repast on the heather 
or while in a field of stubble. He even eschews water, 
and can pass the purling brook with great resolution. 
There is reason in this. Man cannot work well upon 
an overloaded stomach; when he attempts to do so, his 



L. S. D. 139 

eye becomes dimmer than usual, and the trigger-finger 
more nervous than when he is abstemious. 

Speaking from experience, it is generally "thirst" by 
which sportsmen are most overtaken on the moors or 
stubbles; when, it can be obtained, there is almost 
nothing better for that troublesome visitant than to 
masticate a fresh pulled turnip, casting out the dibris, 
A good juicy apple has also proved effective, but of 
actual food really little is needed, and that taken should 
be of the simplest possible description. An egg sand- 
wich, composed of fresh bread and very thin slices of 
hard boiled eggs, is often selected. Nothing that is 
sprinkled with condiments of any sort should be taken, 
as " that kind of thing" is provocative of thirst. As to 
what should be provided in the way of liquor opinions 
differ very much, a mixture (haK and half) of cold tea 
and milk, without any sugar, is often recommended by 
old stagers, " whisky-and- water for me" is the motto 
of others. Pure water in which has been placed a 
handful of oatmeal is also a very good thirst assuager. 

On moors, where extravagant luncheons are sent to 
the heather, the dinners are of course in keeping-:— they 
are also costly. Some men seem to come to the moors 
of Scotland in order to live more extravagantly than 
they do at home, and in consequence they have 
messengers always coming from the station with fine 
things for the table ordered from London or Edin- 
burgh. These men make no change in their mode of 
life, and, except that being in search of sport they are 
more in the open air than when in London or Man- 
chester, the "racket" goes on just as it does at home. 
I am speaking here of "certain persons" only who 
are, as it may well be supposed, new to the work. 



140 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

These remaxks may perhaps be deemed impertinent, 
as those who pay the piper have certainly the best 
right to call the tune, but, as an advocate of a simpler 
mode of life on the moors than that which is prevalent 
in many of the shooting lodges of the period, I deem it 
proper to protest. 

Mr. Sharpe, to whom allusion has already been made, 
used to say that by far the nicest dinners were those 
devised by the aid of the local larder. 

" Let your moor keep you, and you will be aU the 
more able to keep your moor," was his philosophy : and 
the laird was a philosopher. I have preserved in a 
note-book one of his plans for a good dinner. First of 
all have salmon — ^in two ways if the party is large — 
boiled witTi parsley sauce and in cutlets. For entrees 
you can have curried oysters, a salmi of snipe, stewed 
partridges, and plover a la Bcmaparte, FoUow these 
with pheasants and a haunch of roebuck, let grouse and 
capercailzie then appear ; in addition to which, if you 
want it, have a black-game pie; apple-pudding, pan- 
cakes, and other sweets succeed; then a dish full 
of "melted" cheese with a supply of oat cakes. 
Have plenty of sound wine; Amontillado Liebfrau- 
milch, Eoederer's champagne, and claret. This menu 
will perhaps not compare with some which might be 
put down on paper by a professed diner-out; but, 
although it may lack variety and want that light and 
shade so dear to the educated gourmet, it has the 
advantage of being real and undoubtedly most sub- 
stantial, and better still, of being in great part 
stored in your own larder. I forgot to say that Mr. 
Sharpe recommended no soups other than those of 
Scotland. Hotch potch, lockie leekie and hare, aU of 



L. S. D. 141 

which can be confectioned from home-grown " material/' 
As to the wines, they, no doubt, come to money, but the 
presentation at table of many expensive vintages is not 
in my opinion necessary. There are persons who think 
that in the Highlands nothing suitable for food is to 
be obtained but oatmeal ! That, of course, is an error 
due to ignorance ; even in the far north of Scotland, on 
the islands of Eoss or Inverness-shire, fine vegetables 
and tempting fruits are to be found, and, as has been 
suggested, the sportsman should create his own com- 
missariat. 



(. 142 ) 



CHAPTER XI. 

Pheasants and Partridges. 

No one whom I have asked has been able to tell 
me in what year the pheasant was introduced into 
Scotland. Several of the oldest keepers in the country 
have been questioned on the subject, but with no result 
other than some occasional recollections of an interesting 
nature as bearing on the growth of sport throughout the 
country. A near relative of the writer could remember 
that in Berwickshire, in the beginning of the century, 
the pheasant was looked upon as a rare bird which 
the peasantry would walk long distances to look at. 

I remember when pheasants had not in several dis- 
tricts of Scotland become "birds of sport," and were 
not in consequence killed wholesale, as they are to-day. 
Sixty or more years ago the pheasant was looked upon 
as, an ornithological curiosity to be confined in an 
aviary, and thought to be too beautiful to kill, whUst its 
fine food qualities were known only to epicures. Mr. 
Muirhead, in his time a weU-known Edinburgh poulterer, 
once related a little anecdote of a lady who received a 
brace of these birds from an English relative residing in 
the county of Suffolk. " She sent the pheasants to my 
shop in Queen Street (Edinburgh)," said Mr. Muirhead, 
*' and then called in the course of the day to ask what 



. Pheasants and Partridges, 143 

she wis to do with them, as they were a little too far 
gone (wasted) in the feathers to stuff, ' and I suppose/ 
the lady said, ' they are not for eating/ Of course I 
told her the truth, which was that, in my humble 
opinion, there was no finer table bird in all the three 
kingdoms/* 

I have seen it stated that the pheasant originally 
became "wild" in Scotland by the escape of three or 
four from confinement Many of the Scottish peasantry 
were wont, at one time, to trap or shoot the cock 
pheasant that they might get it set up to ornament their 
best room ; none were poached at the time referred to, 
there being no market other than of the kind indicated, 
and, as a matter of fact, none among them thought 
the bird was " for eating ; " even some in Scotland, who 
must have known from their reading that the bird was 
greatly esteemed in France and in England also, enter- 
tained such an amount of prejudice against the pheasant, 
that "they would not," as one old lady graphically 
stated, " put a mouth upon it/' To-day in Scotland the 
pheasant is, comparatively speaking, a common bird and*^^» 
may be seen in all its beauty from Maiden Kirk to 
John o' Groat's. It is at home on almost every gentle- 
man's estate, and hundreds are now bred every year, even 
in one or two of the sea-laved islands of the west and 
far north. In the course of the last quarter of a 
century an enormous number of pheasants have been 
hatched throughout Scotland, and to-day seven of these 
birds are in all likelihood brought to the gun for the 
two of twelve or fourteen years ago. A large dealer 
recently told me that pheasant shooting had increased 
fivefold during the last twenty years. 

It is not the custom of good sportsmen to do much 



144 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

in the way of pheasant shooting anywhere till October 
is well advanced, so that the birds may be stronger than 
they would be if indiscriminate shooting began with 
the month. Happily the pheasant in Caledonia is a 
strong bird ; the modern system of annually importing 
the eggs of " the bird of Colchis ** from English game 
farms and breeders has kept up the breed in all its 
strength, so that tolerably good sport is ensured in the 
preserves. Many of the young pheasants bred by 
keepers escape, almost as soon as they are liberated 
from their coops, to distant parts of an estate, where 
they breed, if they do not get killed, and become in 
time the parents of fine broods. Of late some of these 
birds have taken to " wandering," and have been known 
to make their way to distant preserves. The total 
number of eggs annually purchased by gentlemen, who 
breed a few dozens or it may be hundreds, is very large, 
and is increasing as time goes on, hatching being ac- 
complished under the personal superintendence of the 
keepers or their wives, chiefly hitherto by the aid of 
domestic fowls, as many as eighty and even eighty-five 
per cent, of chicks being obtained in many instances, 
but over all it is thought good work to hatch seventy- 
four eggs out of each hundred. Keepers on some 
Scottish estates are now trying various hatching 
machines, of which there are several kinds on sale. 
Of those brought into use in Scotland two or three have 
proved satisfactory, as many as sixty-five and, in one or 
two instances, seventy eggs having each yielded a 
chicken. By the means indicated, the supply of 
pheasants can be kept up to any required number, 
and thus gentlemen are enabled to show their friends 
fair sport of a kind, when the partridge supply has 



Pheasants and Partridges. 145 

become a failure in consequence of the activity of the 
poachers, who seem to centre their affections very much 
on that bird and the hare. The pheasant, being in the 
home preserves, obtains better protection than the 
partridge, the game thieves not being yet so bold as 
to venture into the best-protected part of an estate, 
although I dare say that time is coming. 

The natural history of the pheasant has been often 
discussed. The wild pheasant is a careless mother — 
frequently making her nest in exposed places, so that the 
" industrious poacher " is pretty sure to find her eggs. 
When hatched under natural circumstances, the chicks 
have at a very early period to look after themselves and 
fight their own battle of life. As soon as his mate 
begins to sit, the male pheasant deserts her, and when- 
ever the eggs are hatched, or the majority of them, two 
or three being often left in the nest never to be hatched, 
the mother begins to move about, quite careless as to 
whether or not her progeny are able to accompany her. 

To breed these birds for the gun costs money. Some 
gentlemen in Scotland who like to give their friends a 
day in their coverts pay a considerable amount every 
year for eggs; the game dealers supply thousands 
every season. There are persons who paake a business 
of providing eggs, keeping, a large stock of birds for the 
sole purpose of laying. Each bird knocked over in a 
battue will probably not be of less value, in money 
actually expended, than three shillings, and yet in some 
seasons pheasants are so plentiful that they may be 
purchased by the public at the price of two shillings or 
half-a-crown each. As a rule, those who breed pheasants 
will not, for those they send to market, probably be 
paid more for them all over than two shillings or a few 

L 



146 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

pence less for each bird. The orders received for eggs 
exceed in some years the number that can be supplied 
(I am writing here of Scotland, where, as I have already 
hinted, the bird is yearly growing in favour with 
proprietors of estates on which keepers can always have 
it under their personal observation). Pheasants, as a 
rule, never suffer from " disease " in the same sense as 
the grouse. "The gapes" and one or two infantile 
troubles can be pretty successfully dealt with, and a 
constant change of breeding ground is said to have much 
to do with the successful rearing of the young broods, 
whilst the interchange of blood that is accomplished by 
means of the importation of eggs is doubtless beneficial 
to the different stocks of birds. An attempt is, however, 
being made to bring to this country, with a view to 
still further strengthen the pheasants we breed at home 
a supply of these birds from the land of their origin, 
the present bird of the coverts being the result of 
crossing. 

It is not a little curious that, whilst it is not more 
than seventy or eighty years since the pheasant became 
common in Scotland, the " bird of the battues,'* as it 
has been called, has been known in England for nearly 
a thousand years, and was never known to be so 
abundant as it is at the present time, three or four 
thousand being annually shot on several of the larger 
English estates. A Midland gamekeeper on a noble- 
man's estate, who was recently applied to for some 
facts and figures about pheasant breeding, stated that 
he would be able, between wild and home-bred birds, to 
bring at least six thousand to the gun before New 
Year's Day. The rearing of so many birds is a trouble- 
some industry for all taking a part in it. The quarters 



. Pheasants and Partridges. 147 

of the keepers being turned for a time into a pheasant 
factory. There will on some estates probably be as 
many as two hundred barn-door hens employed in the 
business of hatching ; and what with bad eggs, refractory 
hens, delicate chicks, gapes, gripes, and the other ills 
which pheasant flesh falls heir to, the head keeper and his 
women-kind are kept in a constant state of anxiety: 
from dawn to dark he is ever at work ; and his wife, too, 
from June to the end of September, is quite as anxious 
as her husband. 

The present writer some few years since communi- 
cated to the St. Jameses Gazette a paper on the pheasant 
supply, but he cannot do more than guess the probable 
number of these birds which are bred in the United 
Kingdom. There are at least a dozen estates on which 
from three to five thousand pheasants will be grown for 
the gun every year, and there are three or four score 
on which at least a couple of thousands will be 
annually hatched. 

If the inhabitants of London and the stranger sojourn- 
ing within the gates of that great city consume, taking 
the figure simply as being illustrative 190,000 of these 
table birds per annum, and the residents in all the 
other large towns of the kingdom as many more, or, 
say, 365,000 in all, what stock of breeding-birds would 
be necessary to maintain the supply ? The eggs must, 
of course, be provided, or we could not have the birds. 
Hatching-mothers being found among the domestic 
poultry, some of the hen pheasants have been known 
to lay a goodly number of eggs without stopping, not 
being encouraged to breed. If 20,000 hens were each 
to lay twenty eggs, that would yield 400,000, and 
would allow a certain percentage for all kinds of 

L 2 



148 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

fatalities. Twenty eggs are, however, a large number to 
give, as naturally the bird seldom lays above fourteen 
or sixteen; but in the way indicated great numbers 
are obtained, and twenty is an easy number to reckon 
by. Such figures must, however, be taken with the 
proverbial grain of salt ; and there are practical persons 
who will have it that more eggs ought to be got than the 
number stated, but the mortality in pheasant breeding, 
taken all over, is exceptionally high, often as much as 
30 per cent. 

There must always, of course, be a breeding stock 
left, not less than 50,000 hens and ss many cocks. As 
to the real strength of the egg-producing power of the 
pheasant-mother there has been much controversy, and 
so far as my inquiries have extended, I cannot find that 
any standard figure of production has been agreed upon 
with any degree of unanimity. The chief misapprehen- 
sion about the laying power of the bird seems to have 
arisen from the well-known fact that several hens have 
been known to use the same nest, so that in some of 
these egg depositories as many on occasion as three 
dozen eggs have been found, a number which no bird 
could successfully hatch. Nests containing as many as 
seventeen eggs and coveys of young birds numbering 
from eight to twelve have been counted. Mr. Teget- 
meir, who is allowed to be an authority in such 
matters, is of opinion that the eggs laid are " usually 
about eight or nine in number." Another writer puts 
the quantity at from eight to fourteen. Gamekeepers 
interviewed give the number laid as being fifteen or 
sixteen. One keeper told the writer that pheasants in 
the open are tempted to lay a greater number of eggs 
by depriving them of some already laid. During the 



Pheasants and Partridges. 149 

season he visits day by day the wild nests he has dis- 
covered, and, watching for a favourable opportunity, 
purloins an egg from each, placing those acquired under 
a barn-yard fowl to be hatched. Treated that way, 
the pheasant lays a larger number of eggs, but great 
care is requisite in carrying on these thefts, as old hen 
pheasants will often, under such circumstances, " for- 
sake " their nests, but young layers are not so particular. 
Care has also to be exercised to begin the thefts almost 
at the very outset of the nesting season, so that the 
eggs in the nest may -be kept as long as necessary 
under the number on which the hen would begin to sit, 
which she might do on an accumulation of nine or ten 
eggs after once or twice being robbed. To take these 
eggs is, say some keepers, a really meritorious action, 
because, in all probability, the sitting pheasant would 
not hatch above two-thirds of the number laid, nor can 
she cover comfortably sixteen eggs.* 

* " Carious speculations have from time to time been entered 
upon about the powers of laying possessed by pheasants and other 
wild birds. A hen shot by accident while sitting on nine eggs, on 
being dressed for table, was found to be clean in her ovary, whilst 
another one, also killed by accident, and which was known to have 
laid seven ego:s, was found to contain a great many eggs in every 
stage of progress, from one or two ready to lay to others about the 
size of a bean. Other pheasants at the beginning of the laying 
season have contained large numbers of eggs in various conditions 
of progress. These facts have been mentioned to more than one 
person who ought to be able to explain them but has failed to do 
so. The point to be elucidated is by what principle the laying 
power is regulated — ^is the bird provided with a * lachter ' (layer) 
containing only a given number of eggs, to be laid from day to day, 
or can the bird go on creating eggs for any length of time ? if so, 
by what rule is the rate of production governed, and at what stage 
of their growth are the eggs rendered fertile?" 



150 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

As to the partridge, I have not much to tell that is 
new or interesting. In Scotland it was at one period 
a plentiful bird, but during the last ten or twelve years 
the supply has much decreased both from natural 
causes and in consequence of the excessive poaching 
which prevails. 

Twenty years since, and even at a later date, these 
toothsome birds could frequently be purchased at the 
modest price of a shilling each, and certainly were not 
dear at the money. Why the "paitrick" became for 
a time a scarce bird, especially in Scotland, has never 
been fully explained; it has been said, however, that 
the reaping machine has had, in its time, a good deal 
to do with the falling off in the partridge supply, 
hundreds of young ones having, from time to time, 
been killed while the hay crop was being cut. Poach- 
ing, too, has formed a factor in the scarcity. Partridges 
and poachers seem somehow to be allied to each 
other, not that poachers confine themselves to that one 
bird. 

At present there are indications of the rehabilita- 
tion of the partridge, which is a favourite with the 
votaries of low ground sport, and adds a feature to that 
October shooting which many sportsmen are so fond of. 
The " bird of the stubbles " used to be plentiful in aU 
the lowland counties, of Scotland, "thousands upon 
thousands " being at one time taken off the fields of the 
three Lothians and in Eoxburgh and Berwick shires. 
In the counties of Fife and Aberdeen the partridge is 
pretty plentiful — indeed, there are few of the thirty- 
two counties of Caledonia stem and wild on which 
partridges cannot be found. At one period some of the 
Scottish farmers and economists made a dead set at the 



Pheasants and Partridges. 151 

bird, but altogether without reason, because it is the 
friend and not the foe of the agriculturist. 

Both partridge and pheasant afford fairly good sport 
of a kind — ^not equal, though, to grouse-shooting. Many 
sporting writers decry the big pheasant "shoots" of 
November and December, but, for all they have to say 
against them, not a few of them would be glad if they ^ 
were asked to share in the sport. Although in the 
case of both birds driving is constantly resorted to, they 
have a fair allowance of "law" and many escape the 
gun. A keeper of experience thinks that not much 
more than a third of the birds brought up in the course 
of a big battue will be grassed, the others making their 
escapa He is probably right, because it requires 
several shoots to exhaust the supply. One feature of 
such sport may be alluded to in passing; it is that, 
whatever its demerits may be, the pheasant kill of the 
season provides for the use of the public a large supply 
of very palatable food at a cheap rate. 

Harking back to the economy of the partridge 
preserves, it remains for us to say that partridges are 
prolific layers, coveys numbering from thirteen to 
sixteen birds being common enough. In several 
English counties the bird is wonderfully numerous, 
and forms a favourite object of pursuit, the operations 
of the poachers being in some degree counteracted by 
protected breeding. By means of occasionally hatching 
the eggs of partridges under common fowls, bantam 
and other hens, the number of these birds now got 
ready every year for the guns of the first of September 
has been much increased, and if partridges were to be 
allowed another fortnight's law that would tend to 
strengthen the breeds very considerably. It will. 



152 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

doubtless, astonish many of our agriculturists to be told 
that the partridge is one of their best friends ; at all 
events, these birds do more good than harm. It has 
been found that one hundred partridges will, in the 
course of a season, eat 10,000 insects which otherwise 
would have lived to prey on the crops of the farm. 

A little time ago great numbers of partridges fell a 
sacrifice to the reaping-machine at hay-cutting time. 
The wet weather of some years killed a great many 
thousands, whilst on some estates an increase of 
vermin led to the destruction of quantities of eggs 
and multitudes of the young birds, at a period when 
they were unable either to flee from their enemies 
or show them fight, "People may talk as they like, 
sir," said to me, on a recent occasion, a provincial game- 
dealer of experience, " but I do not put two-thirds of 
the partridges through my hands that I used to do in 
former years ; they are not on the land, I assure you." 

My informant was speaking of Scotland, and I am 
quite able to corroborate what he said. Some sixteen 
years ago one could fill a pie-dish with the best parts of 
eight or ten birds — ^and a well-made partridge pie is 
not to be sneezed at, hot or cold — ^for as many shillings, 
whilst during some late seasons these birds could not be 
purchased, almost anywhere, at less than five or six 
shillings a brace. 

It may be taken for granted that partridges have 
once more become pretty plentiful, whilst a few years 
ago a Scottish poultry seller told the writer that all 
the partridges he was selling were English birds got 
from the London market. "Lanarkshire," said this 
dealer, " and also Dumfriesshire, were wont to yield an 
abundant supply, but the poaching miners have done 



Pheasants and Partridges. 153 

for them entirely ; of late they have swept the fields 
so completely that, speaking comparatively, scarcely 
a partridge is now to be seen ; one Scotch estate on 
which, sixteen or twenty years since, a thousand or 
twelve hundred of these birds were usually shot in the 
course of a season, does not at the present time yield 
fifty brace." 

The eggs of partridges, it may be stated in conclu- 
sion, are now being hatched throughout Scotland in 
considerable quantities by the aid of barn-door fowls, 
which in time will help to increase the number of 
these birds. Hitherto, from want of the proper sort 
of hens, not much has been achieved by this mode of 
procedure, but now that a light-bodied breed of sitting 
fowls, suitable for the work, has been hit upon, 
partridge-breeding will in future seasons be systemati- 
cally entered upon, 

Eetuming for a moment to the pheasant, it has to 
be stated that in no previous year have these birds 
been bred so extensively as during the present season 
(1890), One dealer announces that he has 200,000 eggs 
for sale, another that he can supply 75,000, whilst 
smaller men deal in smaller numbers ; and altogether 
it may be taken for granted that, so far as eggs are 
concerned, provision has been made for 300,000 birds, 
in addition to the produce of the wUd pheasants. 
Scottish keepers have been active in securing a con- 
siderable number of these eggs, and as the weather has 
been favourable, the chicks are expected to have a good 
time of it, so that sportsmen wUl not lack work in the 
preserves when the birds are ready for the gun. 



( 154 ) 



CHAPTER XII. 
Other Birds of Sport. 

I. 

It may be affirmed as a general rule, that aU the wild 
birds found in Scotland afford food for powder. " Days 
at the crows " and " pops at the pigeons " in turn find 
favour. The rapidity with which shooting pastimes 
have grown throughout the country is really remark- 
able. Nearly every third man one encounters is " some- 
thing of a shot," for which the Volunteer movement of 
the past twenty years has chiefly to be thanked A 
well-known gun-maker told me last year that he now 
sells a much larger number of sporting guns as compared 
with his trade of a quarter of a century ago, and the 
demand continues to grow. Upon asking him how he 
accounted for the increased number, he said it was 
owing chiefly to the love of miscellaneous sport, which 
had of late become a sort of craze witJi young men. 
" As you know," he observed, " the seaside is witihin an 
hour's walk, and on the sands you will dSten find a 
dozen guns at work on the miscellaneous birds of sport ; 
up the Forth in particular there are men constantly 
shooting, and the desire seems to grow with what it 
feeds on." This \iew is confirmed by an extensive 
dealer, who receives consignments of various wild birds 



Other Birds of Sport. 155 

from active pot-hunters who find their quarry on that 
river above Queensfeny, and from others who seek 
their sport on the banks of Clyde " down Dumbarton 
way." The kind of birds referred to — ^there are many 
of them — secure a ready market in our larger seats of 
population, where they form an acceptable addition to 
the commissariat, and not a few of them are good for 
food when properly cooked. It has been computed by 
men who are extensively engaged in their distribution 
that the total number sold in the course of the year in 
Great Britain, counting the larks and other small birds 
disposed of in London and the larger EngHsh cities and 
towns, will not be fewer, taken at a fair guess, than four 
millions, but that figure is only stated as being illus- 
trative, no ofl&cial statistics being eollected. 

In Scotland, when George the Fourth was Kiug, 
the woodcock was a rare bird. Fifty years since 
a flourishing Edinburgh poulterer of that time 
attracted crowds to his shop by displaying a couple 
of brace in his window, which in due time made 
their appearance on the dinner-table of a weU-known 
gourmet, cooked by an artist brought from London, who 
also sent to table one or two o^qi plats not usually at 
that time seen in the dining-rooms of the modem 
Athens ; but these birds are now regularly shot in many 
parts of Scotland in annually increasing numbers, 
having evidently become acclimatised to the country, 
and never evince any migratory instinct. This is a fact 
which many persons will endorse, and from inquiries 
made I think it is certain that we have that bird with 
us all the year roimd ; in some seasons they appear to 
be more plentiful than in others. During the awfully 
cold winter of 1879-80 they were killed in some parts 



166 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

of the kingdom in literal thousands, and in London 
were sold at sixpence and a shilling per bird. Woodcock 
within my recollection were very expensive, and when 
seen in the dining-room the event gave rise to some 
gossip : ten shillings a brace was not so very many years 
ago a common figure for these dainties of the table. 

As sportsmen know, woodcock as a rule are fond of 
"the solitudes." They feed much in the night-time, 
and are prone to lie in concealment during the day — 
they " love the merry moonlight." They have become 
rather scarce during late years, consequent chiefly on 
the increase of killing power and the inroads of land 
reclamation desires; woodcock are fond of marshy 
groimd, and much of that being in the hands of drain- 
ing contractors accounts, as has been hinted, for the 
growing scarcity of the bird. The woodcock is generally 
foimd where decaying leaves are forming into mould ; 
near at hand there is sure to be water, in which the animal 
washes itself with great regularity. So far as I have 
observed, the bird makes no long flights, and its move- 
ments are startling and clumsy. Dogs, strange to 
say, do not seem to care about " handling " woodcock ; 
why they evince such a repugnance to that particular 
bird not any of my sporting friends are able to tell 
me. The bird is short-sighted, and sees best in " the 
gloaming." 

Numbers of snipe are annually shot by grouse 
shooters ; but, as a rule, those killed are very young and 
inexperienced birds which frequent the marshy places of 
the moors, and frequently rise with " the bird of sport." 
Woodcock are rarely shot in August or September. 
The Wild Bird Acts have greatly aided in preserving 
woodcock and snipe, and indeed all wild birds. 



Other Birds of Sport 167 

In searching for what I call " book-information " 
about woodcock and snipe, I came across the following 
about what an old naturalist designates the " woodcock- 
snipe," Scolopax rusticola, and, considering the remarks 
made to be of some interest, I have transcribed them. 
The date of the book is 1812 :— 

" Sir John Galium, Baronet, appears to have been a 
very keen observer of the habits of these birds, as the 
following abridgment of his notes will show. Wood- 
cocks, he says, come over sparingly in the first few days 
of October, the flock of- that period being a sort of 
advanced guard which precede the two great brigades 
which are usually timed to arrive in November and 
December. They always come after sunset, and the 
time of their arrival is determined by the state of the 
wind, and not by the light of the moon, as has been 
often stated. It is probable that the moving power in 
the migratory instinct of the woodcock and other birds 
is the desire for food ; they seem to know that if the 
commissariat gives out in one place it will not fail in 
another. Love and himger are the two great instincts 
of the animal creation. If the flight of the birds has 
been favoured with a fair wind, and they arrive on the 
coast comparatively fresh, they at once proceed to their 
haunts ; but sometimes, when their progress has been 
retarded by strong opposing winds, they will rest for a 
day on the shore of the sea, and they are occasionally so 
very much exhausted on their arrival as to be quite 
devoid of strength to resist capture, and so fall an easy 
prey to all kinds of enemies. The birds come in little 
detached lots, and not in a great multitude. When the 
red-wing appears on our coasts in autumn, woodcocks 
are not far distant. The departure of these birds seems 



158 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

magical in some years. One day they may be seen in 
hundreds, the next day they are gone, and not one left 
apparently for the sportsman's pastime. Between the 
middle and end of March, these animals repair to the 
coast ready to embark, if the simile may be allowed, on 
their voyage of departure. Should the wind prove 
favourable they linger not, but go at once ; sometimes, 
however, they are detained and remain among the furze 
and brushwood of the seashore till a favourable season 
occurs for flight. At such times sport becomes fast and 
furious, the spoil falling to the guns being commen- 
surate." 

Snipe are earnestly hunted by many of the pot shooters 
of the period. The bird is easily found by those 
best acquainted with its haimts, it faces the wind and 
flies before it. I have heard it said by sportsmen that 
snipe and woodcock will fly to you and insist upon 
being killed! Personally I do not know much about 
them, but, in one of his occaaonal sermons or religious 
lectures. Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, 
said to his hearers, "Look at the snipe, they have not 
been armed with their long bills for nothing. Nature 
knows no superfluities, we must acknowledge, as we 
see this bird thrusting its long bill into the soft earth in 
order to find its food.*' 

The " mysterious Moorhen " deserves a few words in 
passing, it yields a good deal of what may be described 
as sport of a rather tantalising sort, and very often, 
when a fellow thinks he has killed one, he finds himself, 
metaphorically speaking, " done." The bird has only 
been laughing at him ; when fired at, it is not of course 
always killed, but often feigns death, and by doing so 
escapes. It is aflBrmed that these birds do not breed in 



Other Birds of Sport 159 

"England" (I presume the United Kingdom is meant), 
but I rather think they do, and a naturalist has assured 
me that he entertains no doubt of the fact, having seen 
both eggs and young ones in this country. The male 
birds are exceedingly pugnacious, and fight with a 
vigour and determination that only the death of one or 
other of the combatants can put a stop to, nor are these 
birds afraid of man. They feed greedily on garden 
stuff and possess a vast capacity for devouring all kinds 
of small fruits. Writers on natural history describe 
how they build. "The female acts as the master 
mason, and places the materials in the proper form ; 
the male bird performing the part of labourer, searching 
for and bringing the stuff of which the nest is formed to 
the builder. When a nest is built over a bit of water 
that may rise a little during a flood, it is built a 
couple of feet or so above the surface ; if the water un- 
expectedly rises upon a nest already formed, it will be 
removed by the birds to a higher level." 



II. 

Of the many millions of miscellaneous birds which are 
annually secured for the commissariat, the pigeon — all 
kinds of pigeons — ^yields a very large proportion. There 
are probably as many as twenty thousand pigeon-houses 
in Great Britain contributing their quota quietly 
without the intervention of the poulterer, and as to the 
wild pigeons of many kinds which come to market in 
the course of a season they are numbered by hundreds 
of thousands. In various countries pigeons seem to be 
much-appreciated birds, and have formed the theme of 
numerous essays or other articles. Of late years the 



160 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

pigeon has given rise to controversy, the points chiefly 
in dispute being, whether or not the food value of the 
animal will cover the damage it does, or is supposed to 
do, in the turnip or other fields. The ring-dove, or, as 
we call it in Scotland, the *' cushie doo," is to be seen 
at times in flocks comprising many hundreds, thousands 
in some instances. Now, this is a really valuable table 
bird, abundant supplies of which are at times to be 
found in all the markets of the kingdom for use as food ; 
it is far preferable to the inhabitant of the dovecot, 
which, daintily dressed or covered with rich paste in a 
pie-dish, is so often seen in the dining-rooms of the 
wealthy. But in matters of sport no hard-and-fast 
lines need be laid down ; whether the pastime pursued 
be pigeon-shooting or deer-stalking, each man follows 
his own method of dealing with his quarry, and disdains 
to be dictated to by his neighbour. On a partridge- 
shooting day, on a well-furnished estate near Edin- 
burgh, I can remember of a gentleman "taking the 
pet," because some men would shoot after a fashion of 
their own, instead of doing as he bade them. " I shoot 
as I please," said recently a Scottish sportsman of 
repute, " I hate rules. I simply want to kill my bird 
without hurting my neighbour ; that is my way, others 
may do as they like." 

Pigeons, as is well known, yield sport and pastime of 
different kinds. "Tigeon flying" is now becoming 
quite an institution in Scotland, there being many 
societies throughout the country devoted to that mode 
of recreation, and some day, perhaps, in Scotland, we 
shall be as eager about homing birds as the people of 
Belgium. Those who are familiar with that country 
know that the sober-minded Belgians have a mania for 



Other Birds of Sport. 161 

pigeon-flying ; so fax as I could ascertain from personal 
inquiry, it is the one pastime which the people really 
heartily indulge in — there are in the course of the year 
set races in which thousands of pounds are placed at 
stake, the King and the members of the royal family 
subscribing to the funds. Everybody in the little 
kingdom seems interested in *' the carrier," all talk of 
the pigeon, and some men make the training of them 
the business of their lives. There is a newspaper devoted 
to the sport, and some of the matches are more spoken 
about in Brussels than the Derby or Cesarewitch is in 
London. Every child in Belgium takes an interest in 
the sport, and the Belgian ladies, from the princesses to 
the peasantesses, if I may coin a word, delight in the 
pastime of pigeon-flying. 

As has been stated, this mode of innocent recreation 
is regarded with favour in Scotland, where some men 
have indulged in it for many years, more especially the 
coal-miners of Lanarkshire, of one of whom the follow- 
ing story was published a few years ago. The man 
was ill, dying in fact, and his parish minister, a good 
man, was painting to him in vivid language the home 
of the angels, to which, if he died repentant, he might 
perhaps be admitted. The dying pitman, who had been 
in his day a keen pigeon-fancier, grasped at the idea, 
he liked the description of the angels with their grand 
spreading wings, which was given to him by the 
clergyman. 

'* They will be grand at fleein'," gasped the man. 

" No doubt of it," was the reply. 

" WiU you be in heaven too, minister ? " 

" I hope so, my friend,*' was the answer. 

" And have wings too ? " 



162 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

" Most likely, I trust so." 

"Tell you what, minister; when we meet^ I'll flee 
you for a pound note I " 

Matches at pigeon shooting were at one time more 
frequent in Scotland than they are at present. Through- 
out the "forties" and "fiifties" there \ used to be 
frequent pigeon-shooting handicaps, both in Midlothian 
and elsewhere, but I fancy the Volunteer movement 
has had something to do with the falling-o£f that has 
taken place in this kind of sport " Doo-Davie " was a 
man in Edinburgh who used to buy aU the pigeons 
which were killed in the handicaps, and hawk them 
around for sale at a cheap figure ; in one season he said 
he sold over five thousand. 

Wild pigeons afford excellent sport to those who 
know how to avail themselves of it Many a man who 
cannot afford to " take a shooting " has in his necessity 
fallen among the pigeons, and, finding them good for 
powder, has returned again and again to the pastime 
from choice. These birds can be taken singly, that is to 
say, they may be stalked individually, or you may 
intercept them to great advantage when they are flying 
in flocks from their feeding- places to their roosts. On 
gusty evenings they generally skim low, and can be 
easily killed from a secluded hiding-place. Some who 
peruse these pages will doubtless be more able to teach 
their author how to shoot pigeons than he is to teach 
them ; but, to those who know no better, it may be said 
that to bring down wild pigeons when in flight is not 
exactly child's play : to do so requires a sharp eye and 
a firm hand. Much calculation is necessary in order to 
do execution, and good flight shooting is not to be had 
every afternoon. Some sportsmen get at their pigeons 



Other Birds of Sport 1G3 

by means of a decoy from a hiding-plaxje ; a couple of 
tame birds may be used to attract the others, or the 
ground in the neighbourhood may be baited liberally 
with such kinds of food as the season affords, in this 
way a bag may often be well filled. 

As to the destructiveness of pigeons on the fields of 
the farm, I am of opinion that too much has been made 
of the accusations advanced against our wild pigeons ; 
they mostly get what we call " Jeddart Justice," being 
shot first and then tried for their ofience. Eightly or 
wrongly, " the cushie doo " has been accused of being the 
farmers' foe, but I think the charge made ought to be 
received with caution. No doubt wild pigeons have 
often been killed in the stomachs of which were found 
"suspicious vittels," but in hundreds of instances 
nothing has been seen other than what should have 
been there, namely, the seeds of weeds and various 
grubs and other things that, had they been permitted 
to develop, would certainly have done harm to the 
crops. Persons invested with a little brief authority 
are often rather severe on many of our feathered 
residents : the sparrow is experiencing a hard time of 
it, but it should not be forgotten that even the sparrow 
has been of use. 

Coming now to the crow family, who has not eaten 
of rook-pie ? Eook-shooting for a very lengthened 
period has beeu a pastime of the Scottish people ; but 
rookeries are not now so numerous as I can remember 
them to have been, although there does not seem to be 
any diminution in the flocks. Many of Scotland's 
greatest sons have begun their battle of life by herding 
crows in the fields of our farmers. Even in such an 
occupation much has been learned and the foundation 

vl2 



164 Ovt-door Sports in Scotland. 

laid of after celebrity. One of Scotland's best preachers 
had in his jonng days to do duty as a herd, but un- 
fortunately, as his father thought, he paid greater 
attention to reading such books as he could obtain a 
loan of than to the scaring of the crows. His mother, 
in answer to the complaints made by his father the 
farmer, used to say, " Weel, weel, Tammas, we canna 
help it, hell just have to be made a minister." 

The rook in common with the wild pigeon has always 
had a bad reputation ; but those who have seen these 
birds hopping after the plough, seeking what they can 
devour, and industriously picking up all that comes in 
their way of worm or grub, will not endorse the bad 
character that has been bestowed on them. The rook 
is undoubtedly in many respects the friend of the 
farmer by eating the wire worms and the destructive 
larvffi of the cockchafer ; each of the birds, it has been 
calculated, will require four or five ounces of food per 
diem, and the kind they prefer is that stated. 

As a matter of fact, rooks and many other birds claim 
a percentage of seed com as it is being sown, but that 
the daim does not after all amount to much the thickly 
growing grain in the fields will testify. Nor does his 
rookship scruple to capture and devour smaller birds. 
I have seen one pounce on an unsuspecting newly 
fledged sparrow, and holding it tight by means of its 
claws pluck it, behead it, pick the flesh off its bones, 
and then carefully bury the remains in the earth ! The 
defence of the rook being undertaken upon one occasion 
by a parish minister in an important agricultural 
county, he took with him to a particular farm on 
which he knew that sowing and ploughing would be 
both in operation a small jury of half-a-dozen persons ; 



Other Birds of Sport. 165 

first, visiting the sower there was not a rook to be seen, 
but the three ploughs were attended by scores of tbese 
industrious grubbers all hard at work, picking up worms 
and the larvae of beetles, cockchafers, and other animals. 
** Now, then," said the reverend gentleman, " what say 
you, have I proved my contention that the rook does 
more good than harm?" "You certainly have,'* was 
the unanimous reply of the half-dozen witnesses. 
Farmers who have the good fortune to be near a rookery 
never sufiFer from the wireworm. 

Eook-shooting is in my view rather fatiguing sport ; 
all sport is, of course, more or less fatiguing, but what I 
mean is in relation to results. Eooks do not possess 
much pecuniary value, and to point one's rook-rifle 
straight up and take a sight at the branching birds is 
not unlike task work, most of the animals falling to 
sitting shots — the poor young crows in many instances 
are not allowed much chance of escape ; however, as 
many think, it is better to have a day in a rookery than 
no sport. It is satisfactory to know that the rook, if 
not esteemed as quarry by men who can command a 
grouse moor, is growing in favour, and likely in time to 
come to be better protected than in times past. I 
could spin many a long yam about rooks and rookeries, 
but that the exigencies of space demand me now to 
notice one or two other birds. 

Among the earliest of my " lockings on " at other 
people's sporting, I can recall various visits to the Bass 
Eock and its Solan geese. The Bass Bock is situated 
ofif North Berwick in the mouth of the Firth of Forth, 
and has for centuries been an historic landmark. It is 
still crowded, but not quite so crowded, with gannets as 
it was at the time of my boyish visits, when the firing 



166 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

of a gun would alarm the birds to such an extent as to 
cause probably as many as twelve thousand to rise from 
the island. A party in a boat with a couple of guns 
could shoot as many as they required, and I have seen 
us return to Canty Bay with three or four dozen of 
these birds. The " gulls," as some call them (but they 
do not belong to the family of the gulls), are also taken 
by other means, but are not of very great value for 
table use, the palates which are able to tolerate the 
Solan goose being rather uncultivated. One or two 
strong-minded gourrmts of my acquaintance tell me 
that the Solan goose is really a tolerable table bird when 
properly treated by being steeped in hot water frequently 
renewed and then roasted ; so cooked a Solan goose, they 
say, provides excellent eating ; as to whether this is so 
or not I cannot offer an opinion — forty-eight years have 
elapsed since I partook of roasted gannet and thought 
it first-rate food, but I was then a hungry boy. 

At one period it was the fashion at dinner parties in 
Edinburgh to serve a roast Solan goose first of all by 
way of whetting the appetites of the guesta I have 
often seen these gannets offered for sale by the poulterers 
of " Auld Eeekie " at one shilling and sixpence each, 
the average weight of the Solan geese is about 7i lbs. 
Gannet, it has been affirmed, follow the shoals of 
herrings, devouring vast quantities of these fish. It was 
Professor Playfair, if I am not mistaken, who made the 
following calculation of the herring-eating powers of the 
gannets of St. Kilda, based on the supposition of there 
being a population of 200,000 on the island ; ** assuming 
that each bird remains on the island for seven months 
and eats five herrings per diem, that number will 
amount for the whole body of gannets to one miUion of 



Other Birds of Sport. 167 

these fish. Li the 214 days, therefore, which these 
fowls pass on the island, they will consume 214 
millions of herrings." Valued at the price of one half- 
penny each, a total sum of over £446,833 will be thus 
represented. On Ailsa Crag, and at St. Kilda and one 
or two other places in Scotland, gannets are numerous, 
existing in thousands. 

It may not be out of place to say a few words here 
about the wild birds of " lone St. Kilda, high up in the 
melancholy main." There are not at the time of 
writing more perhaps than ninety people all told on 
the island, living a simple and primitive life and carry^ 
ing on, when their feathered friends arrive, the business 
of bird-catching, in order to obtain food and exchange 
their feathers for other necessaries of life ; indeed, the 
providing of feathers in quantity sufficient to supply 
their landlord is the tenure by which they hold their 
poor dwelling-places, the rents of which are mostly 
paid in feathers. *' Imagine the number of birds which 
must be killed before you can accumulate 260 stones of 
feathers," once wrote Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, after a 
visit to the island ; " it represents hundreds of thousands 
of fulmars and other sea birds of every kind." At 
St. Klilda those sea birds are incredibly numerous in 
their season, when "feathered fowls are like as the 
sands of the sea." 

No bird, says Pennant in one of his dissertations, is 
of such use to the St. Kildeans as the fulmar; "it 
supplies them with oil for their lamps, down for their 
beds, a delicacy for their tables, a balm for their 
wounds, and a medicine for their distempers," and the 
oil of this bird is also a cure for rheumatism. The men 
of St. Silda " fowl " on the neighbouring islands of Soa 



168 Out-doar Sports in Scotland. 

and Borrera, as tbe feathers can only be obtained, by 
constant indnstij during the period when the birds are 
on the island. Every able-bodied man on the island 
must contribute his labour to the general stock. Tbe 
men of St. Eilda will collect and kill ten thousand 
birds in a very short space of time, but they are so 
numerous that such a number subtracted from the 
general stock is of no moment Each rock and crevice 
of the great sea-walls of the island, and tbe adjacent 
*' stacks^" is inhabited by sea-fowl, chiefly gannets, and 
if an alarm be sounded, in the shape of firing a gun, the 
display of birds is something wonderful. 

The gulls may now be noticed, they are the ravens of 
the deep. As the poet Crabbe says, — 

" Inshore their passage tribes of sea-gulls urge. 
And drop for prey within the sweeping surge j 
Oft in the rough opposing blast th^ fly 
Far back, and then turn and all their force apply. 
While to tbe stonn they give their weak oomplaiDing cry; 
Or clap tbe sleek white pinion to the breast^ 
And in the restless ocean dip for rest.** 

*' These birds are ill to shoot Ellangowan," said 
Captain McGaw to me one day as the lona was enter- 
ing Loch Fyne. The captain's observation was a true 
one. Every year a detachment of them may be seen on 
the river Clyde, accompanying the steamboats from 
about Greenock to the entrance to Loch Fyne ; flying in 
the wake of the vessel, or circling round it as it 
voyages to its destination, waiting for the cook or 
steward to throw overboard the dSbris of the dinner 
table or cooking galley. I have seen many a shot fired 
at these birds from boats, but very rarely have I seen a 
^1 drop to the gun. Gulls — ^there are many kinds of 



Other Birds of Sport 169 

them — ^are clever, both at eluding enemies and finding 
food ; they will carry high up in the air a small crab or 
lobster, and then dropping it from on high it is smashed 
into pieces, and is then eaten shell and all ! I have 
been told on good authority that a gull cannot be shot 
unless you have a clear view of its eye. Whether that 
be so or not, it is splendid practice for young sportsmen 
to try their 'prentice hand on the gulls. I should say, 
from the little I know of gull-shooting, that if a man, 
unaccustomed to the sport, hits one in thirty-five, he 
will prove a splendid shot, for he has not only to study 
the eccentric movements of the bird, but has to mind 
the motion of his boat as well. It is a feature of guU 
life to join together to flout the common enemy. 
" When Greek joins Greek then is the tug of war " (an 
oft-misquoted quotation). I have personally seen a 
small flock of gulls put another bird to death, pluck off 
its feathers, and then eat it 1 

The following curious little anecdote has been related 
by a gentleman living on Loch Fyne side : " A flock of 
gulls frequenting a certain ferry will circle round the 
crossing boat with great fearlessness, except on any 
occasion on which there is a gun aboard ! If there is 
no gun to be seen, the birds will almost touch the pas- 
sengers, so familiar do they become, but once let them 
obtain a glimpse of the death-dealing fowling-piece, and, 
lo ! they are out of range in a moment." 

III. 

What is called wild duck shooting, "sporte in ye 
marrisches," so far as my knowledge of it extends, is 
decidedly " miscellaneous." I have seen a good deal of 



170 OtU-door Sports in Scotland. 

it, having more than once been a spectator of that kind 
of bird killing which has become familiar by means of 
many books and the numerous descriptive essays 
devoted to it, but no exhibition of penmanship can 
exactly convey what one sees on such occasions. Like 
angling in reality versus angling on paper, there is a 
diflference. Upon one occasion of looking on at the 
shooting of some wild ducks, I was greatly surprised 
a few days afterwards at being asked if I had " seen 
it." " Seen what ? " I naturally repUed. '' Why, the de- 
scription of our adventures of the other evening, of 
course." " Certainly not," was my reply, '* I didn't know 
we had encountered any." But I was soon undeceived ; 
there had appeared in a local paper a highly painted 
narrative of an evening's shooting in which was stated 
a vast number of incidents that, if they really took 
place, had passed unheeded by me ; it was very difficult 
to refrain from laughing at what was said, and at the 
wonderful cleverness displayed by my friend in killing 
and securing his birds. Ever since, printed narratives 
of sport of any kind, no matter where they appear, 
seem to me suspicious. But the shooting of wild ducks 
is a topic on which no amateur has a right to enlarge, 
or to oflfer much criticism, seeing it is, as one may say, 
a distinct branch of sport, with a following and a litera- 
ture all its own ; the tales, real and imaginative, that 
have been told about duck-shooting would about fill 
fifty volumes. It has one point in its favour, it is 
without doubt a pastime of the most picturesque 
description. 

It would not be difficult to give a long account of 
these particular birds of sport, in the natural history 
of which there is much that is interesting ; without 



Other Birds of Sport. 171 

meaning to be verbose, the writer may give a few odds 
and ends about them which he ascertained many years 
ago ; as to the " punting," nothing shall be said, in case 
of my being accused of doing that which I have accused 
others of doing. Evenings in the wild duckeries are 
as a rule worth a trial, and there are men who are 
particularly fond of the sport of duck-shooting. With 
a tent at hand in which is kept up a good fire, and 
plenty of boiling water, tea or toddy can be made as 
required, the nights at the end of October and beginning 
of November being on occasion extremely cold. 

The mallard, if I am not in error, is the trv^ wild 
duck, and the name should be applied to both male 
and female. The bird is usually described as being 
migratory, but it has been stated, on good authority, that 
it is to be seen in Scotland in each week of the year. 
Many interesting details might be collected about this 
bird and others that are all commonly classed as " wild 
ducks." It plays on occasion a wonderful part during 
the breeding season, being able to remove its eggs from 
place to place when danger threatens, and she (the 
female that is) can carry about her newly-hatched 
young ones balanced on her great broad feet I The 
young birds, however, are so soon able to take to the 
water, that they must at a very early age indeed be 
able to get out of the way of their enemies. Enormous 
numbers of these wild ducks (mallard) annually come 
to market, the female being a prolific breeder. When 
Pennant travelled and wrote about these animals, vast 
supplies of them were found in Lincolnshire, then, as 
now, the great centre of wildfowl in this country. In 
one of his tours. Pennant informs us that, "in one 
season, and in only ten of the decoys in the neighbour- 



172 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

hood of Wainfleet, 31,200 wild ducks of varions kinds 
were taken. At the time indicated (about 1805) 
men were willing to contract to supply wild ducks at 
tenpence the couple, teal and widgeon to count only as 
half birds/' 

In her simple nest the hen lays a lot of eggs. 
Instances of fourteen are known. That the mallard is 
exceedingly fertile may be asserted from the numbers 
annually slain ; from the moment they come upon the 
scene, usually about October, their destruction begins, 
and legions of them are shot, not individually, but 
" at-a-go," the duck-shooter being usually ambitious or 
killing a whole flock at a time, for which purpose he 
uses a particular gun, and fesorts also to many devices 
in order to ensure a big bag. The number of these 
birds now being brought to market has increased 
enormously in consequence of the protection afforded 
during their close times. 

The wild duck or mallard is the parent of our 
domestic strain, some of which, as is well known, are of 
great commercial value. Many months elapse before 
the young mallard becomes of table value, and even 
when the bird attains maturity it scarcely, on the 
average, feathers and all, weighs three pounds. By 
many persons the wild duck is much liked as a table 
animal ; on the other hand, there are not a few who 
dislike it. When, however, they can be caught and fed 
for a time in a garden or barnyard, they become 
exceedingly good for food ; and when they can be bred 
from — ^paired with the domestic duck — ^the ducklings 
are excellent. Mr. St. John was able to accomplish 
this. " Some few years back," he tell us, " I brought 
home three young wild ducks ; two of them turned out 



Other Birds of Sport. 173 

to be drakes. I sent away my tame drakes, and, in 
consequence, the next season had a large family of 
half-bred and whole wild ducks, as the tame and wild 
breed together quite freely. The wild ducks which 
have been caught are the tamest of all ; throwing off all 
their natural shyness, they follow their feeder, and will 
eat com out of the hand of any person with whom they 
are acquainted." The gastronomic value of this animal 
is discussed in another page. 

Mr. James Allan of Glasgow, a very extensive dealer 
in game and domestic poultry, has favoured me with 
the following note of prices — ^Wild duck sell in 
November and December at about 2s. 6d. to 3s. each, 
retail price, and during February and March at from 3s. 
to 5s. each, according to the supply. The best and 
largest supplies come from Holland, and are consigned 
to the London market, from whence they are distributed 
all over the country. The wholesale price fluctuates 
according to the state of the weather in London. " This 
season (1888), on the 1st February, I had 4s. 6d. each 
for birds ; while, on the 21st, I was supplied with finer 
birds, and in any quantity, at Is. 9d, to 2s. each." Big 
prices, as a matter of course, bring in tremendous 
supplies ; causing, .as is usual, a great glut, so that prices 
fall with considerable rapidity, as much as 50 per cent, 
reduction being noted in three days. 

Much of what has here been said about the mallard is 
applicable also to widgeon and teal, but I have not 
space at my command to do more than mention these 
birds of sport. Good teal-shooting is always being 
sought, and when found is much prized by sportsmen. 

One of our other wild birds, however, is deserving of 
some little notice, not because of any claim it has to 



174 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

be considered a bird of sport, but because of its adapt- 
ability to the spit, and also from its being the source of 
a much-appreciated table delicacy of the present time 
— ^that bird is known generally in Scotland as "the 
peesweep." The lapwing and others of its kind are 
good for food, and much relished by those who know 
that. Plovers' eggs are invariably in great demand in 
the early days of the London season, and fetch a high 
price in the great metropolis, to which considerable 
quantities are annually sent from Scotland— ^com- 
mencing about the second week in April, or earlier should 
the season prove genial. On special occasions as much 
as a pound per dozen has been paid for these eggs, and 
when the demand is brisk they can seldom be procured 
under six or seven shillings per dozen. Although 
plovers' eggs'were known to the epicures of sixty years 
ago, they did not become fashionable till about thirty 
years since, upon the occasion of Her Majesty the 
Queen taking luncheon at a nobleman's house where 
she was staying for a few days. Being much pleased 
with a plovers' egg salad which was brought to table, 
the Queen desired that particulars of how to make that 
dish should be sent to her chef, and from that time the 
eggs have always been in much demand for wedding 
breakfasts, luncheons, and ball suppers. Eeader, when 
you ask for plovers' eggs be sure you get them, as the 
eggs of other birds are often substituted. 



( 175 ) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Poaching. 

I. 

Of poaching, much that is interesting might be told; as 
a " business," poaching in Scotland may be said to have 
originated when steam- vessels began to ply between Leith 
and London. Previous to that period there was almost 
DO illicit commerce in game : men only killed for their 
pots, or knocked over a few hares for the sake of their 
skins, which were at one time valuable. Grouse and 
partridges were not so much appreciated half a century 
ago as they are to-day, and the pheasant, when it be- 
came known in Scotland, was only surreptitiously killed 
in order to be stuffed and exhibited as a household 
ornament ! 

Game used to be forwarded to London by the smacks, 
but these vessels were, on many occasions, so long on 
the passage, that the stuff on their arrival in the Thames 
was foimd to be unsaleable. At the time referred to, 
men who tried their hand at poaching had to be 
contented with nominal prices, except at the time when 
fur of all kinds was in much demand, and when hares 
and rabbits were killed and skinned on the fields, the 
carcasses being there and then buried. I remember when 
hares could be purchased for sixpence each ; sixpence. 



176 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

indeed, was a common wholesale price, and no wonder— 
a quarter of choice grass-fed lamb could often be pur- 
chased in the summer months at the same price. Hence 
poaching, as a business, had not assumed the extensive 
ramifications of the last twenty-five years. As a pastime, 
however, poaching has prevailed from the earliest days. 
In some Scottish • counties gentlemen were slow to 
recognise the fact, and great demoralisation ensued 
before efl&cient steps could be taken to stop it. Had 
some of our landowning magnates been quicker to act, 
poaching would never probably have attained the 
dimensions of these later years, during which it 
has taken place on a larger scale than our forefathers 
would have thought possible. 

With the introduction of steam carriage from Scotland 
to London, the commissariat of the great metropolis 
began to be enriched by the game birds and fish of old 
Caledonia. As the demand for these choice additions 
to the metropolitan bills of fare increased, poaching 
increased also, and numerous persons speedily took 
part in carrying on the illicit traffic, great care being 
taken by such dealers to avoid discovery; much 
caution was therefore exercised by those who came 
into direct communication with the poachers, who 
received the game in small quantities as opportunity 
ofiered. The spoil was usually hidden in back shops, or 
"planted" in cellars till the time arrived for transference ; 
while much of the game of that period reached individual 
customers and country hotels by circuitous routes and 
peculiar messengers, direct from the poachers. The lax 
morality of well-to-do shopkeepers, and even merchants 
of capital, in purchasing poached game, furred or 
feathered, was not a little remarkable ; it was of kin to 



Poaching. 177 

the extensive dealing which everywhere took place at 
sn earlier period in smuggled whisky and in brandy and 
tea, upon which no duty had ever been paid. 

Before the railway era, heavy goods from country 
districts were usually sent to towns by means of common 
carriers, and that being so it was not the practice for any 
quantity of game to be transmitted at one time, because 
of the limited carrying capacity and slow rate of progress 
of the carriers, who, as a rule, were well known ; their 
routes and the kind of goods they carried being patent 
to all along their line of travel, and, although some of 
the body might be imscrupulous, the majority were un- 
doubtedly respectable men, who would have refused to 
countenance any organised system of poaching. Never- 
theless, many a poached hare and salmon found their 
way from country to town by means of the carrier's 
cart. In larger towns, when facilities of transport 
became greater, "collections" were made by various 
persons " in the trade " to be forwarded to Liverpool, 
Manchester, and London. These consignments of game 
n^-Qre so disguised in packing as to deceive persons on 
the outlook for them, who were not so sharp in those 
days as their successors of the present period. 

Cash payments in all poaching transactions were 
the rule, and the person who took the most trouble 
and had the greatest risk in the matter, namely, the 
poacher, was very poorly paid for his dishonest dealings. 
For a hare he would get sixpence, for a pheasant nine- 
pence, and for partridges about tenpence a brace ; the 
profit on these, on their being handed from the receiver 
to the collector, would average all over about three half- 
pence a head, and the person who sent them to marlcet 
took his chance. If game was scarce, his profits 

N 



178 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

were lai^e ; if there came a glut, he might sustain a 
loss. 

Coming down to a later period, I used to be iu 
the confidence of a poor waif who was often loafing 
about the Edinburgh livery stables in " the thirties/* 
his name was Jamie Skinners, and he knew perfectly 
every rood of ground in Midlothian ; at one time he was 
employed in the stables of Mr. Samsay of Bamton^ and 
he also found employment of various kinds througli the 
kind-hearted coachman of Mr. Allan, the banker, on the 
neighbouring estate of Lauriston ; it was in the harness- 
room of Lauriston Castle I first heard related many of 
Jamie's poaching adventures. This poor man was 
thought by some to be " daft," but if so his madness 
was not without method ; at all events he enjoyed the 
reputation of being one of the cleverest poachers in the 
county, no man was more "knowing" when there 
was a hare to be snared or a pheasant to " smeek." 
The home park at Dalkeith Palace was one of bis 
hunting-grounds, he quite looked upon the Duke of 
Buccleuch's game as being "as much mine as his!" 
The plantations of Bamton, too, yielded him tribate on 
two or three nights of each week, after the short days 
had set in. 

Poor Jamie was in reality a sort of simpleton ; had he 
not been so, he might have made money by his poaching. 
So far as I know, he never came under the ban of the 
police, not then so active, however, as they are to-day. 
Skinners had a number of patrons whom he suppli^ 
with occasional hares or rabbits, poached of course; 
for these he was pcdd in kind by grocers and butchers, 
as also by keepers of public-houses, who were good 
customers ; a few ounces of tea and a pound of sugar 



Poaching. 179 

for a brace of partridges, and a bit of beef or mutton for 
a hare and a pair of rabbits, was what Jamie preferred ; 
it was a saying of his that ''they things were not 
worth money." Such spoils of Bamton and the neigh- 
bouring estates of Cramond and Lauriston, in the shape 
chiefly of ground game and partridges — ^pheasants were 
hardly then so plentiful as they are to-day — were 
bartered in the manner named by Jamia In Jamie's 
time county policemen had not been caDed into requisi- 
tion ; at all events, if they had been constituted, they 
were seldom seen, and did not think it any part of 
their duty to put disagreeable questions to persons who 
certainly looked all over like poachers, their pockets 
being distended by a few birds or a couple of hares — 
rabbits no man thought of concealing. That being so, 
Jamie flourished for years in the poaching line, and 
long continued to be a sort of oracle in the smiddy of 
Jemmy Jack at Davidson's mains, to which allusion has 
already been made in the pages devoted to coursing. 

No bribe or promise of reward would induce poor 
Jamie to meddle with domestic poultry of any kind ; it 
was only ''wild beasts," as he called game, that he 
meddled with It was known to his credit that he 
more than once pointed out to the farmers' wives 
places where their turkeys had made nests and were 
" laying away," as the phrase goes. Upon one occasion 
when a grocer's wife commissioned him to get her a pair 
of ducklings, his reply was prompt, '*Buy them, 
mistress, buy them ; ye can get them for siller, ye ken ; 
what I bring are no worth money, and if I was to bring 
ye ducks it wad be stealing, ye ken, and stealing's a 
great sin." But, all the same, Jamie exacted tribute of 
hares and partridges from Mr. Bamsay of Bamton. 

N 2 



180 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Skinners was a stout man, rather flabby-like taken 
all over, walking with a slouching gait and usually clad 
in some one's old clothes. The Laings of the Eoyal 
Horse Bazaar in Edinburgh were kind to him in this 
matter. No person knew where Jamie slept ; the poor 
waif had no home, and did not even sleep in hay-lofts 
to which he had access ; he was a " mystery " during 
the years I knew him, and a mystery he remained to 
the end of his days. Where he died, or of what disease, 
or where he was buried, no one could tell. The last I 
saw of him was in Cramond Churchyard, when one fine 
June Sunday he sat listening to the service, the church 
doors being open. The poor fellow used many a time to 
sit and look long and wistfully at a particular grave in 
that old kirkyard, which some of the wise folks of the 
parish said was the grave of his mother. In the days of 
Jamie Skinners, the grounds of Barnton, and the adjacent 
estates of Lauriston, Cramond, and Dalmeny were a 
very paradise of the poaching fraternity. Being within 
four miles of Edinburgh, a ready market was at hand 
for the disposal of the game, so that there was little 
trouble and almost no chance of detection. A good 
story was told of a coachman of the period ('tis many 
years ago) who was very obliging in the matter of 
watching the churchyard, a sad necessity of sixty years 
since, when "bodies" were eagerly sought by medical 
men for dissection. Well, this good coachman, who 
could at any time be relied upon to take a neighbour's 
turn of duty, never came home on such occasions with- 
out having a hare or two, or a brace of whatever birds 
might be in season, in his pockets. He was, in fact, an 
accomplished poacher, and, whilst supposed to be on 
duty in the watch-house of Cramond Churchyard, he 



Poaching. 181 

was often enough engaged in "finding" a hare, or 
" smeeking " a pheasant. 

In one of our most popular polemical publications 
there appeared two or three years since what might 
well be termed a defence of poaching ; at any rate the 
writer of the paper propounded the idea that poaching 
was not a moral oflfence ! If that be so, it will require 
a clever casuist to draw the line between moral and 
other offences. If, for instance, a person pays three 
hundred pounds a year for a grouse moor, and by so 
doing obtains the sole right to the birds thereon, how 
can it be no moral offence for a band of poachers to net 
that gentleman's heather and send away a portion of his 
stock of birds to be disposed of in London or Manchester 
for a good round sum of money ? To continue the 
argument, when, may it be asked, do game birds become 
property? Suppose, for instance, that a dealer pur- 
chsises a covey of poached partridges, would it constitute 
a case of theft to take them from his shop, and if so, 
would that be a " moral offence " ? If it was no moral 
offence for the poacher to take these birds off the 
fields, surely it could not be a moral offence to seize 
them in the poulterer's shop and carry them away. 
Again, the same writer, putting his arguments, so to 
speak, in the mouth of a working man, deprecates the 
keeping of an army of policemen for the detection of 
poachers ; but, as proprietors of land pay taxes like other 
people, ought not their property to be protected ? But, 
in the eyes of this writer, policemen are evidently men 
for the protection of warehouses and shops only. This 
logic cannot last, at all events it will not be generally 
endorsed. A country manufacturer objected that he 
should be taxed for policemen to apprehend salmon 



182 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

poachers ; then said a county gentleman who was 
present, " We will just go quits, for I object to be taxed 
fw the watching of your weaving shop. You have just 
said that I ought to pay for the protection of my salmon, 
and therefore I repeat your own argument — ^pay for the 
protection of your manufactory." Under the auspices 
of the writer referred to, we might very soon have a 
new edition of the old story, altered of course to suit : — 
*^ At a meeting of the poachers of the United King- 
dom, the following resolutions were unanimously pro- 
posed and adopted : 1. The earth is the Lord's, and the 
fulness thereof. 2. He has given it to His peopla 3. 
We are His people/' 

Many sketches of the men who certainly do not 
consider poaching a " moral oflfence " might be given in 
these ps^es, but one will perhaps be thought enough ; it 
is typical The name of this man was Bob Sykes 
(perhaps he is still alive) ; he was bom in Lincolnshire, 
and continued to live in various parts of that coimty 
for many years. At an early period of his life he had 
been convicted of poaching, having been detected in 
snaring two hares. The conviction taught him to 
proceed with caution, and, although closely watched, his 
future expeditions were so well planned that he escaped 
detection for years, and once, when pulled up, the case 
could only be made out one of trespass. Bob for a 
time had the reputation of being an habitual drunkard, 
but the drink was a mask to cover his misdeeds. On 
such nights as he became intoxicated at the village ale- 
house and was helped home, he had business in hand, 
and afber he was supposed to be in bed he would be a 
couple of miles or so distant from his house busy at 
work, and long before daylight come home to bed. 



Podchhig. 183 

He never brought any game home with him ; the fur 
and feather killed by him were invariably " planted " at 
a place agreed upon and carried ofif by his pals, who 
sent them to London, receiving in due course a remit- 
tance for the jobs. Bob moved about from place to 
place in the county, generally within a radius of some 
twelve or fourteen miles, and, in QOi^junction chiefly 
with a small innkeeper who- managed the business part 
of the transactions, made a good deal of money. Another 
of the same, and living in the same county, was Bushell, 
who called himself a rat-catcher and vermin-trapper. 
In his early days as a poacher he was more than once 
caught and punished, since which he has acted with 
great cunning. No person employs him or his ferrets, 
but for all that he lives well, pays the rent of his house 
r^ularly, and never seems to be in want of anything. 
Eemittances of money come to him every now and 
then from London and Liverpool, and he is frequently 
absent from home for a week at a time, leaving usually 
in a spring-cart which comes to lift him. 

Such men as these and their '' pals " find plenty of 
^* work" cut out for them in the course of the season, 
which being short, requires that they should be indus- 
trious. They have to earn their year's keep within three 
months. They devote themselves largely to partridge 
poaching, these birds being annually netted in spite of 
all precautions. On grass fields and stubbles which 
were known in the breeding season to be populous with 
young birds, the shooting, when the time arrivesi is 
lamentably scanty; and no wonder, seeing that the 
ground has been gone over by an organised gang of men 
who have lifted off a few thousand acres many 
hundreds of the best birds. In several English counties 



184 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

there are still families noted for their skill in poaching 
— men who can outwit the most astute keepers and 
shrewdest watchers, and carry away a covey almost 
before their eyes. Considerable sums of money are 
earned by some of these persons during the partridge 
season, and many of those who engage in the illicit 
trade are cunning enough to live far away from the 
scene of action. They can reach the field of operations 
from a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles by means 
of a dogcart about nightfall, and before dawn they will 
have filled the game bags and departed, leaving no trace 
of whence they came or whither they have gone. 
Partridges do not bring such a figure in the market as 
grouse, but a pretty good total can be run up with the 
dealer before the close of the season, especially in those 
years in which the birds are abundant. Poachers are not, 
of course, pleased when prices become too low ; they 
like to realise a shilling a bird at least. The professionaJ 
poacher, when he has done with the partridges, begins 
with the pheasants, hares, and rabbits he finds at all 
times ready to his hands. 

Grouse poaching continues in spite of aU the pre- 
cautions which can be taken. The epicure must have 
his bird on the " Twelfth "—it must be "high," too — 
and, as a matter of fact, grouse are to be seen in the 
poulterers' shops even before breakfast-time on that 
day, ready for all comers who possess the wherewithal 
to purchase them. There is, of course, only one way of 
accounting for this readiness of accommodation on the 
part of our game-dealers ; the early birds must have 
been obtained in some way from the poachers, and, as 
it is a general rule to keep grouse for a time before 
cooking them, the birds must undoubtedly have been 



Poaching. 185 

taken eight or ten days before it became legal to 
kill them. And even in the case of birds not ready 
for the spit, but which can always be found for 
sale early on the morning of the " Twelfth," it is 
only reasonable to conclude that most of them are 
poached birds, seeing there are no stretches of heather 
so near London as to admit of grouse being shot 
and then sent on by railway train to be on sale 
by nine o'clock in the morning ; besides, the birds in 
question are nearly all of them Scotch birds. In very 
early seasons, grouse are most industriously netted 
wherever there is a chance of its being successfully 
done ; hundreds of birds being forwarded to the large 
seats of population to be in readiness for the high prices 
which are usually obtained during the first two or three 
days of the grouse season, when it is utterly impossible 
for birds shot in Perthshire or on the more distant 
moorsof Inverness-shire on the " Twelfth " and succeed- 
ing days to be in London, Birmingham, or Manchester. 
The sums derived from the sale of poached birds are 
tempting — probably 6s. or 7s. a brace ; and the poachers 
who are cunning enough and sufficiently active are able 
to make a " good thing " of it during the end of July 
and the beginning of August by their illegal traffic. It 
is already well known to the initiated that a very large 
number of the birds which were on sale at an early hour 
on last " Twelfth " could not have been shot, but had, 
in fact, been netted by industrious poachers some week 
or two before, and had been sent to London and Man- 
chester by train, probably packed in herring barrels or 
salmon boxes, such packages being pretty well known 
by the officials on two or three lines of railway as " fish 
with feathers on them. •' That saying was originated, I 



186 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

believe, by a little boy, the son of the station-master on 
a northern line of railway, who, being curious to see 
what kind of fish were contained in a certain box, found 
on inserting his hand that they were covered with 
feathers — that, in short, aa the station-master at once 
discovered, the box was filled with grouse. A consider- 
able sum of money is annually earned by not a few of 
the gangs of grouse poachers, as was made known in 
the course of a recent prosecution. Some industrious 
grouse poachers in the north of Scotland thought it an 
exceedingly poor season if they had not a sum of £150 
for division after a couple of months' work. As these 
men obtained half-a-crown each for their early birds, 
the number they' were able to send ofif soon came to 
money. They were, however, greatly put to it in the end 
to disguise from the railway autJiorities the commodity in 
which they dealt ; but their difficulties were frequently 
overcome by the ingenuity of their wives and daughters, 
who packed the birds in clothes trunks and crockery 
hampers. At the present time, during the season, over 
two thousand brace of grouse will be sent from Scotland 
to England packed, as has been hinted, in herring 
barrels and salmon boxes ; but not consigned, for reasons 
of prudence, to poultry or game dealers. 

It was stated a year or two ago in a game law 
debate that three men living in Derbyshire could 
earn in July and August during good seasons about 
£70 each by poaching ; before the 8th or 9th of August 
they would have a himdred brace in London, 6uid perhaps 
as many in Manchester and Birmingham. The poacher, 
it may be remarked, is a great student of the market ; 
his birds always arrive in time to commemd the highest 
prices which are to be obtained; never by any chance 



Poaching. 187 

does he send a consignment at a time when there is 
likely to be a glut ; and the poacher's birds are always 
" A 1 " in quality, for the very good reason that, as he 
takes them alive, he is able to select the best and allow 
the others to escape, knowing that he will be able to 
capture them when they are in better condition for the 
table. No poacher is so stupid as to send "cheepers" 
or ** piners " to his merchant ; as a rule, poached birds 
are the best on the moor to which the poacher who 
knows his business has access. 

The persons engaged in the following little plan will 
not surely be defended by the writer who thinks that 
poaching is not immoral, but it is so difl&cult to draw 
the line, one never knows ; at any rate the following 
series of frauds were really perpetrated in the way 
described : — " A curious scandal in connection with the 
grouse trade was disclosed a few years ago. It was 
occasioned by the cunning of a family (a father and 
two of his sons) who acted as guards on one of the 
northern lines of railway. These men bought from 
keepers, through the agency of a confederate who shared 
in the profits of the swindle, all the poor grouse which 
could be obtained — " cheepers," " piners," 6uid " cripples" 
especially. These birds, by arrangement, were carefully 
packed and consigned to a dealer in the south. Half-a- 
dozen hampers, we shall say, having been filled with 
these outcasts of the moors, and duly labelled and sent 
to the station, were operated upon as soon as ever the 
train started by two brothers who regularly travelled 
by the train as guards; these men opened all the 
hampers of grouse sent by the same train, and, selecting 
the largest and fattest birds, replaced them with 
"piners" or "cheepers." Boxes consigned to private 



188 Out-^oor Sports in Scotland. 

individuals were first operated upon, because persons 
who receive presents of grouse do not usually look their 
gift-horse in the mouth, and therefore, in acknowledging 
receipt of such a present, say nothing about the quality 
of the birds. Dealers, of course, are not so reticent, and 
credit the account of the senders with the prices only 
which the birds are worth. The " oracle " was, however, 
worked in this way — the grouse sent as presents to 
private persons were first selected ; and, if there were 
not enough of these, the birds were changed and changed, 
all round, till even the dealers could hardly make a 
complaint. The fine, heavy half-dozen brace of plump 
birds consigned to Lady A. were at once seized upon by 
the two guards ; but they could not put in their very 
" starvelings," because Lady A. was a judge of grouse. 
So they operated on all the other hampers tUl they 
" worked round," and in the end, of the thousands of 
birds sent forth by that particular train, the cr&me de la 
creme of the lot were found to be consigned to Messrs. 
O. P. and Q., the consignees being X. Y. Z., of Inverdeen. 
The price paid for the " cheepers " was at the rate of 
about 6d. per bird, but the price credited to the 
manipulators was nearly 7». per brace — a most excel- 
lent rate of profit certainly ! " 

IL 

Having as a Tweedside boy "enjoyed" for several 
years a fair run among the fish poachers, I think I am 
competent to say a few words about the illicit traffic in 
salmon which was largely carried on half a century ago, 
and is still actively pursued when opportunity serves, 
which indeed has become a trade of considerable 



Poaching. 189 



magnitude, not less than a hundred tons of unseasonable 
fish of the salmon kind being, it is thought, annually 
exported froni Scotland to England and France, where, 
after being nicely flavoured by competent cooks, it is 
sent to table in palatable guise. For every couple of 
salmon legally caught another one is reported to be 
poached. On Tweed and its tributaries, as many as 
from six to eight thousand fish annually fall a prey to 
the "black fishers" at the period of their greatest 
value — namely, just as they are about to spawn, and 
even sometimes in the very act of spawning. All this 
means, in plain language, that the public have to pay 
about a third more for the salmon they consume than 
would be the case if there were no poaching. 

" These picturesque scoundrels, the salmon poachers," 
as the late Mr. Buckland said, " give no end of trouble." 
That gentleman was right; there has been more ill 
done and more annoyance given by fish poachers than 
by men who wreck the partridge and pheasant preserves 
or " work the oracle " on the grouse moors. The river 
Tweed has for longer than a hundred years proved a 
profitable preserve for the poacher. None but persons 
having personal opportunities of becoming acquainted 
with the facts and figures of capture are able to 
estimate the evU done to the fisheries in the spawning 
season by the ruthless slaughter of breeding fish. 

I was told by a Tweed poacher that to take eighteen 
or twenty big salmon in a night was looked upon as 
" poor sport." These fish — I am speaking of a period 
which embraced from the year 1852 to 1865 — were 
sold to English buyers, some of them being boiled and 
disposed of as potted salmon ; but the majority found 
their way to the Continent, a practice which I have 



190 Out-door Sports in Scotland* 

been infonned still continues. Tweed and its numerous 
tributaries have from the days of the old border feuds 
been infested by poachers ; indeed, there is scarcely a 
dweller on Tweedside who does not consider that " the 
fish " are as much his property as they are the property 
of the proprietor of a fishery or his tenant. No man on 
Tweedside looks upon poaching as a crime or even an 
" oflfence," and there are families thereabout in whom 
the poaching blood has circidated for many generations. 
Mr. Alexander Russell (of the Scotsman, author of * The 
Salmon ') used to tell a story of four generations of the 
same family being " had up " all at one time for illegal 
nettii^ ! To pay the wages of watchers and the cost of 
prosecuting poachers, the Tweed salmon fishery pro- 
prietors assess the rentals they receive to the extent 
annually of 20 per cent., by which, on a rental of about 
£13,000, they obtain a sum of nearly £2500 a year 
with which to fight the '^ picturesque scoundrels " who 
make war upon the fish chiefly within the close season. 
In one or two of the border villages the women have 
been known to play their part in the poaching of the 
period as well as the men. Not only can they lend a 
hand in capturing the fish, they are clever in hiding or 
disposing of them as also in the art of throwing the 
watchers off the scent, so that one part of a stream 
might be spoliated, whilst the bailifib, having been lured 
to another locality, were powerless to interfere. Many 
tales might be told of salmon poaching under difficulties ; 
of border frays and terrible encounters with the water 
watchers ; but they are all of the same kind, and must 
end in tlie confession that ev^i now, with a wide- 
awake body of river police educated up to all the tricks 
of the business, the poacher has stUl the best of it 



Poaching. 191 

One great feat, performed by a woman who was known 
from her colour as '* Quadroon Bell," is still a sore 
point on Tweedside. Under the pretence that she was 
assisting a daughter engaged in domestic service "to 
flit," i.e., to remove to a new situation, this clever 
woman obtained the assistance of a Tweed bailiff to 
hurl on a wheelbanrow a heavy trunk to the railway 
station ; that trunk, it is needless to say, contained a 
few salmon packed in ice, which ultimately foimd their 
way to Newcastle-upon-Tyne ! This incident reminds 
me of an Edinburgh story, in which a thief-taker in 
search of a stolen hundred-pound note was made by a 
notorious woman to carry about in his hand the stolen 
treasure as he searched the house, the note having 
been previously wrapped round the end of a tallow 
candle inserted in a ginger-beer bottle. Other tales of 
salmon smuggling in which the Tweedside women 
played a part might be related, but the above is one of 
the best 

In the matter of salmon poaching, it is a fact now 
pretty well known that the fishermen honestly engaged 
during the season in carrying on the net fishing 
on both Tay and Tweed " keep their hand in " during 
the close seasons. Several of them have been detected 
and punished, and very properly, seeing they obtain 
remunerative and easy work during the six months of 
the fishing season. As that class of men are versed in 
the habits of the fish, as well as being familiar with 
places where they can be advantageously captured, they 
deserve no sympathy for the fate which overtakes them 
when their sins are found out; they are men who 
poach for the markets and not for their own pots. 

About thirty years ago there were a number of 



192 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

persons travelling who were able at all times to supply 
"fish." These men were more or less "characters," 
and not a few of them made money by their nefarious 
practices. As being typical of his kind, " Fish Tarn " 
may be briefly described — ^he was well known in the 
South of Scotland. Nominally he was a "mugger" 
(gipsy hawker), in reality he was a poacher of the 
deepest dye, but, strange to say, never had been con- 
victed. His head-quarters were at the gipsy colony of 
Yetholm, a few mUes from the town of Kelso, from 
which place he made frequent excursions through the 
coimtry, going as far on occasion as Edinburgh, where 
he was known to dispose of large quantities of kippered 
salmon, chiefly at the inns frequented by carriers and 
stage-coachmen. His salmon were of good quality, and 
when " kippered " after the fashion of a recipe known 
to the gipsies (who decline to let the formula be known) 
commanded a ready sale. They were all poached fish. 
Tarn being descended from a race of poachers — ^men 
who held poaching to be a virtue, or at least no " moral 
offence"; and, although no case was ever proved 
against him, it is certain that in his day he had been 
the death of thousands of fine Tweed salmon. It is 
not many years since Tam died, leaving behind him a 
sum of £700 and two small houses. 

Another of these characters was known as Salmon 
Job. This person acted ostensibly as a fish cadger, 
travelling between Perth and Edinburgh, taking as 
many towns on his way as he possibly could, having 
in his cart barrels of salted herrings and bundles or 
cured cod and ling fish ; but, as was well enough known 
to Ms customers, he supplied salmon all the year round 
at a cheap rate to those in " the know " of his trade. 



Poaching, 193 

which, as has been said, wa3 carried on between Perth 
and Edinburgh, doing in the modem Athens a large 
business in poached fish, his price being at the rate of 
threepence a pound weight. Fond of money, and of 
saving habits, he accumulated quite a little fortune, all 
made, as he used to say, by his own honest industry ! 
Salmon Job was possessed of one special virtue ; he 
never dealt in " black " fish, and singularly enough he 
had a happy knack of finding clean salmon, both in the 
Forth and Tay, when other people could only capture 
" Bagots " or " Kelts." Job was, unfortunately for 
himself, drowned in the river Forth in the exercise of 
his vocation, his body being found in the river a little 
above Stirling; he had been originally a weaver at 
Kinross, and after his death it was found that the 
money he had earned by his "honest industry," 
amounting to no less a sum than £1700, a large figure 
for the period, was left to his granddaughter, a poor 
girl, who, as they say in Scotland, had a " want " — in 
other words, was deficient in intellectual power — an 
affliction that did not prevent her from getting married 
so soon as her claim to the money was established. It 
is not a httle remarkable that Job, however much he 
might be suspected, was never found out ; he continued 
to sell his poached salmon to the day of his death, and 
often had more orders than he could supply. He had 
a numerous body of assistants, but, wise in their 
generation, they kept their own counseL 

Many anecdotes might be related of salmon poaching. 
Once upon a time a gang of sixteen or seventeen gala 
water weavers swept the salmon " redds " of one of the 
Tweed tributaries so effectually as to secure twenty- 
nine fish, several of them with their spawning matter 





194 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

dripping from their bodies ; such an occurrence was by 
no means uncommon, and poaching of that kind has not 
yet ceased in Scotland. It is hardly necessary to say 
that the catching of salmon by those who have no right 
to capture them goes on all the year roimd on most of 
the rivers of Scotland in which these fish are to be found, 
in the open season as well as during the close time. 
Even so-called " honest anglers/' while ostensibly intent 
on trout fishing, have been known to bag a salmon. This 
has been again and again found to be so on Tweed and 
other streams as well, on many of which there are long 
miles of water which it is impossible effectually to watch, 
and on these the poacher keeps his eye, the occasional 
capture of a sixteen or twenty pound salmon being, in 
his opinion, a good reward for his industry and cunning. 
A farm servant and his family living on one of the larger 
northern rivers used to earn a sum of £30 every 
year by poaching, finding a ready outlet for his fish 
(they were in his case clean salmon) in a manufacturing 
town to which he used to send nearly all that he 
captured, 

Eeturning for a moment to Tweed, it may be 
mentioned that "sixty years since" nearly every 
family that dwelt within sight of its waters laid up 
for winter use a stock of pickled or kippered salmon. 
At that date, however, poaching had not become a 
" profession," it was simply a pastime in which many 
took part. *' Burning the water " and killing the fish 
by means of a leister was a favourite mode of sport, 
but is no longer legal, although it is still sometimes 
practised. Tweed anglers have a busy time of it 
ventilating their grievances, which, if we can believe 
them, are very numerous. " Eussel, of the Scotsman," in 



Poacki7iff. ins 

his day a capable and able writer on all angling 
questions, and notably about salmon, used to scout the 
idea of such a person being in existence as an "honest" 
angler, and of all who dwelt on Tweedside he held the 
idea, once promulgated by Sir Walter Scott, that " all 
men, and women as well, of the peasant class born 
within sight or sound of the silvery stream think they 
have as much right to the * fish ' as the lairds have." 

The poacher of the olden time — the poacher of the 
days of Walter Scott — was a respectable man ; that is, 
he did not, to the utter neglect of his daily labour, 
make poaching the business of his life ; the occasional 
capture of a fish meant simply recreation, and not, as 
now, a trade; indeed, poaching as understood "sixty 
years since " was condoned by all concerned, especially 
when it took the shape of "burning the water." A 
night's sport of that kind, such as used to occur in the 
olden time, when the lord of the manor and his plough- 
man would take each his part in throwing the spear, 
just as if engaged in a curling match, was a picturesque 
scene, productive of hearty enjoyment to all engaged. 
Few fish were captured, for " burning the water " was a 
sport, and not a commercial speculation. It was only 
engaged in during the winter months, when the nights 
were dark and the fish had ascended to the upper 
waters. Poaching is now a most abject trade — it is no 
question now of home supplies of salmon, but of a whole- 
sale trade ; and the spoils of the poachers are commen-^ 
surate with the improvement which is everywhere 
distinguishing the salmon fisheries. The salmon, being 
a migratory fish, going from the salt sea to the sweet 
waters of some delightful rural retreat, becomes an easy 
prey to its human enemies, and thousands of these fish 

o 2 



196 Outdoor Sports in Scotland, 

are annually killed just at the time when they have 
become of increased value ; for, however great a prize a 
thirty-pound salmon may be on the slab of a Bond 
Street fishmonger, it is immeasurably more valuable 
when it is about to multiply and replenish its kind. 

These reminiscences and anecdotes might be largely 
extended, it would not indeed be difficult to fill a 
volume with good stories about poachers and their 
adventures, many of which, as is well known, have had 
a sad ending, seeing that the gibbet has more than once 
claimed a victim from among the fraternity. It is 
impossible, however, to say much more about poaching 
in these pages, having already devoted so many to the 
subject. The great argument of those who defend the 
poachers is " that running animals and flying birds are 
not the property of any particular person," but in 
the opinion of the writer they cannot be considered 
the property of the poacher — his logic does not go that 
length. Surely hares may reasonably be assumed to 
belong to the person on whose land they breed and 
feed. Partridges and pheasants, as has been shown in 
another part of this volume, are bred and fed in thou- 
sands at a considerable outlay of money, and, that being 
so, why should they be surrendered to the tender 
mercies of the poacher ? 

The following story of how a gentleman was cheated 
in stocking his preserves with hares, although it has 
previously been briefly told by the author in another 
place, shall conclude his illustrations of the arts of 
poaching. A certain person having bought an estate, 
and having a numerous circle of friends, became anxious 
to offer them good sport. With that view he bargained 
with a poulterer for a thousand living hares to be sent 



Poaching. 197 

to his place. The price being fixed, the dealer at once 
set his myrmidons to work — poachers, of course. 
By-and-by the game began to arrive, and was duly 
forwarded to its destination by the poulterer, the 
mortality, of course, being considerable — about one in 
five, I think. After some six hundred hares had 
been obtained, fiir then became scarce ; the industrious 
poachers, finding their movements closely watched by 
suspicious keepers who had noticed their hares be- 
coming fewer, rose to the situation. Determined not 
to be done, they hit upon the plan of recapturing some 
of the hares they had already stolen from other estates. 
They caused a watch to be set upon the transport of 
the animals, in order to find out their exact destination, 
which was not known to the poulterer, the hares having 
been removed in a spring van at stated intervals ; but to 
a persevering poacher nothing is impossible. The van 
was carefully watched to its destination, and, to make 
a long story as short as possible, the hares were re- 
captured and brought back to the poulterer from whom 
they had been purchased, to be again sent forward to 
the place they came from ! Thus the gentleman paid 
for a thousand hares, while in reality he only got half 
the number, through the fine irony of the situation. 

The cunning of poachers is proverbial, they are the 
" sneaks " of the period par excellence. When roused, 
poachers become terrible desperadoes, especially on 
such occasions as they are discovered by keepers or 
watchers — ^then there may ensue a tragedy. After 
knowing many of them, and seeing and hearing much 
of their ways and works, I feel sure they deserve no 
sympathy, seeing they commit their transgressions with 
the full knowledge that they are breaking the law. Some 



^ 198 Ouf'door Sports in Scotland. 

thoughtless people are crying, " Let there be free trade 
in fishing and shooting ; " but, if there were free trade in 
fishing and shooting, in a year's time there would neither 
be a salmon in our rivers nor a moor-fowl on the 
heather! So much for the poachers. Keepers have 
been also known to be occasionally guilty of many very 
shady, or rather criminal acts, and for the matter of 
that so-called " gentlemen " do some queer things every 
now and again. Poachers and keepers have been 
known to go hand in hand for mutual benefit at the 
cost of a too confiding master, the game dealers being, 
of course, in what is called " the know." As to what 
others do, a curious case was, on a late occasion, nearly 
becoming public, which will illustrate a mean part 
played by the owner of a shooting; he had been so 
fortunate as to get a well-known dealer to contract to 
take all his partridges at the price of three shillings per 
brace, the man having been told these birds would be 
scarce. On the contrary, they became plentiful, exceed- 
ingly so, indeed, as the dealer, who was held to his 
bargain, found to his cost, and what added much to his 
discomfort was the fact that they arrived in literal 
hundreds fevery few days. Suspicion was aroused and 
inquiry made, and the fact was then discovered that the 
** gentleman" was buying partridges right and left 
from his neighbours at two shillings per brace, the 
market price, thus bagging a profit of sixpence per bird. 
To save exposure, a big sum had to be parted with in 
name of smart money, the contract being made for 
the birds on the " gentleman's own estate" only, and 
not for partridges he might purchase from his neigh- 
bours to sell at a profit. 



( 199 ) 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

Gamekeepers. 

Having said so much about poachers and poaching, it 
will be proper now to devote a little space to that 
excellent servant, the gamekeeper, on whom, on all 
estates of importance, so much depends. It may be 
stated at the outset of these remarks that the great 
majority of these men are, as a rule, trustworthy ser- 
vants who, in not a few instances, perform their duties 
with their lives in their hands, especially when their 
employment lies in mining and manufacturing neigh- 
bourhoods. Keepers in these districts often come into 
collision with- bands of poachers, and sometimes suffer 
in consequence from personal injuries of a serious 
description ; it is not the first time, indeed, that keepers 
have been murdered by lawless persons, who, as my 
readers have been told, make a " trade " of their illegal 
work, the game they obtain being usually sold to 
unscrupulous dealers at a reduction from the usual 
price. 

Some excellent specimens of the honest keeper are to 
be found in Scotland, men brought up to the business 
and who have been engaged in it from their earliest 
days. Scottish gamekeepers are men of mark in their 
way, having a wide knowledge of natural history. At 



200 Oui-door Sports in Scothnd. 

least one of their number (Mr. Thomas Speedy) has . 
ventured into print, and has produced a remarkably 
readable book. One proof of the general good character 
of keepers lies in the fact of so many of them having 
been for long periods in the same situation, fifteen, 
twenty, and even thirty years standing at the credit of 
not a a few of them. Keepers on duty in Scotland are 
here alluded to ; but there are a considerable number of 
Scotsmen on English estates who as keepers are much 
esteemed by their employers, and I have no doubt that 
Englishmen in the same situation are equally alert and 
faithful in the discharge of their duties ; although it 
may be prejudice on my part, taking them all round, it 
may be pretty safely said that the Scottish-bom game- 
keeper is the better man of the two ; at all events, he is 
usually better educated than his brother in ofl&ce across 
the border. 

In an interview which took place a few months since 
between a keeper of the right sort and myself, I 
obtained some particulars of his way of life, which I 
shall venture to make public for behoof of my readers ; — 

" Weel, sir, I have been in my present place for four- 
and-twenty years, but I'm no sure that a day o' my 
life would give you much o' the kind o' information 
you want ; besides, it would be ill to fix when my day 
begins, or at what time it ends : some nights I'm never 
in my bed, if I get a bit nap for a couple of hours in 
the afternoon it's all I get." 

" Oh, yes, I get to the kirk on the Sabbath, but I 
never feel at ease when I'm there in the pheasant- 
breeding season; ye see w:e're surrounded here by a 
terrible lot o' rough men that have no reverence for the 



Gamekeepers. 201 



. Lord's day, in fact it's the day they sometimes choose to 
set their wires for my hares or to rob the wild pheasants' 
nests. It was the year before last that my wife noticed 
a bit lassie in the kirkyard that she never saw come 
into the kirk, and, wondering at the circumstance, we 
set one of our boys to see where she went, and he soon 
discovered that she came from the colliers' row; the 
lassie, ye see, watched me to the kirk, and then ran home 
to tell her father I was there, and as soon as he knew 
that he was off to our preserves ; but I nicked him 
clean by a little stratagem I adopted, and he was had 
up and punished." 

" Hares ? Eeally, to speak the truth, there's not one on 
the estate for the half-dozens there used to be. The 
poachers get two shillings now for one of them, and if 
a man can snare a dozen in the week and net as 
many rabbits he'll not work at any other kind of 
work." 

" No, sir, my work is always going on, and although 
I have an active assistant, it needs both of us to keep 
the supply up to the mark, and provide sport for Sir 
John and his friends ; even in the dead o' winter there 
is plenty of employment, we have shooting parties up 
to the end of January, and then when there is frost I 
have to look after the curling ponds and the skating 
ice." 

" It is all low country game here, but Sir John has a 
moor, or at least a share of a moor along with his 
brother and imcle ; it is called the Brae o' Ballengeich. 
I have to be there a fortnight before the twelfth, as 
well as the other keepers, to see that all is right and 
find out the best-stocked ground ; we always come home 
in time for the first, but the paitricks, I must say, are 



202 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

not nearly so abundant as I can mind o' them being 
twelve or fifteen year back." 

"Weel, ye see, sir, the pheasants are just as we 
provide them ; we have as many as we like, and they 
are a fine strong breed here ; I get eggs from Lincoln- 
shire in England, and also a few from the estate of Sir 
John's uncle in Surrey. No eggs are bought from any 
of the local cadgers, the beggars did me clean some 
years ago ; would you believe it, sir, I found out upon 
one occasion that I was buying my ain eggs — that's a 
fact ; the wild nests were being robbed by two women 
who were employed on the estate, they never took away 
all the eggs from a nest at one time, but only one or 
two every now -and then. They carried their eggs into 
the town and sold them to a poultryman, who brought 
them to me as the produce of an English aviary. Did 
you ever know the like ? And the ingratitude was some- 
thing awful — Sir John only three months before had paid 
all the funeral expenses of a daughter of one of the egg- 
thieves, who had died of a decline. The case nearly 
drove me mad, but Sir John was obstinate, he would 
not do anything." 

"We have a warren on the property, and I kill no 
end o' rabbits. I should say there are thousands; I 
send the surplus to a Manchester dealer; Sir John 
received fifty-six pounds for the quantity sent last year. 
I have, generally speaking, over a thousand pheasants — 
what we sell don't average a couple o' shillings the 
piece. Anybody on the estate can get a pair of rabbits 
for the asking, and lots of game of all kinds go to Sir 
John's tenants, and he never has a shooting party 
without asking two or three of the farmers to join. 
When the work is over they dine in my parlour, and all 



Gamekeepers. 203 



the men who have helped get their dinner as well ; my 
wife is a capital cook and one of my lassies waits the 
table." 

" Oh, some of the gentlemen who come to shoot are 
pretty good hands at the work, ithers are mere 
bunglers. I do the best I can for them, and help them, 
as I may say, no' to mak' fools o' themselves. Those 
of the learners that come often soon pick up the airt o' 
killing a fleeing bird or a flying hare, and one or two o' 
Sir John's visitors have little to learn — they never 
miss their bird. As to shooting by any sort of rule, as 
used to be the way when I was a boy carrying the bag, 
there's none of that now ; even your novice will hardly 
let you give him a word of advice. Every man thinks 
he can handle his ain gun best, and nowadays, you see, 
sir, with this Volunteer movement, nearly all men are 
marksmen — I'm a sergeant in our regiment here, of 
which Sir John is the colonel, and there are a lot o' 
clever shots in the corps." 

" So far as that goes I have the fullest liberty, I get 
as many rabbits as I please, and any of the pheasants 
that are too much shot for gifts to friends fall to me. 
Partridges being nowadays so scarce, I never take one, 
but I can kill as many cushie doos as I please, and 
Sir John will send a pair or two of rabbits, every 
now and then, to any person I name that has done a 
service ; one or two widow women on the estate get 
pigeons or rabbits once a fortnight." 

" As to vermin, I certainly do kill a lot — they are 
not ill to kill — but I do not go the length of some 
keepers, and go in for universal extermination, because, 
and Sir John agrees with me, that the less we interfere 
with the balance of Nature the better. It is as well 



204 OiU-door Sports in Scotland. 

that there should be always a moderate stock of birds 
and beasts of prey on an estate, as they make a clean 
sweep of weak game, and that I think is very desirable 
in the interest of good sport, but opinions differ — a 
neighbour of Sir John's took it into his head one year 
to have all the small birds shot on his land, because 
they took toll of his fruit, but he soon tired of his 
resolution, as the insects increased to an extent that 
was unbearable, and that is mostly what happens. It 
is best to be moderate in such cases." 

" As I've said already, my work is never done, but I 
could scarcely make out a map of it. The estate is 
large, but I make it a rule to go over it all twice a 
week if possible ; in the egg seasons my anxiety never 
ceases, and if I did not get active help from my wife, I 
think I would be driven out o' my judgment altogether. 
She is a grand hand wi' the pheasants, and thinks 
nothing of sitting up all night when lots o' the eggs 
are chipping; in fact she knows far more about the 
hatching business than I do, and in some seasons she 
has had eighty-eight birds to the hundred eggs, and 
that is grand work, sir, I can assure you. Oh, yes, 
we keep a cow, and sometimes two — there is a great 
demand for milk by the villagers, you see, and it is 
most profitable to sell the milk. I have a fine breed 
of pigs as well." 

" Yes, we have incubators now, but only for poultry ; 
I don't hatch our pheasants with them as yet ; one of 
my daughters understands them pretty well, and with a 
Uttle practice I think they wUl turn out profitable." 

" I breed all Sir John's dogs, and keep up a lot o' 
ferrets for rabbit work ; in fact, I've never a moment I 
can with safety call my own ; but I do not grumble. Sir 



Gamekeepers. 205 



John is a liberal master and has been kind to me and 
my family ; my eldest son is in the estate office imder 
Mr. Tnmbnll, the factor, and has thirty shillings a week. 
Jenny, my eldest daughter, is housekeeper to Sir John's 
uncle in Surrey, a grand place for such a young woman 
— she's not thirty yet, sir — and has forty pound a year." 

There were one or two points which I felt a 
delicacy in dealing with during my interview with 
" Dawvid," as he is called. I did not ask the amount 
of his wages, or an estimate of the value of the presents 
he received ; but I ascertained from Sir John that his 
wages were at the rate of eighteen shillings a week in 
money, in addition to which he has a house rent free, a 
garden and grass for a cow, or two if he likes, as 
also eight tons of coals every year, and one pair of 
breeches, and two pairs of boots. Mrs. Fleming, 
*' Dawvid's " better half, has an allowance of six pounds 
a year for assisting with the pheasants. As to the per- 
quisites, they amount, I know, to a considerable sum, 
occasional pounds, and a great many half-sovereigns, 
and no end of dollars falUng in to the keeper in the 
course of the year. This I do know, that " Dawvid *' is 
the present holder of ten shares in one of the most 
prosperous of our Scottish railways — these at present 
are worth twelve hundred pounds, and they yield him 
about forty pounds per annum. 

As the reader will have noted. Sir John's keeper is a 
keen game preserver, of the old-fashioned sort; he 
would give no law to a poacher ; " they're all blackguards, 
every one of them," is David's contention. Although 
of the old school, Fleming is an excellent servant, and 
there are many gamekeepers of his kidney in old 



206 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Scotland — it is much to be wished they should be 
all as good and faithful, but there are, as I have had 
occasion to know, a few black sheep among them. A 
case recently became public in which a keeper was 
accused, in conjunction with a dealer, of falsifying his 
accounts. He sent on to this person much more game 
than appeared in his shooting-book ; in other words, the 
poulterer on receiving a hamper of, say, fifty rabbits, 
would only credit the sender with three dozen, the 
same plan being followed with hares, partridges and 
pheasants. In return the keeper received every three 
weeks a hamper containing tea, sugar, and other house- 
hold necessaries, as well as occasipnally a jar of whisky, 
a bunch or two of Finnan haddocks, and a couple of 
stones of dried fish, with every now and then a pound- 
note in the bargain. Such dealings are, however, rare, but 
I did know a poultry-seller in a large way of business 
who demoralised nearly all the keepers who forwarded 
game to him. The following anecdote is apropos : — A 
keeper was discharged from his situation because his 
master suspected, although he could not prove, that 
peculation of various kinds had been going on. Some 
of the man's friends offered him their sympathy : " You 
had a good wage, Tom, it is a pity you are leaving." 
" Oh, blow the wage," said Tom, " that was nothing ; it 
was my perquisites I valued most, they came to double 
my wage." 

As has been shown, keepers have much in their 
power, and it is to their credit that so few prove dis- 
honest: they deserve fair wages and good treatment, 
and, generally speaking, masters are aware of their 
deserts and act accordingly; as a rule, the keeper is 
valued as being the most confidential servant on the 



Gamekeepers. 207 



estate, but there are a few gentlemen who only look 
upon them as labourers, and treat them as such. 

With regard to the vexed question of gamekeepers' 
tips, which every now and again comes up for discussion, 
there is, as usual, much to say on both sides. A friend 
of the writer, who interests himself in such matters, has 
taken the pains to collect a number of opinions on the 
subject, and has been good enough to send him the 
following summary of those ascertained : — 

" One landed proprietor says that he deprecates these 
donations, and wishes his friends when they come to his 
place for a week's sport, to have it without cost, ' I pay 
my keeper a fair wage, and he knows very well that my 
friends will come to shoot, why he should expect them 
to pay him as well as myself I cannot understand.' 
Another gentleman, a fine old Colonel, bom in the days 
when George the Fourth was king, told me that his 
keeper was his old military body-servant, and that he 
paid him no wages, but allowed him to kill the rabbits 
and sell them for his own benefit, ' and as for his tips I 
don't interfere with them ; if my friends like to give 
him a guinea, that is their business. He makes a 
deuced good thing of it, I can tell you.* Sir Charles 
Pomander instituted a box into which he requested all 
gratuities might be paid, so that the money should not 
all go to the head keeper ; one of the housemaids, finding 
she had a key that opened it, helped herself to a portion 
of the contents ; the footman, thinking he should have 
a share of the spoil, got a key made for the box and 
subtracted an occasional half-sovereign, with the 
result that the division came to be laughed at, and the 
box given up." 

Keepers greatly dislike any one to come between 



208 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

them and their " rights " ; they desire to get their tips, 
and, after all said and done, they do not in many 
instances come to much money. '* I don't think, sir, I 
get more than a ten-pound note all told," said one man 
to me, " but I make a few pounds by dog-breaking, 
which master does not object to. I have raised a good 
breed of greyhounds that bring me in some money; 
my wages come to forty pounds a year, and I have 
besides a free house and an acre of garden ground, and 
I am allowed to kill as many pigeons and rabbits as 
ever I like for the use of my house." 

A keeper on the estate of a noble marquis, of whom 
I have heard, gets about a hundred pounds in tips every 
season, and has wages besides. Probably I ought to 
explain that the marquis lives in England, and the 
curate of the parish has often been heard to say, " I 
wish I was my lord's gamekeeper." There are keepers 
who from various causes have to expend little sums of 
money that are never recouped to them. On one estate 
some of the more lively visitors used to hold a rendez- 
vous in the keeper's quarters, and punish his whisky- 
bottle at a great rate (unthinkingly, I dare say), and 
never thought it necessary to send him a gallon or two. 
Other head servants are sometimes served after the 
same fashion. Let me here relate a case in point, in 
which a popular huntsman sufiFered severely in this way. 
Many people used to drive out on the Sundays to " the 
kennels " to see the dogs. Of course the good fellow 
brought out his bottle and his cake-basket, while it was 
sometimes a case of " a cut from the round," or a chop, 
or bread and cheese at least. No wonder this man was 
poor. His income from his employer was, I think, about 
eighty pounds a year, with a few etceteras. One or 



Gamekeepers. 209 



two only of his visitors were sufficiently thoughtful to 
make him a little return ; a wine merchant sent him a 
couple of dozens of sherry, whilst two farming friends 
gave him twice a year a choice bit of pork. That good 
fellow ought to have had an addition made to his hunt 
salary of at least fifty pounds a year, and even then he 
would have been out of pocket. The groom who took 
charge of the horses got the '* tips " which were given 
by the visitors. 



( 210 ) 



CHAPTER XV. 

Our Game Supply. 

I. 

Facts and figures illustrative of the national cominis- 
sariat, at one time much neglected, are now greatly in 
demand, the question, " how are the people fed ? " 'being 
full of interest to all concerned. In respect of the 
consumption of game in the United Kingdom, it is 
impossible to do more than guess to what extent the 
birds and beasts of sport are available for food, no 
statistics being taken for the use of economists. We 
might with advantage follow the exemplary practice of 
some foreign nations ; taking France as an example, 
the French so manage that even the supplies of field- 
fares and sparrows which reach the markets are carefully 
enumerated. Our want of alertness in this respect has 
often afforded cause of complaint to members of Parlia- 
ment and other politicians — ^but nothing is done. 
Such stray facts and figures as have been obtained are 
due to private inquiry, and, so far as is known to the 
writer, no reliable estimate has ever been made of the 
number of the birds and beasts of sport annually sent 
to market, ultimately to find a place on the tables of a 
luxury-loving public. 

In attempting to supply this deficiency, certain figures 
have after careful inquiry been arrived at; but these 
must not be taken for more than they are worth — ^they 
are at best but a rough-and-ready attempt to supply the 
deficiency so often referred to by politicians and others, 



The Game Supply. 211 

who take an interest in the game supply. Only those 
birds and beasts of the chase have been taken note of 
that are oftenest in men's months, such as hares and 
rabbits, also partridges, grouse and pheasants. These 
will be enough for illustrative purposes, but, in the old 
sense of the word, animals of most kinds individually 
killed were usually considered "game," or at least 
were looked upon as affording "sport," as that word 
was at one time understood ; but sport nowadays has 
not, I fear, the same meaning as it used to have in 
" the long ago." As a matter of fact, very few of our 
wild birds and beasts come under the category of 
"game," and, as for the hare, it is still without the 
protection of a close time in Great Britain ; in Ireland, 
however, that animal is not allowed to be shot during 
its breeding season. 

Game, it may ^ be stated, before going further, can 
only be legally sold to a licensed game-dealer by a person 
holding the proper licence to kill game, a certificate 
for which costs the sum of £3. In the case of hares, these 
animals can also be sold to a licensed game-dealer by 
those occupiers of land who are entitled to kill hares or 
rabbits, or who "occupy" lands under the Ground 
Game Act. It is well these conditions should be 
understood, as hitherto great latitude has been taken in 
the matter of game dealing by many sportsmen, and 
particularly by poulterers who possess a licence, and 
who are liable to a penalty of £20 if they deal without 
having first of all obtained — in addition to the licence 
of the Justices of the Peace — a proper certificate from 
the Inland Eevenue Ofl&ce. No close time exists for 
hares in Great Britain, which is less fortunate in that 
respect than Ireland, and there can be no doubt that 

p 2 



212 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

this want of protection during their breeding season 
has become a factor of importance in the increasing 
scarcity of the animal. The officers of the Inland 
Eevenue can therefore do nothing to prevent the sale of 
hares at any period of the year, those entitled to kill 
them may select. 

The various birds of sport and some other birds as 
well are protected by a close time, during which it is 
illegal to kill them, and many gentlemen, as a matter 
of policy, refrain from shooting their blackcocks and 
pheasants till long after the date fixed by Act of 
Parliament. Commerce in game is now so extensive 
as to place it almost beyond the power of the authori- 
ties to regulate the sale. At all events their vigilance 
can be eluded, even in the face of the protection which 
the Legislature has devised ; and often enough supplies 
of game arrive at the dealers and are sent away without 
finding a place in the game purchase book, which by 
statute every poulterer who buys grouse, and other 
birds and beasts protected by the law, is bound to keep 
for the inspection of the proper officers. In the early 
days of the grouse-shooting season, for example, a 
dealer in an extensive way of business will receive 
large consignments of these birds by nearly every train, 
either in pursuance of contracts he has entered into, or 
to be disposed of on commission. In a prolific grouse 
year a dealer told the vnriter that he would some- 
times handle and repack as many as one thousand 
brace of birds in an afternoon, without even knowing 
at the time by whom they had been sent. 

The following details, apropos to game commerce, 
having been obtained from a person engaged in the 
trade all the year round, vrill be found pretty reliable. 



The Game Supply. 213 

All animals which pass as game, as well as rabbits 
and several kinds of wild birds, are usually consigned 
by proprietors or lessees of shootings to dealers, either 
under a contract as to price, or to be disposed of at the 
market rates which are current at the time of their 
being sent. These dealers in the course of business 
forward from one to another till the whole is disposed 
of. By way of illustrating the mode of commerce now 
in vogue, it may be inferred that an Inverness or Perth 
poulterer has arranged with several owners or lessees of 
shootings to receive and pay for the grouse to be sent 
to him at a given price per brace ; but these dealers are 
quite well aware that they cannot dispose of a twentieth 
part of the birds sent to them in their own towns, and, 
that being so, at once despatch their grouse and other 
birds to the south, where are to be found the best 
markets. The birds as received are carefully repacked, 
each one being wrapped in its own paper, and sent ofif 
by fast train to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, or 
London, where they are received by the wholesale men 
to be distributed to the various retail buyers, who are 
always ready to deal. The current price, whatever it 
may be, must be accepted by the persons sending the 
consignments. Prospects of sale and price in all the 
chief markets can be ascertained by means of " a wire." 
When birds are scarce the price goes up, and on any 
given day may range from Is, &d. to 5s. per bird — 
dealers, it may be stated, account to each other by 
single birds. When markets become congested nominal 
prices only are obtained. 

The supply is occasionally so great as to cause a 
serious glut. On occasion lots of the cheaper birds 
(grouse) are destroyed in order to promote sales ; it 



214 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

" pays " in the end, of course, to put out of sight, in 
some way or another, a few hundred " cheepers " or 
living ones (decaying birds), so as to enhance the price 
of those which are left. In very plentiful grouse- 
yielding years, it is not unusual to find these birds on 
the carts of the costermongers, which points, of course, 
to enormous supplies and the payment of nominal 
prices only to those who have sent the birds. 

The days of exceptionally big prices for game of any 
kind have passed away ; even for salmon, " the venison 
of the waters," occasional cheap da^s have come. This 
season (1888) fine fish have been on sale at eightpence 
per pound. A few years ago, a guinea, and even 
twenty-five shillings, used to be a common enough 
charge for a brace of early grouse in the West-end poultry 
shops of London ; such prices have not been heard of 
lately, except in the early morning of " the tweKth," 
abundance of birds being usually on sale before the 
dinner-hour; by the evening prices will have fallen 
largely, and in the course of a day or two, if birds are 
plentiful, dealers are glad to sell at any price. The 
system of telegraphic messages now in vogue has proved 
of much benefit to commerce in grouse, as persons in the 
provinces — say at Perth — can ascertain by expending a 
shining whether or not it is desirable to send on birds 
to London, or hold them back for twenty-four hours or 
longer. One day's delay, or the reverse, in forwarding 
consignments, may make a difiFerence of a shilling in 
the price of each bird. Eetail dealers in grouse, or 
other game birds, require in some quarters to give long 
credit, as also to " tip " the cooks. In years of scarcity 
as much as 30s." have not infrequently been charged for 
a brace of grouse by west-end London game-dealers. 



The Game Supply. 215 

As a fashionable and out-spoken poulterer once said to 
a customer, " You see, sir, if ten persons are each in 
want of a brace of birds, whUe there are only six brace 
to supply the demand, prices must rise accordingly." 
That is undoubtedly the political economy of such a 
position, although not always pleasant to purchasers. 
It is obvious that, between the first and the last price 
of a brace of grouse, notwithstanding railway charges 
and commission, there is plenty of room for profit, and 
game-buyers on the contract system, as a rule and over 
a series of years, were wont, it is said, to make a very 
fair return by means of their speculations. 

A wonderfully large head of game birds, aa well as 
hares and rabbits, are given away every season by 
owners of pheasant preserves and lessees of grouse 
moors. Persons who have not considered the number 
of hares, grouse, rabbits, pheasants, partridges, and 
haunches of venison which are given away every year in 
presents, would, if they gave the matter a little thought, 
be surprised at the quantities distributed. If we take 
only the clergy as the recipients of such gifts, the head 
of game annually presented to the Church must be 
enormous, and, adding what is given in charity and 
presented to tenants and dependants, the total figure 
must be a large one. 

Apropos to. such gifts many curious anecdotes have 
every now and again been circulated as to the ad- 
ventures of thrice-presented pheasants and grouse 
which have gone the round of half-a-score of friends, 
and then come back to the first donor ! The following 
is one true tale of the kind: a venerable old lady 
having received a present of a brace of birds, likewise a 
pheasant and hare, at once sent them by her footman 



216 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

to different friends ; the pheasant and the hare she sent 
to her minister, and " the birds " to Lord Parchment, a 
distinguished judge, who had a greater knowledge, it 
was wickedly said, of cookery than of law. In the 
evening the pheasant came back to her ! The minister 
had given it to one of the elders of his church, and as 
that gentleman, a bachelor, was just leaving home for 
a week, he forwarded the pheasant, with a polite 
note, to the old lady. It may savour of a made-up 
story, but the grouse actually came back to her as well ! 
The judge, living by doctor's orders and on a regimen, 
was not for a time allowed to eat grouse, and, therefore, 
kindly sent them on to a brother of the Bench, who 
had a taste for the good things of the table. Being 
engaged to dine with the lady on an early day, his 
lordship, in a polite note, begged permission to send a 
brace of grouse as a contribution to her menu ! The 
lady was able to identify both birds — at least her cook 
was — ^from the fact of the pheasant having a broken 
wing, and one of the birds a maimed leg. 

This little episode will recall the story of the present 
of early strawberries sent by a Yorkshire nobleman to 
a well-known clerical dignitary in York, who passed 
them on to a rich old lady from whom he had expecta- 
tions, who in turn presented them to the Archbishop, 
who sent them to a sick lady friend, who forwarded them 
immediately to the dignitary of the church who was 
their first recipient I 

II. 

Coming now to the figures of the national game-bag, 
so far as it is filled from our home preserves, the 
supplies of the birds and beasts of sport consumed in 



The Game Supply. 



217 



London has been more than once ascertained, and it 
may be taken for granted that more than half of all 
the game killed in the country reaches the great 
metropolis, either for consumption there or for re- 
distribution. The season begins on the 12th of August 
with grouse and ends on the 1st of February, when 
pheasant-shooting terminates. In the year 1860 the 
London game supply was very carefully noted, and the 
figures proved, as far as that could be done ! 

At that period the resident population, and the 
strangers within the gates of the great city, were 
estimated at about three-and-a-half millions of human 
beings and by this time " that vast agglomeration of 
persons " has been augmented by an increase of over a 
million-and-a-half, big and little, making, say, five 
millions to be daily provided with food of all kinds. 
If, then, the London of 1860 consumed a certain head 
of game, what should the London of twenty-five years 
later consume ? Taking the number, of the former period 
as a basis, the game consumption of " the mighty wen " 
has been calculated by an expert in such matters to be 
pretty much as follows : — 

[The figures pertaining to both periods have been placed 
side by side for the purpose of easy comparison, in both 
instances the calculations being only illustrative must be 
taJcen with the ustiai pinch of salt,] 



1800. 



1880. 



Grouse and other black game 

Partridges 

Pheasants 

Hares 

Rabbits 



115,000 

140,000 

90,000 

110,000 

1,500,000 



210,000 
176,000 
190,000 
170,000 
4,000,000 



218 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

These figures may be accepted as a fair representation 
of the game supply of London, and — as has been in- 
dicated — this much can be said regarding them, namely, 
that they are not the result of any^ merely rule-of- 
thumb calculation. 

Extending the area of inquiry, we require to search 
for a basis on which to erect, say, " a theory " of the 
quantity of game which is annually consumed out of 
London, but a good guess at the figures is all that can 
be given. All the great towns, however, are big con- 
sumers, and several have a large population, many of 
their inhabitants being wealthy enough to indulge in the 
luxuries of the table. Excluding London, it may be 
affirmed that we have a population of 30,000,000 of all 
ages to provide for. What quantity of game will these 
persons consume ? It might be said off-hand, just five 
times the quantity required in London; but that would 
be anything but a correct answer, because " the means" 
of the dwellers in that city, where a very large pro- 
portion of the country's wealth is centred, are greater 
than those of the people scattered throughout the 
provinces, many of whom never touch game at any 
period of the year, although consumption to some 
extent is constant during the season. London is the 
centre to which the greatest luxuries of the table 
are forwarded — especially at the moment of their 
highest value — ^the first salmon of the season, the 
earliest laid eggs of the plovers, the firstlings of the lamb 
flock, the forced strawberries, the first pluck of green 
peas, the ducklings soonest ripe for the spit, the lobsters 
that come quickest to shore, and the asparagus and salad 
vegetables when they are newest and rarest, are all 
despatched to the grand centre of wealth and luxury. 



The Game Supply, 



219 



\^The following figures are offered for consideration 
simpli/ as indicating the total game supply ;] 





London. „ 






All othtT places. 


Grouse and black game . 

Partridges 

Pheasants 

Hares 

Rabbits 


210,000 
176,000 
190,000 
170,000 
4,000,000 


300,000 
200,000 
175,000 
260,000 
5,000,000 


Total 


4,746,000 


5,935,000 



The summation of these two columns of figures shows 
us that a grand total of 10,681,000 head of the animals 
enumerated is consumed throughout Great Britain in 
the course of the season devoted to the gathering of 
the game harvest, and the estimate is undoubtedly a 
moderate one for such a population, even assuming 
that only a third of the number are able to procure (or 
eat) game of any description. As regards London, a 
very large head of foreign rabbits may be added to the 
figures given. 

Before attempting to estimate the value of the 
national game supply, it will be as well for the benefit 
of the uninformed to give some idea of the weights 
of the various animals, which may be set down as 
follows : — 

Pheasants from 2-} lbs. to 4 lbs., average 3 lbs. 
Blackcock „ 3^ „ 5 „ 4 „ 

Grouse „ li „ 2i „ If „ 

Hares „ (ii „ 9 „ 7i „ 

Babbits „ 3i „ 41 „ 3i „ 

The figures vary in different localities, and I do not 
take into account birds or beasts of out-of-the-way 
proportions. I have seen both fur and feather that 



220 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

went above these computations. When prepared for 
the table the figures become, of course, reduced. 

As to the money value of these birds and beasts (it is 
the prices paid by the purchasing public I am just 
at present desirous of illustrating), the following cal- 
culations present a fair idea of the sum paid in the 
course of a year for game, but the figures offered must 
not be taken for any more than they are worth; 
hundreds of rabbits, for instance, will bring two shillings, 
but, on the other hand, thousands are sold at sixpence 
each. 

510,000 grouse and black game at 4s. per bird, £102,000 
376,000 partridges at 2«. „ 37,600 

365,000 pheasants at 48. „ 73,000 

430 , 000 hares at 3«. 6<?. each, 75 , 500 

9,000,000 rabbits at Is. 6<?. „ 675,000 

Total £963,100 

By adding to the above, snipe, woodcock, ptarmigan, 
mallard, widgeon, teal, plover, and small miscellaneous 
birds, a further sum of £50,000 might be made up, and 
quite as much may be added for game given away in 
presents, so that the figures of our game supply might 
easily be augmented to considerably over a million per 
annum. These prices, have been averaged over a 
period of ten years, and may therefore be considered 
fairly representative. 

III. 

The foregoing figures are not in the least exaggerated, 
but on the contrary modestly stated, although some 
of them may seem prodigious. As regards the grouse 
supply of the great metropolis, I contributed to the 
Times a few years ago, after a considerable amount of 
aquiry, some facts and figures from which the following 



The Game Supjdy. 221 

is an extract: "There are, in round numbers, 1200 
clubs, cafes, hotels, restaurants, dining-rooms, and 
superior public-houses which daily provide luncheon or 
dinner, but in many of these grouse is never seen, and 
perhaps not more than 150 of these houses will regularly 
provide game as a daily item in their bills of fare. 
But, when the markets become glutted, more than half 
of them will give their customers a taste of grouse. 
Buyers go round picking up lots, and on three or four 
days of the season will get 50 brace of birds at perhaps 
a shilling a bird, or even at a less figure upon some 
occasions. As an estimate of the consumption of the 
clubs, hotels, caf&, dining-rooms, &c., we may take it 
that 500 of them will average two birds a day on each 
of the 120 days (including Sundays) of the grouse 
season, which will require 120,000 grouse, or consider- 
ably more than a half of the total number of birds 
received in London." 

Fashionables are, of course, out of town during the 
grouse season, and many of the birds consumed by 
those living in London from August to Christmas will be 
received as presents. A gentleman who has studied 
the commissariat of the great metropolis intelligently, 
and who is in possession of numerous out-of-the-way 
facts and figures bearing on the subject, is of opinion 
that, without exaggeration, the London grouse supply 
may be put down at a quarter of a million of birds ; 
but, as I have a strong desire to keep my statements 
within the mark, I prefer to adhere to the figures given. 
As we must provide a supply for other cities, a great 
many of the grouse and much of the other game which 
reaches London, it should be borne in mind, falls to be 
redistributed. Orders for Brighton and other watering- 
places on the south coast will, no doubt, swallow up 



222 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 



day by day ten or twelve thousand birds. As a means 
of checking the grouse supply, there is the fact that the 
sporting rental of Scotland is assessed at about half a 
million sterling, and Scotland, it may be safely affinned, 
supplies three-fourths of our total grouse supply. 

Foreign ptarmigan are largely imported, and are 
coming into demand because of their cheapness. An 
extensive trade in these birds has during late years 
been organised between this country and Norway and 
Denmark. In these countries the bird is to be found 
in literal tens of thousands, and nearly every year 
shiploads of them arrive at Hull and Leitii, near Edin- 
burgh, packed in boxes, which are placed on the tops 
of large blocks of ice. The birds and ice are simply 
looked upon as ballast for empty vessels, as during the 
winter season in Norway a cargo cannot be obtained, 
whilst captains know that by coming to British ports 
they can find the wherewithal to load their ships. 

Ptarmigan in Norway are not shot, but caught by 
brona bran gins, that is, a looped hair attached to a pin 
set in the ground, or attached to some article on which 
they feed. The price of these Norway birds varies ex- 
ceedingly. If a large quantity be brought at any time 
to market, the price, of course, falls ; at times in London 
ptarmigan cost Is. 9d. each, and at other times they 
may be bought for a third or a half of that sum. 
Cargoes of them are frequently purchased in Leith or 
Hull at the rate of from 2d. to 6d. per bird. A draw- 
back in connection with these Norway birds is their 
being sometimes packed in salt. They are rolled in 
paper and then placed in cases containing from 30 to 
100 each, each layer being covered with a sprinkling of 
coarse salt. This plan may be, indeed is, good enough 
in frosty weather, but the moment the ship enters a 



The Game Supply. 223 

warmer latitude the salt begins to melt and the birds to 
" go." If more attention were paid to the packing and 
forwarding of these foreign ptarmigan a much better 
price would be obtained by those sending them for 
sale. I am sorry I cannot recommend these imported 
ptarmigan for table use ; as a rule, they all taste of the 
pine-tree tops, and have in consequence a rather dis- 
agreeable gout, but when our game is out of season 
ptarmigan may be tolerated. 

An extensive commerce is now being developed in 
various foreign birds — particularly Eussian partridges, 
of which thousands are imported after shooting has 
ceased throughout the United Kingdom ; and as these, 
in virtue of a recent decision, may now be lawfully sold 
by British dealers, the trade is lUcely to increase to an 
almost indefinite extent. Although the national com- 
missariat wiU in consequence be largely benefited 
thereby, it is rather difi&ciilt to express one's satisfaction 
at the fact, seeing what an outlet is presented to the 
poacher. 

Scottish venison, it must be confessed, is not of so 
much account for table use as the park-fed haunches 
which sometimes form a feature of an English dinner, 
and which are, as a rule, " fed " from an early day of 
their lives, so that when they leave the kitchen they 
may please the palates of those who are " destined to 
dine beside them." The best venison for the table is 
that which has, as we may say, been " caponised " ; but 
our red deer or roebuck are never so treated, nor do 
many of them reach the market The hinds, which are 
annually shot in large numbers, are usually distributed 
among the tenants and servants of the deer forest on 
which they have been killed. Eed deer, therefore, can 



224 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

scarcely find an official entiy in any account cnnent 
with the national game bag. It has happily been 
discovered that venison chops are excellent when 
served fresh, and in consequence the cook in some of 
the stately Highland homes likes to have a beast, as 
some of the London cheesemongers would say, " on 
cut." Sir Walter Scott used to lament the fashion of 
sending to the dining-room a haunch with a very 
strong perfume. " I am not asked," he would say, " to 
eat my gigot of Cheviot mutton in a high condition, 
nor is my roast beef sent to table in a highly-perfumed 
state ; why, then, should my pheasants and my venison 
be kept till they are in a condition in which no 
Christian gentleman or lady should be asked to eat 
them ? Bread sauce and red-currant jelly I have found 
out — they are mere disguises." 

A note about the supply of hares and rabbits will 
conclude all that need be said about the game supply. 
As has been shown, the number of these animals which 
are sold is really immense, especially in the case of 
the rabbit. The writer has spoken in the course of the 
last few years to many game-dealers about the rabbit- 
supply, and they have all assured him that it is 
positively wonderful. A London salesman^ said to him, 
" This is the way to look at it, sir. I have said that 
there will be four million rabbits sold in this here city 
and places around ; well, you see, with strangers, there 
is a population of over five millions to feed, and, if we 
cut off two-thirds of the number as n9t being eaters of 
rabbits, we cannot allow the other third, at these 
figures, more than two and a half rabbits each in the 
course of a whole year ; that ain't much, is it, sir ? " 

This seems to me a modest way of setting down the 



The Game Supply. . 225 

rabbit supply, and if we add to the rabbit-consuming 
population of the " great metropolis " that of other large 
towns and cities, it will at once be admitted that, to put 
down ten millions of these animals as being consumed 
in the United Kingdom would not be an unreasonable 
estimate, seeing there is a population of about thirty- 
five millions to be provided for. A fair-sized rabbit, 
without its skin and entrails, weighs fully two pounds, 
so that if we venture to take the total weight of ten 
millions of these animals as being twenty million 
pounds, and estimate the price all over at the rate 
of sixpence per pound weight, we at once find that 
the money value of the rabbit supply may be set 
down at a sum of £500,000. Curiously enough, 
once upon a time, the coney was more valued for its 
' skin than the meat it produced ; early in the century 
as much as half-a-crown and three shillings used to 
be paid for single rabbit-skins. A hare which, 
in its fur, weighs seven pounds, can scarcely be con- 
sidered dear at three shillings, seeing that it yields four 
pounds of meat ; and if a million of these soup-pro- 
ducing animals could be sold in the course of a year 
the sum produced would amount to £150,000. It is 
not, of course, an easy matter to find out how many 
hares are sold annually, but some who are familiar with 
the incidence of game commerce put even a higher 
figure on the quantity brought to market than a 
million ; but I do not care to over-estimate the number, 
and have therefore placed it at less than half; any one 
who likes to take the trouble to look at a poulterer's 
stock can see at a glance that he is showing over a 
dozen rabbits for every hare he has in stock. 



Q 



C 226 ) 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Game in Larder, Kitchen, and Dining-Eoom. 

Having killed our game, or bought some of other people's 
killing, it will be instructive, not to say interesting, to 
note its after-treatment in kitchen or larder, and as to 
the much-discussed length of time which should elapse 
between the death of a bird and its being presented in 
the dining-room. Tastes differ so much that probably 
no three persons will agree as to the proper degree of 
haut-gout which game should be permitted to attain 
before being cooked ; but there are sensible men, and 
happily they are increasing in number, who are begin- 
ning to think it a mistake to keep either birds or 
venison, as has been hitherto almost always done, till 
they begin to "stink." A very smart Scottish cook, 
who does not " hide her light under a bushel," as the 
saying goes, but has published a book,* told me recently 
a little anecdote apropos to the subject. One of her 
masters, a very hospitable country gentleman, once said 
to her upon the occasion of a party of his guests depart- 
ing, " Mrs. Wren, now that we are to be alone for a few 
days, do if you please give me the treat of seeing a 

* 'Modern Domestic Cookery,' by Jenny Wren. Paisley: 
Alexander Gardner. 



Game in Larder ^ Kitchen^ and Dining-Room. 227 

roasted pheasant on the table that is fit for a Christian 
to eat. Some of those we have had recently have only 
been fit for the dung-heap. That, of course, was no 
fault of yours, but I could not taste them." 

Many will, doubtless, agree with the desire of that 
gentleman ; no bird, in my humble opinion, is so much 
spoiled by over-keeping as the pheasant, which, when sent 
to table in fine trim, is palatable in a high degree. Not 
that I advocate its being hurriedly transferred from the 
larder to the spit — certainly not, but I only echo good 
opinions when I say that pheasants ought not to be too 
long " hung." When recently at luncheon in a country 
house, a couple of pheasants were placed on the table, 
and the conversation, opportunely for, me, turning upon 
the cookery of game, I feel pretty sure that the fair 
chdtdaine of that mansion was won over to my views of 
game cookery. At any rate, none present who ventured 
to join in the argument could give a reason for keeping 
wild animals till they became nearly putrid. " No," 
as Monsieur Blaze, one of the best sporting writers of 
his time, and an epicure to boot, used to say, " I do not 
eat the rotten bird ; those who keep a pheasant till it 
can change its position without man's aid must permit 
me not to be of their opinion." 

We keep our game till it becomes " high " simply 
because our fathers and grandfathers did so before us ; 
but, as a rule, all the wUd animals we kUl are so suffi- 
ciently " high " by their course of feeding as to render 
it unnecessary they should be kept for any great number 
of days. 

The proper cookery of game is a subject on which 
much might be said, but in these pages it is obvious 
not more than a passing dissertation can be given, 

Q 2 



228 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

although a book of many sheets would not contain all 
that could be said. 

Many " authorities " have from time to time given 
their opinions on the subject of game cookery, but no 
dogmatic utterances are now offered as in the olden 
time, when even Sir Walter Scott was afraid to speak 
his mind on the matter. That sensible woman, ** Meg 
Dods " (authoress of one of our best cookery books), was 
also somewhat averse to utter a pronoimced opinion, but 
she goes so far as to say : " Necessity, and the vanity 
of producing at a dinner what is rare and far travelled, 
must first have introduced among clearly civilised 
nations the custom of over-keeping game, till in time it 
came to be considered as essential to its perfection that 
it be kept till putrid, and that what has not flavour may 
at least liAYe fumet" 

Alexis Soyer, in his day the celebrated chef of the 
Eeform Club, was among the earliest to raise his voice 
against the system of keeping birds till they became 
high. To a friend of the writer's he one day, while 
enjoying a chat, made the following observations: — 
" There is a wonderful ^(wi^ in your bird" (grouse) " which 
baffles me ; it is so subtle. It is there because of the 
food it eats, the tender yoimg shoots of your beautiful 
heath ; but it is curious, sir, that in some years these birds 
are better than in others. Once in about six seasons 
your grouse is surpassingly charming to the palate, the 
bitter is heavenly, and the meat on the fleshy parts short 
and of exquisite flavour, but in other years it is compara- 
tively flavourless, and the attentions of my art will not 
improve it. In the year of its perfection I do eat one 
bird daily ; roasted, and with no aid : no bread sauce, 
no crumbs, no chips, no nothing, except a crust of bread 



Game in Larder^ Kitchen^ and jDining-Room. 229 

to change occasionally my palate. Ah, sir, grouse, to 
be well enjoyed, should be eaten in secret ; and take my 
experience as your guide, do not let the bird you eat be 
raw and bloody, but well roasted, and drink with it, at 
intervals, a little sweet champagne. Never mind your 
knife and fork ; suck the bones, and dwell upon them. 
Take plenty of time ; that is the true way to enjoy a 
game bird. And, look you, do not allow your birds 
to be over-kept, because from the food they eat they are 
ready for the cook in three or four days after being 
kiUed." 

A cook of the period writes, "The chief otgect 
of game cookery should be to preserve the gamy 
flavour, and, in my opinion, it is not necessary to 
keep birds till they are — I speak plainly — ' stinking ' 
to ensure that. Some men like their game ' very high/ 
but there is a difference between a grouse being high 
and its being a mass of putridity. I only keep grouse 
myself for a matter of four days or so, which serves to 
get rid of some of the earthy flavour, and to intensify 
the bitter of the backbone, which is par excellence the 
* tid-bit ' of the bird, as epicures well know." • 

As all who are versed in the economy of a well- 
arranged shooting lodge are aware, the unpresentable, that 
is, overshot birds, are kept by the cook for the soup pot, 
and if any of my readers have not tasted grouse soup 
they should endeavour to do so at the first opportunity — 
I do not mean the kind concocted and sold under that 
name at hotels and restaurants. Even in clubs grouse 
soup is often a failure. It is a misfortune that at many 
of these places the soups served are all made after one 
fashion, the same liquor for all ; put in it a few pieces 
of the caudal appendage of an old cow, and, lo! you 



230 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

have ox-tail soup. In clubs and other dining places 
where soups are wanted in a hurry, that is the rule, 
and it is only in the very best places special prepara- 
tions are made. It is a custom of the period to com- 
pound nearly aU soups from two kinds of stock. 
Ox-tail soup is simply some particular preparation of 
stock to which a few joints of the tail have been added ; 
kidney soup is made in the same way. 

Seal grouse soup can assuredly be made only from 
the birds, " the more the merrier," and the following 
hints for its preparation by "an old gastronomic 
hand" will be found practical: — '*Cut off the 
presentable pieces of flesh and lay them aside to be 
served in the tureen when the soup is sent to table. 
Break up the carcasses, leaving out the intestinal parte, 
and place them in a stewpan with the necessary quantity 
of water, and with seasoning to taste, as parsley, a little 
thyme, two onions, and two or three small carrets, with 
the addition of an apple. Boil till the meat becomes a 
sort of mash, then strain carefully through a sieve into 
a clean pan; put the liquor on again with the flesh 
previously cut from the birds and boil for half-an-houi, 
or till the pieces are nicely cooked ; season with a salt- 
spoonful of cayenne and as much salt as is necessary, 
and then dish. A soupgon of catsup may be added, also 
a glass of claret if liked ; a thin slice of toast may be 
thrown into the tureen cut in dice. This soup is easily 
prepared, and is a really excellent autumn potage'' 

Grouse soup can be made in other ways, and gourmets 
who like a pronounced flavour may add a slice of 
lean ham and a little "thickening." This compound 
need not be decanted through the sieve, but may be 
served as thick soup; half-a-dozen or eight birds 



Game in Larder ^ Kitchen^ and Dining-Eooni. 231 

will be sufficient to make soup for ten or a dozen 
persons. 

" Potage a la Yetholm " (or gipsy broth) was " in- 
vented " by the Duke of Buccleuch's cook at Bowhill 
in honour of Sir Walter Scott ; it (the soup) has also 
been called " Potage a la Meg Merilees." This appe- 
tising compound is made as follows : — Boil first of all in 
plenty of water lots of minced onions, a teacupful at least, 
a sliced carrot or two, the half of a cabbage (the heart 
portion only) chopped into small pieces, a couple of 
whole baking apples, skins and all. When the whole is 
well boiled, strain off the liquor into a clean pan, and add 
to it the game in season, let us say a couple of boned 
grouse cut in pieces, the bones having been previously 
used in the stock, a blackcock treated in the same way, 
the fleshy parts of a hare, likewise a partridge or pheasant. 
It is not at all necessary to brown these in flour and 
butter, because the soup wiU be quite as tasty without 
doing that; but they can be browned by those who 
like to do so. Season to taste with black pepper, 
allspice, and salt, and a stalk of green celery if pro- 
curable. See that the various meats are tender, but not 
overboiled. When mushrooms can be procured, boil 
half-a-dozen of the juiciest in the stock; failing the 
mushrooms, a tablespoonful of mushroom or walnut 
catsup may be added seven minutes before dishing. 
This soup, when properly made, has a delicious flavour, 
and with a good helping of the game and vegetables 
constitutes a dinner of itself. 

Hare soup may be claimed as belonging to our Cale- 
donian cookery : " rich, ruddy, and reeking, it is most 
appetite-provoking." There is only one way in which 
a hare can be thoroughly utilised, it must be made into 



232 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

soup ; '' a hare that's roast is lost." Hare soup is seldom 
well made out of Scotland, because in other places 
unnecessary elements are introduced. Many recipes 
for hare soup are found in cookery books ; one which I 
have read advises that a red herring should be placed 
in the pot in order to enhance the flavour! another 
says that a bottle of London porter should be added to 
the liquor ; whilst a third says boil a shank of ham in 
the stock. Now, all these recommendations are flat 
heresies. Hare soup should have no foreign flesh in it, 
but should be made of the hare only. To admit of a 
plenteous potful being made of the requisite flavour, 
two hares should be provided ; it will be as well if they 
have not been shot, the blood playing a most important 
part in the confection of the soup. Cut the meat off 
two hares, and while doing so be very careful to save 
every drop of the blood. Use the carcasses of the 
animals, minus the offal, as stock along with a couple 
of sticks of celery, an apple, an onion or two, a 
teacupful of nicely chopped carrot, and the heart of 
a white cabbage; boil well, and season with black 
pepper and a little salt. Strain into another pot 
in which have been placed the cuttings from the hare, 
put on to boil, and add all the blood you have saved ; 
keep stirring with great attention till the soup comes to 
the boil, after which let it simmer for about twenty-five 
minutes, when it wiU be ready. A single glass of port 
wine may be added before dishing, as well as a snuff of 
cayenne pepper. Some persons like a potato grated into 
a pulp added to this soup, in that case the potato should 
be carefully added so as not to lump ; take out a little 
of the soup in a basin and gradually stir into it the 
pulp, adding the lot to the soup a few minutes before it 



Game in Larder, Kitchen^ and Dining^Room. 233 

is dished. When the king, George the Fourth, was in 
Scotland, nothing in the national cuisine pleased him 
better than hare soup. As the Ettrick Shepherd said, 
" His Majesty admires the Newhaven fishwives, but he 
loves the soup." 

Excellent soups can be also made from the partridge 
and the pheasant, as well as from the roebuck and the 
rabbit ; it is not, however, necessary to present formulas 
for these at present, they can be confectioned in the 
same way as the others ; the rabbit, it may be stated on 
the authority of a well-known culinary artist, makes a 
better foundation for "mulligatawny" than a fowl. 
The speciality of Scottish soups is, or at any rate 
should be, that they are compounded directly from their 
main ingredients, and are not sophisticated by other 
" materials," and these as a general rule come to table 
in perfect condition as to seasoning, although there are 
men who will not take that for granted, but use the 
bottles of the cruet-stand with great freedom. The cook 
at Ellangowan House was famed for her hare soup. Mrs. 
McLardy used to ask the butler, whenever there was a 
dinner party, " how they liked the soup," and if she were 
told that any person had dared to use additional season 
ing she took huff, and would threaten to leave the house ; 
but Colonel Mannering was generally able to pacify her 
by reminding her that her hare soup was, according to 
Sir Walter Scott, " simply perfect." A celebrated French 
cook blew out his brains because some stupid foreigner, 
it has been said, put additional seasoning in his 
potage ! 

Apropos to the rabbit, which many persons affect to 
despise as a contributor to the higher cuisine: from 
this animal a most delicious soup may be confectioned 



234 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

— ^a potage which I have heard some epicures say is 
much better than hare soup, albeit not the same in look 
or flavour. In making it no flesh but rabbit-flesh 
should be used: first a couple boiled down for stock, 
then a couple nicely fried in joints to be placed in the 
liquor obtained, add various flavourings to taste, and 
the result will be a good tureenful of soup. "My 
servants won't eat rabbits," said to me recently a 
county gentleman, " and my cook seldom sends them to 
my table." Never was there a greater mistake; the 
flesh of the rabbit, the wild one, I mean, is the pro- 
duct of the finest vegetable foods, the most odoriferous 
herbs, wild thyme, mint and marjoram, on which they 
unconsciously educate themselves for the kitchen. A 
young rabbit disjointed, and the pieces fried in bread- 
crumbs, forms an excellent entree for an every-day 
dinner en famUle, and, in the country, may even pass 
muster on company days. Curried rabbits are not to 
be despised, nor should we look down on the old- 
fashioned mode of cooking the coney — 

" You Diay flavour and mingle each dish as you will. 
Yet the rabbit with onions is best of them still." 

To that most sympathetic writer on the art of cookery 
and the effects of dishes, Mr. George Augustus Sala, 
belongs, doubtless, the re-introduction of " Eabbit 
Surprise," aA invention of Mr. Patrick Lamb, the 
master cook of James, William, and Anne. It must be 
compounded after the following fashion : — 

" Cut all the meat from the backs of two half-grown 
rabbelets (that is not a bad word for young rabbit ?), 
cut it in small slices, and toss it up in six spoonfuls of 
cream, with a bit of butter the size of half an egg 



Game in Larder, Kitcheriy and Dining-Room. 235 

(pullet's, not ostrich's), and a little nutmeg, pepper and 
salt. Thicken this with a dust of flour, boU it up and 
set it to cool, then take some forced-meat made of veal, 
bacon, suet, the crumbs of French roll, raw eggs, 
parsley, onion, pepper, salt, and nutmeg, toss it up like 
the meat aforesaid, and place it round your rabbits. 
Then fill up the trough in the backs of the patient 
creatures with the prepared minced-meat and sauce, 
snaooth it square at both ends, brush the top with a 
raw egg, and sprinkle grated bread over. Place them 
on a mazarine or patty-pan, and bake them for three- 
quarters of an hour, tiU they are a gentle brown. The 
sauce required is butter, gravy, and lemon; the 
garnishing, orange and fried parsley." 

By far the best mode of sending pheasants or 
grouse to table is roasted; partridges, again, are best 
when stewed ; snipe, woodcock, and blackcock are also 
best to eat when done on the spit. No game bird should 
be baked — certainly not. As every good cook knows, 
or ought to know, how to prepare and roast these birds, 
it is unnecessary to say anything about the Toodus 
operandi. 

The average weight of the chief birds of sport when 
prepared for cooking may be set down as follows : — 

Pheasant . . . .a little over 2 lb. 

Blackcock 2i „ 

Groiwe . . . . . . 14 oz. 

Partridge 12 „ 

An average hare, skinned and eviscerated, will weigh 
fully 4^ lbs., a rabbit will be a little over half that weight. 
In an old book called the ' Castle of Health,' we are 
told that the " Fesaunt exceedeth all fowles in sweetness 
and fulsomeness, and is equal to capon in nourishynge." 



236 ' Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

That being so, and it is so, the pheasant being one of our 
best table birds, it is to be regretted that in some houses 
it never comes to table till it is unfit to eat, and is 
accompanied by several kinds of sauces and condiments 
in order to render it palatable. Bread sauce, fried bread- 
crumbs, potato chips, and red currant jelly are simply 
agents employed to disguise the putridity of the various 
dishes to which they form an accompaniment, just as 
in the olden time stale oysters were served with strong 
condiments to conceal their bad flavour. Now, when 
these delicious bivalves can be obtained fresh, they 
ought not to be " adulterated " with vinegar and pepper, 
but should be sucked from the deep shell in puris 
ncUuralibvs, 

Much has been written about keeping the pheasant 
in the larder. An eminent French sportsman laid 
down the law of pheasant-keeping some years ago.' He 
said, " This bird should be the food of queens ; being 
brought to your larder, let it have daily your personal 
attention, it should not be abandoned without grave 
consideration being given to the act. Beware of the 
capricious arrangements of, a cook, who may roast it 
two days too soon, or two days too late, according to the 
number and quality of your guests. A pheasant must 
be roasted on the day it is to be eaten ; if your friends 
are not with you on that day, it is their misfortune, and 
not, perhaps, your fault." Another writer on pheasant 
cookery recommends that the bird should be stuffed 
with a mixture of chopped oysters and mussels, and 
that before coming to the fire it should not be a week 
old, but should be used in respect of cooking " just like 
a barn-door fowl." 

The following extract was sent to me some time ago— 



Game in Larder^ Kitchen^ and Dining-Room. 237 

I 

it is probably from one of M. Soyer's books, the source 
of it was not stated : — " When the bird is perfectly fit, 
pluck it ; lard it with care, selecting the primest and 
freshest bacon. It is by no means an indifferent 
question that of plucking a pheasant at the proper time. 
Experience has proved that those which are kept in 
their feathers are more perfumed and of better flavour 
than others which have been kept plucked, inasmuch 
as the air neutralises a portion of the flavour, or that 
the juice intended to nourish the plumage dries up and 
injures the flesh. Your bird being plucked, it should 
be stuffed in the following manner: take two wood- 
cocks, and divide the flesh into one portion, the trail 
and liver into another ; with the meat you make a 
stufl&ng, by hashing and mixing it with some beef 
marrow, a small quantity of scraped bacon, pepper, salt, 
and herbs, and truffles sufficient to fill up the remain- 
ing portion of the inside of the pheasant. Be careful 
to secure that stuffing so that none of it escape, which 
is difficult when the bird has been long kept. Neverthe- 
less, there are several ways of achieving this, and, among 
others, that of placing a crust of bread over the orifice 
and attaching it with a thread. Prepare a slice of bread 
an inch thick, on which the bird rests in its length. 
Then take the trail and livers of the woodcocks and 
mix them with truffles, an anchovy, some grated bacon, 
and a morsel of i'resh butter ; cover the bird with this 
paste, so that it shall be soaked through with the juice 
which melts while roasting. When the pheasant is done, 
serve it on the toast, surrounded with slices of orange, 
and be satisfied with the work done." A pheasant so 
treated is " good enough," we are told, " for the angels." 
I do not doubt it. 



238 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

The hen pheasant has been supposed by many good 
judges to be the better for food of the two sexes, in the 
same way as the female turkey is more esteemed, than 
the cock bird by some of our most cultivated gourmets. 
It has been said that forty minutes at a fairly brisk fire 
will " ready " a pheasant, but care should be taken to 
see that it is " done " ; to send to table a " bloody " 
fowl of any kind is, in my opinion, a great mistake, 
and the custom, which is somewhat prevalent, ought to 
be frowned down. Pheasants can be utilised for the 
table in many modes, which I shall not venture here to 
recite; those who desire more information as to their 
cookery can consult the hundred-and-one cookery 
books that have been published during the last six or 
seven years. 

Snipe and woodcock are familiar to us. The follow 
ing is one mode of preparing snipe — ^it will be recognised 
I dare say, by epicures as the Salmis de Bemardins: 
" Four birds make a dish. Do not overdo them, but 
fairly well roast Dissect and arrange the birds on a 
deep silver dish over a flame of spirits of wine ; divide 
the wings, legs, breasts, and backs ; crush the Uvers of 
the birds along with the trail, on which sprinkle the 
juice of four lemons, and the rind, finely grated, of one. 
On the dismembered bu*ds dust a seasoning of salt, all- 
spice, and dry mustard, or mix these spices in a glass of 
good sherry, which dash over the meat as arranged ; 
lastly, sprinkle all over with pure olive oil. Serve the 
dish so that it can be eaten while very hot. Be careful 
not to touch any of the birds with your fingers, in case 
you feel inclined to eat them ! " 

I hope the reader will not think it necessary to 
treat our beasts and birds of sport in these pages in 



Game in Larder^ Kitchen^ and Dining-Room. 239 

cook-book fashion, but it is really a work of some self- 
denial to refrain from giving formulas for their cookery ; 
a word or two, however, may be offered here about wood- 
cock: as all gourmets know, these are sent to table 
" trail " and all, the intestal part in being allowed to drip 
upon toasted pieces of bread laid in the pan to receive it. 
Some epicures like this bird made into soup, or served 
as a salmi ; these likes or preferences are a matter of 
taste ; there are those who like the trail taken out to be 
made into a sauce with gravy, butter, bread-crumbs, and 
various piquant seasonings : the place of the intestines 
may be filled with minced mushrooms. This bird will 
be done in twenty minutes. When sent to table the 
dish should be profusely garnished with slices of bitter 
orange, whilst the birds may be well sprinkled with 
fried bread-crumbs ; they are, of course, arranged on a 
bed of very " sappy " toast. It is difficult to time the 
keeping of this bird to every man's taste. For a party in 
residence the cook should study variety, giving well- 
kept birds one day, and others that are comparatively 
fresh the next day, so that all tastes may in turn be 
suited. A cold woodcock pie is often a feature of 
country house sideboards, it is made in a raised shape 
of paste, and forms a capital dish of the " cut-and-come- 
again " sort. 

Of the woodcock it has been said by a competent 
judge, that no epicure eats the bird itself, all he wants 
is the trail on its bed of toast, the cock itself may be 
passed on to the servants' hall. " Now, look here," says 
this authority, " don't always cook your cock before the 
fire, we do so run in ruts that we fail in variety. Try 
this mode of doing woodcock. Stew your birds : the 
modus is simple. All you have to do is place a thick 



240 Out-door Sports in Scotland, 

slice of toasted bread, not buttered, but well steeped in 
beef gravy, in the bottom of the pan ; wrap your bird 
in an envelope of well-streaked bacon, lay another shoe 
of well-steeped toast on the top, screw down the lid 
tight, so as to prevent the steam from escaping, and in 
twenty-five minutes your bird will be food for the gods/* 

Another good judge of the good things of this life 
maintains that the woodcock is cdl for eating, and that 
every particle of it is precious to the palate; he 
describes it as the bird of the epicure, par excellence, for 
succulence and flavour, and says its susceptibility to 
the arts of the cook is wonderfiil : " It is a bird that 
LucuUus himself could dwell upon." 

Moral : The woodcock lives chiefly on worms ! 

The same gentleman recommends the wood pigeon 
for table ; it is inexpensive, and can by a good cook be 
prepared and be dished in such a way as to ensure for 
it a warm welcome, for ceaUy, in point of goiU, it may 
take rank with grouse when hung for a few days. The 
wild pigeon as " a dish " is far before the tame doves of 
the home pigeon-houses ; although they are served in 
pies covered with dainty paste, they have not the -flavour 
of the quest or cushat. Here is a way of stuffing wood 
pigeons that may be new to some of my readers : Strip 
off the flesh of a red herring from its bones, and mix it up 
as a paste, with a little flour and butter, as also season- 
ing to taste ; cram the bird full of this mixture, and 
roast and baste in the usual way over a slice of buttered 
toast, allowing the seasoning to drop on the bread 
just in the same way as if it was the trail of a woodcock. 
Once tried, the pigeon will seldom be eaten in other 
fashion. There is a foreign fowl of the pigeon kind that 
is much sought after by those who visit the land in which 



Game in Larder^ Kitchen^ and Dining^Room. 241 

it lives, I am alluding to the nutmeg bird. I do not 
know if any of my readers have had the good fortune to 
taste it ; that pigeon feeds on mace, the soft covering 
of the fruit referred to, which causes the flavour of the 
bird to be remembered by those who have eaten it. 
These birds are shot in thousands for table purposes ; 
they are so fat and plump that they req;iire to be very 
tenderly handled, as they burst when messed about. 
This bird spreads the seed of the nutmeg ; it possessing 
a capacious appetite, it swallows the fruit quite whole^ 
and, the mace or covering only being digested, the nut- 
meg itself passes safely through the bowels of the 
animal, prepared by nature for easier germination in 
consequence of its passage through the pigeon. This 
may appear to be a traveller's tale, but it is true, never- 
theless ; a friend of mine, who has been on the PeUew 
Islands, tells me no pigeon is more delightful when 
properly cooked. 

The partridge must not be ignored in any remarks 
made about game cookery. Perdrix atix cJumx is said 
to be the national dish of France ; whether that be the 
case or not, it forms when nicely cooked one of the 
most succulent entrees known in the arts of cookery. 
Even done by way of a plain stew, with a little white 
wine among the gravy, and a flavouring of lemon juice,, 
they are excellent. The French national dish consists 
of stewed partridges served on a bed of cabbage and 
surrounded with an abimdant supply of sausages cooked 
in the same pot as the birds. The following formula for 
partridge mayonnaise may come in useful, it is from the 
Scotch cookery book of " Jenny Wren " : — " The cold; 
partridges may be thus used. Cut off the flesh, and stew 
slightly with shalots and tarragon and some aspic jelly, 



242 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

as well as other seasoning to taste. Disli tastefully, 
arranging the pieces neatly ; pour over them a mayon- 
naise mixture, and garnish neatly with little bits of 
aspic and some green stuff." 

Partridges are, however, cooked in many modes, 
some of these being not a little fanciful : roasted in 
simple fashion, they are highly palatable ; baked in a 
pie, the partridge is excellent, and when braised sure to 
be in demand ; " larded, stewed, and served as a ragout 
d la Jinandere, partridges will tickle and excite even 
the most demoralised palate." But this bird was un- 
doubtedly made for the stewpan. Partridges stewed on 
a bottom of thin bacon are delicious ; a few onions 
chopped small ought to be placed in the pan, and the 
lid whilst the process of stewing is in progress must be 
kept firmly fixed down ; none of the steam should be 
allowed to escape. 

There are other birds the cookery of which might be 
profitably discussed. Stewed wild pigeons are excellent, 
but it is the wild duck family I have at this moment in 
my mind's eye. " Only show it the fire," has been said 
in reference to some of these birds ; that, of course, is 
nonsense, only those who delight in " feasts of blood " 
will permit a mallard to be presented at table in the 
half-raw condition which it is the fashion for some 
epi-cures to say is correct. When wanted in a hurry it 
is a good plan to bury newly-shot wild birds in the earth 
for a night, wrapped up in a napkin. Then after the 
necessary preparations have been made in the way of 
evisceration, place them at the fire and partially roast 
them. That being done, cut the breast at intervals and 
place in the cuts plenty of seasoning moistened mth 
lenaon juice ; after that is done transfer th^ bird or birds 



Game in Larder^ Kitchen^ and Dining-Room, 243 

to a stewpan and let them stew in brown gravy till 
they are tender. Dish on a bed of thick toast well 
buttered, pouring over them some of the liquor in which 
they have been stewed, in which has been mixed a glass 
of claret. The ducks should be filled with a stuffing of 
chopped apples and bread-crumbs. Hashed duck served 
with peas or turnip is excellent. The teal is described 
by an old writer as " a delicate fowl for the table," and 
widgeon are as good as teal. The pochard, too, has its 
epicurean admirers, some of whom seem inclined to 
rank it, as a table bird, with the canvas-back duck of 
the United States, which has of late years been elevated 
into an important place in the gastronomic calendar. 

The following is a much-prized recipe for a sauce to 
the wild duck ; it is copied from Dr. Kitchener, who 
was, perhaps, more learned in the composition of sauces 
and gravies than in any other branch of the culinary 
art. In his * Cook's Oracle ' he gives a large number 
of formulas for these delights of the dining man, for 
which see the book. The following is the recipe 
referred to : — " One glass of port wine, one spoonful of 
caviare, one ditto of catsup, one ditto of lemon-juice, 
one slice of lemon-peel, one large shalot sliced, four 
grains of dark cayenne pepper (not Venetian red and 
brickdust), and two blades of mace. Scald and strain 
this, and add it to the pure gravy of the bird. Serve 
the duck (if it be a duck) in a silver dish, with a lamp 
under it, and let this sauce gently simmer around the 
bird." 

I shall say nothing about how to make a venison 
pasty or cook a haunch, there is nothing new in that 
line of cookery ; and, despite the praises that have been 
bestowed upon it, I am sadly heretical on the subject of 

R 2 



244 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

its gastronomical value ; I have always disregarded the 
praises bestowed on it by the poet who tells us — 

" The haunch was a picture for painters to study, 
The fat was so white and the lean was so ruddy." 

I must mention before concluding that rabbit-pot 
forms an excellent dish for a curling day ; treated much 
in the same manner as Irish stew, the merry curlers 
cannot have a better luncheon. We do not in Scotland 
eat our " small " birds, but of late lark pies have been 
seen in several country houses, much to the displeasure 
of sentimentalists. Thrushes are good for food in a high 
degree, but are very rarely sent to table in this part of 
Her Majesty's dominions. The ancient Eomans were 
exceedingly fond of these birds, and prodigious quantities 
of them were always stored in their aviaries Iready for 
the cook to lay hands on. Martial wrote : — 

<' Of all the birds the thrush I deem the best, 
'MoDg quadrupeds the hare beats all the best.** 

The foregoing notes do not nearly exhaust the subject 
of game in larder and kitchen, as any person whom it may 
please to turn over the pages of a modem cookery can 
ascertain, and critics will please note that,*although many 
"dishes" have been omitted from the preceding pages, 
it is not perhaps because of ignorance, but more likely 
from want of space. Some captious critics conclude 
that, because a thing is not mentioned, therefore the 
author knows nothing about it. Of partridge or pigeon 
puddings I have said nothing, neither shall I descant 
on " the best mode of currying a fresh pheasant," nor 
shall I give a formula for a " chartreuse of partridge," 
nor for Boudins of the bird of Colchis d la Sichelieu, 
To make up for these " wants " in this little essay I 



Game in Larder^ Kitchen^ and Dining-Rooim. 245 

shall conclude by giving a recipe for the concoction of 
Soyer's celebrated " Salade de Grouse," which I may 
mention is to be found in "Meg Dods'." It is as 
follows :— '* Put a thin rim of butter round a dish, and on 
this stick a high border of hard-boiled eggs cut into 
four lengthways with a bit cut off to make them stand. 
Fill the centre with a nice fresh salad and tastefully 
ornament the egg border with fillets of anchovies ; cut 
beetroot or gherkins. Have three under-roasted grouse 
cut into neat small pieces, and prepare a sauce made 
of two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped eschalots, two 
of pounded sugar, the yolks of two eggs, two table- 
spoonfuls of finely chopped tarragon and chevril, a salt- 
spoonful of white pepper, and two of salt ; with these 
gradually mix twelve tablespoonfuls of salad oil and 
three of chili vinegar ; mix all well and put the mixture 
on the ice. When ready to serve whip half a pint of 
cream rather stiflf and add to the sauce, pour a little 
over the salad, upon which lay first the roast pieces of 
the grouse, on which pour more sauce, dressing them in 
a pyramid." 



( 246 ) 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Salmonia. 

I. 

The man who can wield a salmon-rod and successfully 
" play " an eighteen or twenty-pound fish may cer- 
tainly pose as a master of the gentle craft ; the trout, 
we know, is " game " from mouth to tail, and to secure 
a fourteen or fifteen-pound fighting ferox in Loch 
Awe is " a feat," the degree of merit being, of course, 
dependent on the means adopted to capture it, while to 
kill a salmon is hard work. A big, strong pike also 
involves the doing of some work before it can be taken 
off the hook : to fish for brook-trout is, however, one of 
our most delightful angling pastimes. Trout-fishing 
possesses the merit of being more come-at-able than 
salmon-fishing, which can only, indeed, under present 
arrangements, be a recreation for the "classes," as 
there are few in Scotland who can afford to pay for a 
stretch of salmon water, and still fewer who can suc- 
cessfully fish it when obtained. 

1 have read in books minute directions as to how 
salmon should be, or at any rate might be, captured, 
but none of these instructions could ever be made use 
of in catching any of the fish that ever came under my 
notice. No angler knows what may happen when he 



Salmonia. 247 



hooks a fourteen-pound salmon, or an active six-pound 
grilse. His first idea, unless he is an old hand at the 
business, is to haul the fish out of the water by sheer 
force, but he soon finds that plan to be a mistake. As 
" Peter of the Pools " said one day at Stormontfield, 
" That cock 'ill no fecht ; ye maun wait on your fish and 
humour it till you can tire it out, and then your boat- 
man will gaff it." Just so, and it is impossible to say, 
taking what may be termed an all-round view of the 
case, how long you may have to fight your fish; the 
chances are not small, indeed, if the salmon be a large 
one, that it will in the end tire you out, and probably 
escape by the chafing or snapping of the line. To have 
such a fish to play means that your situation is no 
sinecure ; the work is engrossing while it lasts, especi- 
ally when the salmon is one that is newly run, fresh, 
strong and lively, and fond of showing his prowess by 
making a series of rapid rushes. Peter (of the Pools) 
Marshall, of the Stormontfield breeding ponds, used to 
relate that it once took two gentlemen, fishing on 
Stanley Water (river Tay), over three hours to get a 
salmon they had hooked into the boat, or rather on to 
the grass at the river-side, as they required in the end 
to land in order to finish their work. But the fish was 
worth all the trouble it gave, weighing, as it did, the 
nice weight of twenty-seven pounds. Peter's simple 
description of the work was : " She fought like a demon 
for her life." 

I know a good deal about the salmon-angling of the 
period, having in my time seen a few of these fish 
caught both in Tay and Tweed ; but I am not an adept 
in describing effectively the capture of a salmon. As 
was said by the late Mr. Alexander " Russel, of 



248 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

the Scotsman" author of 'The Salmon/ "the most 
graphic description you can give of what you have 
done is to show your fish, tJuit is the best proof of your 
pudding." " Brother Sandy," as Bussel was sometimes 
jocularly called, entertained strong opinions, and was 
never afraid to express them, no matter what the sub- 
ject might be, whether theatrical or theological. He 
believed that some of the paper anglers were "awful 
impostors." On one occasion, in speaking of a minister 
of the gospel, he said, " He calls himself an angler for 
men's souls. Poor fellow ! if he be as bad a hand in 

the pulpit as he is on the river-side, it will be 

few souls he'll catch." Another time he said of a -well- 
known paper angler, "He catch a salmon! It's far 
more likely that the salmon will catch hfm." 

Although Mr. Eussel's book, * The Salmon,' was not 
a commercial success, it well deserved to have been so, 
being full of the subject, and discussing the natural 
history, legislation, and economy of the salmon fisheries, 
as well as the sport the fish affords to the angler^ in a 
learned and loving spirit. 

In a book, professing to deal with the economy of 
sport and the natural history of the creatures of 
sport, it is proper that a few paragraphs should be 
devoted to the " venison of the waters," which, for food 
and sport combined, is our foremost fish. The salmon 
has been written about, lectured over, and experimented 
upon in a way that no other fish has been ; it is within 
my knowledge that for half a century Salmo solar has 
afforded a theme of controversy to at least a full score of 
naturalists and fishery economists; from the days of 
Humphry Davy and the Ettrick Shepherd to the time of 
Frank Buckland, the salmon, in river and sea, and under 



Salmonia. 249 



every condition of breeding and feeding, has given rise 
to hot disputation ; in every stage of its life it has been 
keenly wrangled over. 

Spinning at the beginning of its career, when it is 
known as " the par," it was at one time claimed as a 
distinct fish, and even now, when all reasonable men 
admit that it is in reality the young of the salmon in 
what may be called its first stage, there are persons 
who cling to the old belief and maintain that a par is a 
par, and nothing but a par. It matters not to such 
disputants that par have been jproved to be salmon, by 
being kept in confinement till they became smolts, and 
that these smolts, having been carefully marked before 
being sent to sea, have returned to the neighbourhood 
of their birth as grilse, and again, as has been fre- 
quently determined, grilse are young salmon. The 
salmon, being a fish which can be individually handled, 
has been captured, and being bereft of its eggs, and 
these having been fecundated by having the milt of 
the male poured over them, have been kept in boxes 
under a running stream of water till they have each 
yielded their fish, affording proof enough to settle the 
question. These tiny samlets have, moreover, been kept 
in confinement, and their growth watched day by day, 
till they have reached the period of smolthood, and 
begun to gasp for " ocean's green domain." 

In connection with the transformation of the fish, 
from the finger-marked par to the scaled smolt, one 
remarkable circumstance falls to be chronicled; it is, 
that half only of the brood of any one year, or about a 
moiety, change Into smolts at the end of twelve months 
from the date of their being hatched, the other half of 
the brood remaining unchanged till a period of two 



250 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

years has elapsed since they quitted their fragile prison, 
when they, too, become coated with their scales, 
without which it is impossible for them to exist in the 
salt water of the sea. 

These are the facts which inspired controversialists, 
and led to a series of paper wars not yet perhaps 
concluded. Both sides gained their inspiration from 
the curious fact which has just been mentioned, namely, 
that it requires two years to ripen par into smolts, so 
that, as a mere matter of course, salmon rivers contain 
par at all seasons ; hence the conclusion arrived at by 
many of the controversialists that par cannot be young 
salmon, and that smolts only could be young salmon, 
because they had scales and migrated to the sea. It 
would be impossible in brief space to relate all that 
was said or written on the subject of the " par con- 
troversy," or to report the various law cases which took 
cognisance of these fish. For a long period discussions 
'were carried on with more or less knowledge and 
abundance of acrimony. It was not tiU a suite of 
salmon-breeding ponds had been constructed and brought 
into use at Stormontfield, on the river Tay, that it was 
demonstrated before all who pleased to look on that 
the par was the yoiing of the salmon. Year after year, 
as the business of the ponds became more developed, 
the facts of salmon growth became more and more 
patent, and now, it is known to all, except those who 
are not willing to believe or to be convinced, that the 
par in time becomes a salmon. Indeed, the fact had 
been proved by Mr. Shaw of Drumlanrig, the Duke of 
Buccleuch's forester, years before the salmon nursery 
of Stormontfield had been planned. He gathered the 
spawn of these fish, and, placing them under protection, 



Salrnonia. 251 



watched all the changes they underwent, and noted 
the much-wanted-to-be-known fact that par became 
smolts, and in due time salmon, able to repeat the story 
of their birth. 

Shaw naturally thought his process could not be 
challenged ; in his opinion what he had done effectually 
settled the question, but his achievement was simply 
laughed at by " the scientific." '* My good man," said 
one of the learned, " you have only proved what we all 
know and have long known, that salmon produce 
salmon. You have simply collected salmon ova, and 
they have in due time grown into like fish ; any person 
could do that." With persons who were determined 
not to be convinced that the eggs had first of all 
yielded j>ar, and that the par had changed to salmon 
smolts, it was useless to argue, they still maintained 
that nothing of moment had been proved ; and Shaw, 
incited by contradiction, entered on a new series of opera- 
tions which he hoped would effectually shut the mouths 
of " the scientific." To prevent all cavilling, he caught 
male and female salmon about to spawn, and, despoiling 
the latter of their eggs, he impregnated them with the 
milt of the male fish, and had the satisfaction of seeing 
the e^s come to life, and of witnessing the growth of 
the fish in their various stages and changes, and by the 
means he adopted was able to prove beyond all question 
that the par was the young of the salmon, and that in 
the fulness of time it changed into a smolt, became 
next a grilse^ and finally Salmo salar in all its beauty. 

Shaw conducted his experiments, of which these 
few lines give only the barest idea, with so much care 
that no objection could possibly be offered to them; he 
had proved to demonstration that par were young 



252 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

salmon, and by the means adopted had rediscovered 
the lost art of " pisciculture." 

The Ettrick Shepherd, who was a keen angler, used 
to say that at an early time of his life he had come to 
the conclusion that par were young salmon, having 
seen them changing into smolts " before his face." As 
for Shaw, he proved his case both ways in the most 
eflfectual style, by showing first of all that par grew into 
salmon, and that salmon produced par. 

II. 

Another controversy connected with salmon growth 
may be said to have been settled by experiments con- 
ducted by the late Duke of Athole, who, in order to 
settle the disputed point, whether or not grilse were 
young of the salmon or distinct members of the family, 
as several persons, both naturalists and economists, had 
long maintained, caused a considerable number of those 
fish to be captured and marked. Several of the salmon 
so distinguished were at various times retaken, and 
when weighed were found to have greatly increased in 
weight, as also in size, and appeared in all respects to 
be salmon. Many "obstinates," however, still main- 
tain their old opinions, and assert that a grilse always 
remains a grilse and never becomes a salmon — pointing 
to the forked tale and the form of the scales with 
which the fish are covered as evidence of their con- 
tention. In the opinion of several who have given 
attention and study to the natural history of this 
valuable fish, there are distinct races of salmon^ each 
of which has some distinguishing characteristic, such 
as a square or forked tail, a diamond or oblong-shaped 
scale, and other peculiarities. This may be so, indeed, 



Salmonia. 253 



nothing is more likely, and at one time much was said 
about the different schools of salmon and their- move- 
ments. 

We are still ignorant of many important data in the 
biography of the salmon. No one knows with any 
degree of correctness how the fish " fills in its time/' 
from New Year's Day to Christmas. What purpose, it 
may, for instance, be asked, have the salmon in view 
which are ascending from the sea in March ? They 
cannot surely be then imbued with the instinct of 
reaching their spawning grounds, because neither their 
roes nor mUts are so developed as they become at a 
later period of the year. Their spring visit to the 
rivers is a mystery which has never been solved ; it 
was at one time asserted that these fish spawned twice 
a year, but no reliable proof of the fact, if it be a fact, 
has been ever placed in evidence, and it is well known 
that on most salmon redds fish are rarely seen till late 
in autumn, and on some of them not even till the 
winter season has well advanced. Another old con- 
tention was that salmon spawned in the sea; that 
might be so by accident, and, if it ever was so, then the 
eggs were lost, as they could not be nursed into life in 
the salt water. 

Do salmon spawn every year ? This was a question 
that I think was originated by Mr. Frank Buckland, 
and, needless to say, it attracted attention. The present 
writer took some pains to investigate whether these 
fish spawned annually or not — the same fish, that is, 
for, as we all know, a large body of them is found on 
the spawning grounds every year engaged in that most 
important function of their lives. Among many others 
who favoured me with their opinions on this matter 



254 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

were Mr. Tod Stodart, who had no doubt that the same 
fish would spawn in every year, and Mr. Eobert Buist, 
at one time superintendent of the river Tay fisheries, 
who was able to prove that these fish spawned annually. 
That gentleman and his assistants were in the practice 
of annually capturing a considerable number of gravid 
salmon for the purpose of supplying the Stormontfield 
nursery with eggs, and these, after being despoiled of 
their ova or milt, were restored to the water, being, 
however, previously marked, so that, in the event of 
their again turning up, they might be identified. Their 
being so identified leads to the inevitable conclusion 
that individual salmon, for at least a certain period of 
their lives, emit their spawn every year. 

As to the rate at which salmon increase in size, there 
has been much speculation. A fish hatched in the 
March or April of a given year is at the end of twelve 
months an animal of very small dimensions — it is 
about the length of a man's middle finger, and of 
infinitesimal weight, and may continue for another 
year without its weight or dimensions being materially 
increased. On the other hand, however, at the end of 
the year it may have developed sufficiently to be con- 
sidered a smolt, and make its first journey to the sea ; 
and, if so, it has been proved that a young salmon 
may leave the stretch of water in which it has been 
hatched, as a fish of about an ounce in weight, and re- 
turn in a few weeks as a grilse weighing three or fom* 
pounds ! This is a fact regarding salmon growth which 
is held to have been proved by the marking of a 
number of the smolts hatched at Stormontfield, as they 
were departing for the sea — an operation at which the 
writer assisted. But it would be well if similar ex- 



Salmonia. 255 



periments were tried again, so as to confirm the con- 
clusion arrived at some years ago. The mortality 
among smolts which proceed to sea is so very great, 
that it has been doubted if, among the comparatively 
small number of fish marked, such a large percentage 
as were captured would return as smolts. 

To what age and size may a salmon attain provided 
it escapes the angler and net fishermen? In other 
words, what is likely to be the probable age of, say, a 
salmon of the weight of fifty pounds ? Few, very few, 
fish, I am aware, live to attain so great a weight ; but 
every now and again a salmon which pulls down the 
scale at that figure is captured, and, as no rule exists 
by which the age of such a fish can be determined, I 
am induced to ask the question. From information 
received, I am inclined to think that a fifty-pound 
salmon may have attained the age of from eight to ten 
years ; curiously enough, as my readers can deduce for 
themselves, from what has been said regarding par and 
smolt, one fish may attain the weight named a year 
before its sister or brother. But all that can be said 
on these points of salmon biography is speculative ; 
all that we do know is that we don't know. 

The salmon is a fertile fish; one weighing about 
twenty-four or twenty-five pounds will yield as many 
as twenty thousand ova. Under the " piscicultural 
system " more than nineteen thousand of these could 
be hatched, but, when left unprotected, probably not 
one-fifth the number will yield fish, and of the fish 
hatched three-fourths at least will never reach the 
smolt stage, so great is the average amount of mortality 
connected with the growth of the salmon, although it 
deposits its eggs in shallow water, and in comparative 



258 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

and are able to pay for the privUege, can readily obtain 
"fishing." In the North considerable portions of 
various rivers are in the hands of hotel-keepers, as may 
be discovered by making reference to. the excellent 
* Sportsman's Guide ' of Mr. Watson Lyall. 

It is almost needless to say that salmon angling is 
an expensive pastime ; the terms for the Thurso, Loch 
Tay and other streams are well known ; only rich men 
(jan afford to pay the charges. Both of these localities 
are much frequented in the season. Delightful days 
on the Thurso have been chronicled before now, and 
merry evenings' have been passed in Brawl Castle. 
The proprietor of the river (Thurso), Sir J. G. T. 
Sinclair, of Ulbster, has now resumed possession from 
Mrs. Dunbar, the lessee, who succeeded her husband as 
tenant of the fishery. Only three of whatever number 
of fish might be caught by an angler were allowed to 
be kept, the remainder of the day's catch being claimed 
by the lessee. But these were even liberal t«ms 
compared to those of some others in the line, where the 
angler was charged a good sum for his board and lodging, 
and then had to give up all the salmon he captured to 
" mine host." *' To pay a guinea per diem for one's ac- 
commodation, and work hard all day long for one's land- 
lord, is rather too much of a good thing, is it not ? '* was 
a remark made to the writer by an Englishman staying 
for a fortnight at a northern riverside hostelry } but in 
answer the landlord says, " I never have to go seeking 
for customers, they come in search of me and my house" 
It is only fair, however, to say that there are salmon 
fishings which go with the board and lodging charges 
on some of the northern salmon streams, and at nearly 
all the hotels there is abundance of trout fishing gratis. 



Sabnonia. 259 



The payments made by some lessees of angling waters 
to the owners of them are in many instances very 
heavy, amounting in some cases to hundreds per annum. 
In all probability, the share of the rental of the river 
Tay derived from the sporting stretches of that stream 
will probably not be less than a third of the total sum 
derived from the river. On the Aberdeenshire Dee the 
sporting rental, I have been told, can hardly be less than 
five thousand pounds per annum. The angling rights 
on Tweed are also of considerable money value. Of 
the Loch Tay fishery, it has been said that the nobleman 
to whom that sheet of water belongs could make more 
money out of: it by netting, it as a commercial fishing 
than by letting it to anglers. 

As to the cost of living during "the season " in the 
hotels; of the far North, I have held not a few argu- 
ments with their excellent landlords. Said one of these 
gentlemen to me : — '^ I am not like an innkeeper in a 
comniercial town, who has a good run of business, and 
a steady demand every day for all the provisions he 
lays in ; my white fish comes a long way, and is some- 
times unfit for use by the time it is asked for, and then 
I have to throw it away. Sometimes I prepare dinner 
for ten or twelve persons, but the coach may only bring 
five people to eat it. I have fourteen bedrooms, and 
for days together I won't have four persons to occupy 
them ; but my servants have to be paid their wages and 
get their food aU the same. My coach goes to and fro 
twice each day to the station,. four miles from here; it 
will accommodate ten passengers, and requires a pair of 
hotses and a steady coachman ; occasionally it will only 
have two passengers, and these will grumble at the 
fax^, but: my coachman has to be paid and my horses 

s 2 



260 Oui-door Sports in Scotland. 

to be fed. Fill my coach at every journey, occupy my 
fourteen bedrooms, and I shall be happy to reduce my 
prices. My year only lasts about five months." 

The various associations of anglers that have been 
fonned during recent years admit of gentlemen obtaining 
a week or two's salmon angling in the course of the 
season at comparatively moderate cost. Throughout 
Scotland there are many fishing clubs, the members of 
which hold annual competitions in trout fishing ; some 
of them, indeed, meet more frequently, and several of 
these associations are lessees of "pieces of water "on 
their own account, or meet on protected waters to hold 
their angling tournaments. For salmon fishing there 
is, or at least used to be, a " nest " of happy spirits who 
rented a place on the Tweed, and who fished in the 
daytime, and made night joyous with song and story 
over liberal libations of whisky toddy. The gentlemen 
who met in this way were professional men, men of 
light and leading in their sphere, who delighted in the 
free chaff — pungent enough sometimes it was — ^that 
went the round of the party ; politics, literature, and art 
coming in for satire, censure, or praise as might happen. 
Several of the men who assembled were but poor 
anglers, and some of them used to come in for a good 
deal of smart criticism on their mode of landing a 
salmon, or more often their way of losing one. 

The Tweed is a splendid salmon stream, and its 
waters are liberal to the angler in an eminent degree ; 
that river runs for a hundred miles from source to sea, 
and is bountifully fed by a large number of affluents. 
In all probability the Tweed and its tributaries yield at 
least a thousand salmon and trout casts ; many of those 
are doubtless poor enough, but others are rich in fishv 



Salmonia. 261 



Some pools may be despoiled of half-a-dozen salmon 
to-day, and by to-morrow there will be another half 
dozen in wsiting for the angler. 

IV. 

Having said a few necessary words about the salmon 
as an object of. natural history, it may now be treated 
of as an article of commerce ; the economy of a salmon 
stream being interesting alike to those who capture and 
those who buy the fish, seeing that the public, it has 
been computed, pay considerably over a million sterling 
per annum for their salmon. Although that figure may 
look large, it is not, perhaps, far from the truth, but, 
as no official statistics are collected of the number of 
salmon annually caught, the value of the supply cannot 
be stated. An idea of the national consumption of the 
** venison of the waters " can only be obtained from the 
market returns of Billingsgate and one or two other 
sources of information. The salmon sold in the great 
"piscatorial bourse" of Lower Thames Street are 
chiefly fish captured in the Tay and other salmon 
streams of Scotland ; these are of fine shape and of ex- 
cellent flavour. 

England, it may be stated, derives the greatest por- 
tion of her salmon supply from Ireland, a fact not 
perhaps generally known. While the sum received for 
salmon captured in England and Wales may not be put 
down at more than £100,000, the value to its captors of 
the salmon caught in Ireland and sent to England was 
reckoned by the fishery inspectors ol that country, in 
1881, at £579,402, but in 1882 the figure was not so 
large, being £349,413; in 1883, it had risen to 



262 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

£443,782; for 1884, the sum is set down at £410,856; 
for 1885, the figure is given as being £424,107; for 
1886, £293,106 ; last year [1887 J, according to the in- 
specters, the amount received for Irish salmon sent to 
England reached £320,181. The total sum, as will be 
seen, received by Ireland for salmon in these seven 
years amounts to £2,280,847, being an average of con- 
siderably more than £400,000 per annum. What figure 
may denote the consumption of salmon by the Irish 
in Ireland I have not the means of knowing. 

The salmon caught in the rivers and estuaries of 
Scotland, taking the average, can scarcely be estimated 
as producing to their captors a larger Bum than 
£250,000. But these figures, it must be borne in 
mind, are in the nature of guesses. To €iscertain 
whether the take of salmon is adequate to the extent 
of the feeding and breeding water to which at present 
they have access, it is necessary to accept such figures 
of production as can be found, there being no better 
mode of demonstrating the ratio of production in well^ 
managed salmon waters. To make this plainer, a case 
may be stated : — If the Eiver Tay, in Scotland, yields 
salmon of the value of £60,000 per:annum, what ought 
to be the value of the Severn as a salmon stream? 
And, taking the water aJea of Ireland devoted to the 
breeding and feeding of salmon to be of the value of 
£400,000 per annum, what shoidd be the return from 
the salmon-fishing area of England ? 

The Tay is the chief salmon river of Scotland ; it is 
fed by several tributary streams, and is less subjected 
to pollution than the Tweed. The rental of the river 
Inay at the present time be taken as over £20,000, 
Whilst thirty yearis ago it was not more than half that 



Salmonia. 263 



sum. The total amount is, of course, made up. of two 
kinds of rental; money derived frojn the angling or 
upper waters, and the amounts paid by the lessees of 
the commercial fisheries. It is most probable that the 
rental of the commercial fisheries will be con3iderably 
over one-half of the total rental, say, as £14,000 is to 
£6000. It has always been a grievance of the upper 
proprietors that they who afford spawning ground to 
the fish obtain so small a portion of the income derived 
from the fisheries. The netting-station holders, how- 
ever, are masters of the situation, being able to cream 
the river during the period when the salmon are 
running. 

According to one authority on the economy of the 
salmon fisheries, it requires a sale of fish to the extent 
of twice and a half the rental to carry on the fishery 
with a fair profit to all concerned ; but another writeir 
on the subject thinks that estimate too low, and main- 
tains that fish which will bring £60,000 in the market 
must be captured to pay a rent of £20,000, as well as 
taxes, wages, interest on capital, and wear and tear of 
fishing material In the case of the Eiver Tay, there- 
fore, 1^0,000 salmon, grilse, and trout, each to sell on 
an average at lO^., would be required to produce the rent. 
and pay the other expenses incidental to the fisheries. 

This way of estimating must, in the nat/Ure of things, 
be rather a rough-and-ready one, but it has the merit of 
being probably within, rather than over, the mark; 
Taking the fish overhead, salnion little and big, as also 
grilse and trout, at 101b. weight, and estimating the 
wholesale price at 1«. per pound> is one way of obtaining 
a formula to argue from. In the early days of the 
salmon season these fish sell in large cities at a much 



264 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

higher price ; half-a-crown per pound is then considered 
a moderate charge, and at times about double that snin 
is exacted, that is at times when salmon are not plenti- 
ful ; in summer and autumn^ when they do becwne 
plentiful, they are at their very cheapest. 



The Tweed is an important salmon stream. It dis- 
putes with the Spey, so judiciously managed by the 
Duke of Eichmond, the position of bring next to the 
Tay. In certain respects the Tweed is superior to both 
of these rivers, more especially in having numerous 
affluents easy of access to breeding fish. The Tweed, 
however, flows no more as a "sQvery stream;" its 
waters are now " drumly , and dark/' not with earth 
washed from the adjoining lands by rainstorms, but 
with the chemical dSrris of manufactories and the 
waste refuse of miUs. The foul state of the river has 
become a matter of consequence to the owners and 
lessees of its salmon fisheries, which are valuable. At 
one period the Tweed yielded a revenue Jfrom its salmon 
superior to that of the Tay, and with care might, 
perhaps, be made to do so again. 

Tweed rises in the extreme south of the county of 
Peebles, 1500 feet above the level of the sea, and in its 
progress to Berwick-upon-Tweed, through the. counties 
of Selkirk, Eoxburgh, and Berwick, it is estimated to 
drain an area of nearly 2000 square milea In its 
course the river receives the Ettrick (which has prer 
viously taken tribute from the Yarrow), Teviot, and 
Till, not to speak of the Gala, the Leader, the Whittader, 
and other waters of minor note. The Tweed, in its 



Salmonia. 265 



lower course, divides Berwickshire from the English 
borderland; but although the influence of the tide is 
felt at Norham, which is about ten miles from the sea, 
navigation does not extend above Berwick Bridge, nor, 
except during the herring fishery season, is there much 
shipping business even at the port. Tweed, it may be 
said, has no estuary. 

Tweed salmon have long been celebrated, "pickled 
fish from Berwick" being at. one time well known in 
London. After the discovery was made that salmon 
packed in ice would carry for long distances without 
deterioration, the Berwick smacks were used to convey 
large quantities of these fish to the great metroplis, where 
a ready market was found for them; but at present 
a very small number of Tweed salmon are sent to 
London — not above one-fourth of the take. Berwick is 
so situated as to command a choice of several excellent 
markets. A salmon landed at the fish-house at seven 
o'clock in the morning may reach a Manchester or 
Birmingham dinner-table before six o'clock in the 
evening. 

The French still consume a large portion of the 
produce of the Tweed, especially of the bull trout, 
many thousands of which find their way to Paris to 
be dressed in those tempting ways known only to the 
culinary artists of the gay city. Portions of the Scotch 
salmon now sent to London are consigned direct to 
retailers, and, Tweed being 100 miles nearer London 
than Tay, the salmon of that river ought to be enjoyed 
in its perfection. 

Previous to the legislation of 1857-59 the Tweed 
salmon fisheries were in a perilous state. The rental 
of the river had gone down from £20,000 a year to less 



266 OuUiloor Sports in Scotland. 

than a quarter of that sum, and even now, when the 
fruits of wise legislation have long been apparent, the 
rental does not all over average more, probably, than 
£10,000 per annum ; that is a long way better, how- 
ever, than the £4046 18a. lOc?., at which the rental 
stood the year before the Act of 1857 came into 
operation. Happily for those who own the fisheries, 
the rental may still grow, and, if those interested will 
let well alone, no one can prophesy how high a figure 
may in time be achieved. 

Proprietors, lessees, and salmon economists all over 
Scotland became much alarmed twenty-five years ago 
at the then rapidly declining takes of salmon, when 
some in their fright went so far as to predict the speedy 
extinction of the fish. Strangely enough, a jieriod of 
apathy had existed up to about 1856; many salmon 
fisheries once valuable had ceased to be productive, the 
Tweed included, and during the period aUuded to 
English salmon rivers also greatly declined in value. 
It was speedily found out, when public attention re- 
awakened to the subject, that the salmon had not been 
getting fair play in many of the rivers in the United 
Elingdom. Elvers were remorselessly kept open till 
the spawning season was far advanced, and over and 
over again were the chief markets filled with spawning 
fish. Occasional great battles were fought in Parlia- 
ment over often-introduced salmon -bills. These were 
chiefly fights between upper and lower proprietors, the 
latter being decidedly in possession of the field and of 
the ear of the Legislature from 1828, when that Act 
was obtained by Mr. Home Drummond which in- 
fluenced the Scottish salmon fisheries for the long 
period of tjiirty years. One writer, ip his wrath, de- 



Salmonta. 267: 



scribed the Home Drummond legislation as " a ruinous 
Act/' which prolonged the netting season' from the 26th 
of August to the 14th of September, its only redeeming 
point being the creation of a body of river police paid 
by a pro rata assessment of the rentals. 

Eetuming, however, from the general question of 
salmon legislation to a consideration of the Tweed Acts,. 
itinay be stated that these, which at the present time 
govern the mode of fishing and the fishing periods of 
that river, were passed in 1857 and in 1859 respectively, 
arid have proved profitable to those most interested. 
Thie abolition of the still net alone was a worthy 
achievement. On the Tweed, at present, excepting the 
rod, the only legal mode of catching salmon is by 
means of what is called the ware-shot, better known as. 
riet and coble fishing. The stell net was in a .certain: 
sense a fixed engine, and one used to be fixed to the 
pier at Berwick, while a perfect crowd of them were) 
found on the river. The difference between the stelL 
net and the net let out from the coble was this — the 
cme was. kept floating till, it was struck by a fish, the- 
passage of which it barred, when it was at once pulled 
in' and the salmon^ secured ; the other, now in houriy 
^se during the fishing season at BerwiGk-pn-Tweed,and 
on other Scottish . rivers as well, is shot and drawa 
whether there be fish or no. Net and coble fishing 
may during the season of capture be seen day by day! 
from Berwick Bridge ; it is the simplest possible mode, 
of salmon capture. 

Statistics of the takes of Tweed salmon used to be 
abundant, and even the produce of particular "shots" 
were occasionally made public ; but, curiosity as regards 
the produce of particular .fishing station^ being nowi 



268 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

repressed, none but the lessees know the value of 
each fishery. " It would be wrong," says the tacksman, 
" to provide a stick to break our own backs, which we 
would be doing if we told such details of our business 
as is implied in knowing the number of fish taken ac 
each of our fisheries." Besides, the statement made of 
one year would not be true of the next, because in con- 
sequence of floods and from other causes the run of the 
fish is changed, and shots once productive fall away in 
value, new ones, of course, being developed. Sometimes 
the bottom of a good shot is so hollowed out by a swift 
flow of water as to admit of the escape of fish which 
would be captured were the bottom even. Whether 
lessees give information or no, productive places are 
speedily found out and their rent increased. There are 
about 70 net and coble stations on the commercial 
portion of the Tweed generally, giving employment 
during the fishing season to 350 men,. who earn on: an 
average 17s. 6d. per week in fixed wages and perquisites, 
some of the lessees allowing their fishermen a bonus on 
each fish captured — a plan which is thought to insure 
both diligence and honesty. . 

Tweed anglers have the privilege? of fishing fipom the 
1st of February to the 30th of November — aU the year, 
except the two winter months. Of course, they do not 
catch fish — that is, salmon — ^aU the year round ; but, 
like others interested, they take them when they can 
get them, and an expert has calculated that each of the 
fish of the salmon kind which they, capture costs at 
least £2 sterling. Anglers cannot find many good clean 
fish in November, but, as they act as a " daur "upon the 
poachers, they may be tolerated, especially if they 
return all spawning fish which they capture to the 



Salmonia. 269 



river, which, however, is rather problematical. An 
enormous number are caught by anglers in some years 
in Tweed. The Mr. Eussel already named used to value 
the take at about £3000 per annum. 

VI. 

Figures pertaimng to the great Scottish salmon rivers 
must, of course, be taken only for what they are worth— 
they ar© simply offered as being illustrative. The 
Severn is a stream of still greater magnitude than the 
Tay, falling into the Bristol Channel after a run of 210 
miles. It is fed by several large affluents; but it is 
open to question if the value of its salmon, all told, will 
at the present time much, if at all, exceed £12,000 per 
annum* The reason why this river is so unproductive — 
taking its vast water area into account, and including 
its numerous tributary streams, some of which ought 
to yield salmon in large numbers — is not far to seek, 
seeing the river is crowded with obstructions. More- 
over^ the fish on their way to the spawning ground run 
the gauntlet of the tidal nets in a long estuary, and, 
being sometimes unable to pass the lower weirs, are 
compelled to fall back again with the tide, and so risk 
another chance of capture. It is obvious that, if the 
parent fish are not allowed a fair chance of reaching 
their spawning beds, the stock of a river so obstructed 
is bound to diminish. It has been calculated that the 
weirs on the river prevent the salmon of the Severn 
froni obtaining access to about half the area of water 
which otherwise would be at their service. There are 
(or at any rate there were a few years ago) as many as 
seventy-three mill weirs on the river, the value (rf 



270 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

which in rent may be about -£4000 per annmn. If 
these were abolished and steam-power substituted — 
and, presumably, there is no practical difficulty in this 
way of doing so — the fish would obtain ready access to 
the entire feeding and breeding ground, and in all like- 
lihood quadruple the value . of the river as a salmon- 
producing stream. With* the mill weirs removed, the 
maiii stream and its tributaries ought to produce fish of 
4li^ value of a hundred thousand pounds a year ; while, 
if the. river was to be aided by the construction of 
ponds for the hatching of ova and the rearing of young 
fish, a still larger yield of mature salmon should in 
time result. But it cannot be too often repeated .that a 
jgiven expanse of water will only feed and breed a given 
number of fish, just as a given acreage of grass-land 
.will only pasture a certain number of sheep or pattle. 

The area of lost spawning ground in English rivew is 
great indeed. Leaving out of account streams which 
from vg^rious natural circumstances do not at the 
present time produce any salmon whatever, seventeen 
rivers might be named that only possess a salmon 
feeding and breeding area of one-third the extent of 
what it. was a hundred years ago. All our sahnon 
rivers are suffering heavily from various pollutions — 
"matter in the wrong place " — which poison the young 
fish as fast as th6y can be bred. 

The salmon fishery rents of Scotland will probably 
amount to £110,000 per annum.. That sum must, of 
course, be taken with a degree of allowance; but that 
the amount named is pretty correct may be assumed, 
seeing that .the value of our Scottish salmon supply has 
been estimated by more than one competent authority 
as being at the rate of a^ quarter of a:millipn sterling 



Salmonia. ^ 271 



per annum.* In 1868, Mr. Caird estimated the yearly 
production of salmon in Scotland at £200,000 ; in 1877, 
Mr. Young, one of the Commissioners for our salmon 
■fisheries, put the figure at £250,000, the respective values 
of the English and Irish salmon fisheries being placed 
at £100,000 and £400,000 by the same authority. 
- Salmon in Scotland are, as a rule, private property ; 
iand a man's piece of water on a populous salmon 
stream is often more valuable than three or four of his 
best farms. As a general rule, the Scottish salmon 
fisheries are well managed : the close times are enforced, 
and the wise, legislation which was entered upon some 
twenty-five years ago has borne good fruit. Some 
streams — notably the Tweed and its tributaries — still 
suffer greatly from pollution. 

In the face of the increasing desire to poach, which 
is now manifest, it becomes important to consider how 
our salmon may be successfully protected, especially 
while on their spawning grounds. The Tweed is 
at present, as regards police, in a kind of transition 
state. Around Berwick the duty of protection is per- 
formed by bailiffs, specially appointed, but in the 
country districts this duty is mostly undertaken by the 
county constables. This has given rise to dissatisfac- 
tion. and controversy;, there are those who say that the 
Tweed should have police of its own, and. there are 
others much enamoured of the present system. To a 
river which passes through four counties, a portion of 
which may be said to be in England, and having 
numerous affluents suitable for the breeding of fish, a 
practical system of police is of vital consequence, but 
there is a difficulty in finding honest watchmen and in 
separating the policeman from the poacher. Of CQuifse^ 



272 Oat-door Sports in Scotland, 

it is impossible that any real protection can be given 
so long as the people tiiink they have a right to as 
many fish as they can capture, and Lord Minto tells us 
"that not one man in a hundred believes himself 
violating any moral law when he offends against the 
Tweed Acts." 

The natural enemies of the salmon (man being ex- 
cluded) are so very numerous that poachers may well 
be dispensed with. Nature provides so ingeniously for 
the keeping down of superfluous stock, that when man 
steps forward and ruthlessly captures the fish, at a 
period when they are unfit for food and before they 
have had time to repeat the story of their birth, the 
balance of nature is sure to be disturbed, if not over- 
thrown. Nothing has been better proved than that a 
given expanse of water will only breed and feed a given 
number of fish. Hard names have been bestowed on 
the Tweed Commissioners for carrying out the Acts of 
Parliament against the poachers, and the Acts, by some 
complaining spirits, have been called " a disgrace to our 
legislation." 

The Tay proprietors have been more fortunate ; that 
river flows through a land where for the most part there 
is no population to disturb its finny treasures. On the 
Tweed and its many tributaries there is a considerable 
population, many of whom have but slight knowledge 
of " mine and thine," and all of whom have a taste for 
salmon and a strong desire for gain. The cost of pro- 
tecting the Tay salmon fisheries is only about a fourth 
of what it costs the Commissioners to protect the river 
Tweed. 

The public have well-nigh become impatient of 
salmon legislation, and of inquiries into the fisheries of 



Salmonia. 273 



particular rivers. In Scotland there are about twenty 
Acts still in existence, and a new one about to be intro- 
duced to Parliament. The general public, too, have 
begun to grow a, little jealous of the favour bestowed on 
the venison of the waters; but, knowing what befell 
the fish in the days when the economy of a salmon 
river was less understood than it is now, and when the 
fish was not so well protected as it is at present, the 
public must see that more or less legislation is still 
necessary for the thorough protection of a valuable 
article of food. What would become of our salmon if 
they were left to the tender mercies of the poacher ? In 
a few years' time there would not be a fish of the 
salmon kind left in our streams. That may appear a 
bold prophecy, but coming events cast their shadows 
before, and its utterance is based on experience. 

It is certain that at one period the salmon waters 
of Great Britain were, through greed and false economy, 
in imminent danger of being fished to death. It is 
equally certain that the persistent inquiry and wise 
legislation of recent years is tending to restore them, 
and if further blunders are not perpetrated they have a 
chance of being restored to their pristine condition, and 
the people may yet hope to see salmon in the market- 
place at a reasonable price. Those who complain most 
loudly against salmon inquiry and salmon legislation 
are those who have no right to complain at all. The 
philosophy of the whole question lies in a nutshell. If 
the man who causes two blades of grass to grow where 
only one grew before is a benefactor to his race and his 
country, the same may be emphatically said of the 
man who rears two salmon to-day for the one he reared 
twenty years ago* Much, however, remains to he yet 

T 



274 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

leamt about the economy of a salmon river, notwith- 
standing the great amount of knowledge which sahnon 
lairds have been enabled to acquire during the last 
thirty years. 

It is not now so difficult as it was once to divine the 
future of salmon fisheries. Such a valuable product as 
Salmo salar will be cherished, and wise counsels will 
undoubtedly prevail among those who own the fisheries. 
Salmon fishery proprietors have acquired wisdom ; they 
are the persons most interested, and surely now they 
know what is best for their interests. The best 
guardians of a Tweed or a Tay ought to be those who 
own it; the salmon proprietors of Great Britain have 
long ago discovered that fact, and are now acting 
accordingly. It is difficult to see how Scottish salinon 
rivers can be rendered more productive than they are; 
being private property, they are well looked after, 
and in many of them there must be a large stock of 
breeding fish, though in others the weight of the salmon 
caught shows there is room for more. But, taking 
weight as a criterion, does it matter much whether a 
thousand fish are caught each of the weight of thirty 
pounds, or double the number at half the weight ? 

VII. 

Thirty years ago salmon were decreasing in weight ; 
now they are increasing. It has been suggested that 
the river Tay, and indeed all Scottish rivers, should be 
formed into joint-stock companies for the benefit of the 
united proprietary, including those who so handsomely 
give breeding room to the fish. There are at the 
present time over 130 fishing stations on the river 



I 
Salmonia. 275 i 



Tay, and some 850 persona are engaged in their working 
for seven months in the year ; in all probability, this 
involves the annual expenditure of a sum of £15,000 
in wages. Were the fisheries of the river Tay to be 
formed into a joint-stock company, this amount of ex- 
penditure would in all probability be reduced to less 
than a fourth of the sum now paid; for in that case 
the capture of the fish could probably be efficiently 
secured at half-a-dozen instead of 130 stations. The 
saving to the united proprietary in wages and fishing 
gear would be large ; and a still greater benefit might 
accrue from the better-regulated capture of the salmon. 
No fish, by such a plan of conducting operations, need 
be taken till it is certain it would be wanted ; in other 
words, the pulse of the market could be felt by means 
of a telegram or two, and if salmon were over-plentiful 
fishing for a time might cease. The weight of the fish 
to be taken could also be regulated, as well as the 
number necessary to pay a good dividend. 

Salmon fishing partakes of the nature of a lottery. 
On the river Tay, for instance, the various stations are 
annually put up to auction, and let on behalf of the 
proprietor to the highest bidder, neither party at the 
time of the transaction knowing whether, when the 
fishing season arrives, there will be any salmon to 
capture, so that a man may have a comparatively 
small rent to pay in a year when fish may be caught in 
' abundance, and be fixed at another time with a much 
bigger rent when fish are far less plentiful. In the 
productive salmon years of 1883 and 1885, the fishery 
rental of the river Tay was £17,773 and £20,417 re- 
spectively, but in 1887, when the take was greatly less 
than it was either in 1883 or 1885, the Tay rents 

T 2 



t. 



276 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

reached a total sum of £22,143. In 1886 the figure 
was still higher, being £22,542. Although the non- 
extension of the close period, which was asked for in 
1888, proved a disappointment to the commercial fisher- 
men, the upper proprietors, the men who afford a 
breeding place to the fish, must have been pleased, 
seeing that under the close time as now fixed they do 
not obtain very many salmon as a reward for what may 
be termed their patriotism. If the supplies are to be 
kept up, it is essential that a large percentage of the 
breeding fish should reach the upper waters in time to 
" repeat the story of their birth." Some of the valuable 
stretches of breeding ground on the higher tributaries, 
where the fish which perpetuate the stock of the stream 
make their nesting-places, are of no money value ; the 
owners of them not having in some instances the 
pleasure of taking a few fish even by means of the rod, 
in consequence, perhaps, of the close time having come 
in before the fish arrive on the breeding " redd/* As 
Sir Walter Scott pithily said, '* The upper proprietors 
are simply clocking [brooding] hens for the benefit of 
the lower lairds ; " and if they were disposed to act in 
a •* dog in the manger " spirit they might greatly hurt 
the commercial fisheries. 

It is affirmed by some persons that there are at 
present more salmon in the Tay than it can well feed, 
but such a statement must be accepted with some 
degree of reserve ; and, whether it be so or no, the great 
competition amongst fishery lessees and the annual 
mortality incident to salmon life under natural circum- 
stances forbids the hope of any stream ever becoming 
"too crowded with fish." In the productive years 
alluded to (1883 and 1885), it may be taken for granted 



Salmonia. 277 



that a larger than usual number of gravid salmon 
reached their breeding waters. But, if that be so, what 
has become of their progeny ? Eggs deposited in these 
years have long been due as edible table salmon, 
ranging in. weight from, perhaps, twenty to thirty-four 
pounds. In the face of that, we have just experienced 
throughout 1888 a rather non-productive year of salmon 
fishing in Scottish rivers, with perhaps three or four 
exceptions. The best men are unable to account for the 
falling off in the takes which "has characterised the 
fishing of " 88." The old excuses have been trotted out 
to do duty, the coldness of the season having in par- 
ticular been loudly advanced as one reason for the 
shortcoming. 

The chief obstacle which as yet remains to hinder 
the growth of an almost unlimited supply of salmon is 
that the rivers are polluted; clear, clean, wholesome 
water is as the breath of life to all fish. There can be 
no perfect development of the salmon fisheries, there- 
fore, so long as our rivers continue to be used as 
gigantic common sewers. It has again and again been 
given in evidence that the poisonous stuffs sent into the 
water from manufactories which abut on the river kUl 
or cripple the growth of the fish. It has also been said 
that the chemical manures now so much used by 
farmers have, so far as they have been washed into 
salmon-breeding streams, proved most deleterious to 
the young and tender fish. So are also preparations 
used in sheep washing, although the latter do not 
cause much harm in a large stream. Healthy water in 
great rivers means, without doubt, a larger supply of 
salmon. Let us have a clean stream for our fish, and 
salmon will become as plentiful as ever they were. 



278 Oui'door Sports in Scotland. 

The system of drainage now in use is inimical to fish 
life ; the water comes down full spate at a moment's 
notice, flushes the bed of the river for a time, and then 
leaves it empty. Is it to be expected that fish can keep 
healthy in waters which for weeks may run so low that 
they are little better than common sewers ? I was on 
Tweed recently, and saw numerous instances of pollu- 
tion. On this matter I go " the whole hog." I want — 
not only for the sake of the fish, and for those who 
capture them, but for humanity in general — cleAn and 
clear flowing water. There can be no doubt that the 
flow of liquid stufis from manufactories is so much 
matter wasted ; in a river it is in the wrong place. 

Of the salmon disease (Saprolegnia ferax), which has 
played such havoc in the more important Scottish 
rivers, it is difiBcult for a non-scientific man to say very 
much; indeed, the outbreak has greatly puzzled the 
" learned " in such matters. Tens of thousands of fine 
salmon have fallen victims to the " fungus " during the 
last seven or eight years, and, although fewer fish have 
in some seasons been attacked than in others, the 
disease still prevails, and upon a rough calculation the 
loss to the owners or lessees of fisheries for salmon in 
Scotland will not have been less in the time indicated 
than £100,000. Many opinions have been eUcited as 
to the cause of the disease, and cures have industriously 
been sought for without as yet having been discovered. 
Gross breeding is now being thought of as a remedy, and 
there is no practical difiiculty, in these days of pisci- 
cultural progress, to stand in the way of a trial being 
made. Impregnated salmon ova can be forwarded with 
facility and safety for hundreds, nay, thousands of miles, 
so that there is nothing to prevent the introduction to 



Salmonia. 279 



the Tay or the Deveron of the salmon of the Severn, the 
Tyne, the Dee, or any other English stream. It is 
somewhat surprising that the salmon fishery owners of 
the River Tay, yrho possess a splendid hatchery on the 
estate of Dupplin, and who in such a matter would be 
working for themselves, have not attempted the in- 
troduction of new blood in the way indicated. Crossing, 
as has been stated in a previous page, has been tried in 
the Scottish deer forests with a considerable degree of 
success, and, in one or two experiments made on the 
grouse moors in the way of crossing, the birds are said 
to have been much improved. Why, then, should a 
trial of the same sort not be made with the salmon ? 



( 280 ) 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 
Troutiana. 



Scotland is the land of the trout. Nothwithstanding 
that its waters have been remorselessly fished during 
the last twenty years, there are still trout in its burns 
and streams, and in its lakelets and lochs ; the original 
home of the far-famed and now widely spread Salmo 
Levenensia is yet full of fish and open to anglers for a 
consideration. More than that. Loch Awe, with its 
"great lake trout," is accessible to all and much 
frequented. But, to get trout in plenty, an angler 
must hie him away to distant glens and lonely streams 
of water, to the solitudes of the highlands and islands. 
Streams within walking distance of a town or city are 
barren ; if a fish should perchance show itself, there are 
a dozen anglers eager to capture it. From any river 
which is open to fishermen without let or hindrance 
trout soon vanish, and, even in localities which have 
become easy of access by means of railways, fish soon 
become scarce. Twenty miles from Aberdeen, I asked 
an angler one day to allow me to peep into his basket ; 
there was not a trout in it that ought to have been 
captured, they were so small. 
About three years ago the Dundee Advertiser collected 



Troutiana. 281 



a vast amount of information for anglers regarding the 
condition of our rivers and lochs, and their stocks of fish. 
The news obtained was to the effect that in four-fifths 
of the waters reported upon the supply of trout and 
salmon was steadily falling off, but as to the cause of 
the decrease correspondents differed; many reasons 
indeed, were offered, but most of those who gave their 
opinion seemed to think that " pollution " of the water 
in some of its many shapes had most to do with the 
scarcity of these much-prized fish — the trout. The 
chemical manures now placed on the land are largely 
drained into the waters, whilst manufacturing dSbris of 
all sorts is permitted to flow into our streams. But, 
while believing that mischief results from these sources, 
it is as well not to forget the fact, that trout have 
become scarce because they are over-fished ; for every 
two or three men who handled the rod thirty or forty 
years since, a round dozenrare doing so to-day, with this 
result, that trout are being caught which have never 
been given time to multiply their kind. It must not 
be forgotten that a river which contains a finny popula- 
tion sufficient for forty anglers would soon become, 
exhausted were it frequented by four times the number. 
A given expanse of water will only provide a given 
number of fish. 

Angling of late has been much written about, and its 
incidents have been discussed by the press and in Parlia- 
ment. Fishing as a pastime is now, as one may say, a 
well-worn theme of literary effort, so that almost nothing 
new can be said about it. No eye-witness of the sport 
of trout fishing could believe from what he sees that 
any man could spin a long and lively yam about such 
a simple matter as the. hooking, playing, and landing of 



282 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

a trout weighing some five or seven ounces. Yet such 
literary feats have become common. "I can fish a 
little," said one day a well-known Scottish litterateur, 
but I'm blessed if I can write about what I do; I 
caught five trout yesterday in the Whittader, and one 
of them was a big one." That was usually the story 
he told. But other writers have been more prolix whilst 
describing their feats on lake and river, taking those 
who read their lucubrations into their confidence in no 
unmeasured way. One writer, who three years ago 
went grayling fishing, began his narrative by telling 
what he said to his wife on leaving home, how much 
tobacco he took with him, and how many pairs of socks 
he placed in his valise. In describing his angling 
he burst into a canticle in praise of the pipe, told a 
little anecdote about some trout fishing he enjoyed once 
upon a time somewhere in Devonshire, and, after stating 
how people should behave on the water, concluded by 
stating what he had ordered for dinner! The writer 
having so much to say about himself and his personal 
tastes, what kind of bacion he Ukes for breakfast, and 
the beer that should be drunk at dinner, has, as is usual 
in such cases, very little indeed to say about the fish he 
is after or the best modes of capturing it. Yet the 
article found a place in the columns of a popular peri- 
odical, and was described by a critic as being ** not only 
interestiQg in respect of the information given, but 
brilliantly written." 

Trout fishing is an exceedingly popular pastime, and 
eagerly indulged in by men who can obtain access to a 
stretch of well-stocked water, which, as has been 
indicated, is ill to 'find, a difl&culty that has driven 
anglers to organise clubs and become lessees of lochs and 



Troutlana. 283 



rivers in many parts of Scotland, or, failing to obtain 
water of their own, to take refuge on such protected 
lochs or rivers as by payment of a fee are open to them, 
trout fishing being much sought after. The trout is a 
game fish, and fights his foe with a dash and determina- 
tion which gives zest to the battle. I am well acquainted 
with the trout of Loch Leven (at Kinross), and can 
recommend a day on that fine sheet of water to those 
who have never tried it. A day there, however, cannot 
be got through under a good few shillings. A friend of 
mine, who pays about four visits to the loch in each 
year calculates that each fish he brings home costs him 
a crovm. A basket of twenty has often been made in 
quick time, none of them being much under the regula- 
tion weight of one pound ; but, of course, as on other 
lochs, sport is unequal ; a man may expend his pound 
note, and be rewarded by taking an accidental perch 
only, a fish as plentiful in Loch Leven as pike. 

Loch Leven trout weigh from twelve to about twenty 
ounces, but trout of two pounds are far from being rare, 
and " pounders " are the rule. As many who have tried 
their hand know, it needs a smart angler to make sure 
of landing them. Many a clever disciple of good old 
Isaak Walton has failed in the attempt ; and upon one 
occasion, when assisting at a little competition held 
there, I soon found out that the Loch Leven fish have 
a will of their own, and do not allow themselves to 
be caught as a mere matter of course, not even by 
anglers provided with all the wonderful upholstery 
of fish-catching which tackle-merchants are so indus- 
trious in providing. 

The classic water of Loch Leven has so often furnished 
a theme to angling writers, that I dare say I would be 



284 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

excused were I to pass on at once to other scenes, but I 
desire to say just a few words about these trout, which 
are now found in so many lakes and rivers, having been 
distributed far and near by the authorities of the Howie- 
toun fishery established by Sir James Gibson Maitland, 
of Sauchie. 

My knowledge of Loch Leven began in early life, and 
my acquaintance with its boatmen has been often re- 
newed. In those days — I am harking back to the tune 
of half a century ago — fly-fishing was rarely tried, and as 
a matter of fact there were few to try it ; the lessee, 
however, allowed a friend or two to " fish " any way they 
liked. I cannot remember a time within fifty years when 
its fish were free to anglers. It has always in my days 
been a property loch, inasmuch as there was a lessee of 
its fisheries ; when first I used to fish in its waters, it 
was let to a person who netted the trout and distributed 
them by means of the stage coaches that carried them 
to Edinburgh, and thence to London, packed in ice. At 
present Loch Leven is farmed by a joint-stock company, 
who hold it on lease from its owner. Sir Graham Mont- 
gomery, and the fishing is free to all who can pay hire 
of boats and wages of boatmen ; a few hours on the loch 
soon breaks the back of a sovereign, as the charge for 
the boat is half-a-crown an hour, and three shillings for 
one man, the association paying the other. On this 
classic sheet of water we can see modern angling in its 
most pronounced fashion. 

In all the ways open to honest anglers Loch Leven 
trout may be captured. Some big examples have been 
got by trolling, but the majority of the fish taken now are 
caught by means of the fly. In the course of the season 
the loch is the scene of many competitions^ numerous 



Troutiana. 285 



clubs having selected its waters as an arena on which 
to fight their battles. On these occasions quite a fleet 
of boats may be seen on the water, each containing a 
couple of anxious anglers intent on their work. On 
such days hundreds of trout are sometimes obtained. 
Loch Leven being a large sheet of water, there is room 
for a score or two of boats, and at these tournaments as 
many as two thousand pounds' weight of trout will be 
captured in the course of the season by the clubs 
engaged in the competition, whilst other anglers, fishing 
on their own account, will probably basket four or five 
times that weight. The supply in the loch is kept up, 
or at least aided, by means of the piscicultural plan of 
breeding, thousands of ova being annually hatched 
under proper protection;; the baby fish obtained in that 
manner are, of course, added to the general stock, being 
first of all placed in the tributary streams. 

As these trout gain strength they gradually work 
their way into the loch, and in time afford sport to 
anglers. How these fish came by their beautiful colour 
— their flesh is pink like the flesh of the salmon — still 
affords matter for surmise, although the subject has 
been frequently discussed by such learned naturalists 
as Jardine, Yarrell, and Couch. One reason given is 
difficult to get over ; it is in plain language that " it has 
been always so," and so it undoubtedly has, but, as no 
fresh- water trout other than that of Loch Leven is known 
to be of the same colour, the controversy required, of 
course, to be fought on a wider basis, and the conclusion 
arrived at by those who gave attention to the subject 
was that the cause of the peculiar colour lay in the food 
to which these fishes have access. Others, who also 
gave time to the investigation, asserted that in all like- 



286 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

lihood the so-called trout is a descendant of land-locked 
salmon. There are, doubtless, many who will smile at 
such a " theory," but, as has been asked, " Who knows 
what took place in the beginning ? " We hear now and 
again of some fish that are described as fresh-water 
herrings, and among them the vendace. There are 
land-locked salmon in America, and there is no im- 
probability in the theory that the LochLeven trout may 
be the descendants of salmon shut out from the sea by 
a sudden convulsion of nature. ScUrno mlar, as is well 
known, can live in either salt or fresh water, in the 
latter of which it is bom ; and, therefore, it is not 
difficult to conceive that if shut in Loch Leven it has 
become reconciled, and is able to feed and breed iu 
such a sheet of water. It is an old saying of folks who 
live in the vicinity of the loch that it was at one time 
inhabited by eleven different kinds of fish, although it 
would, we think, be somewhat difl&cult to name them. 
It is quite certain, however, that in addition to the 
salmon-coloured trout a common sort is also to be found 
in that vast expanse of water, of which examples are 
frequently caught. The perch, too, used to be taken in 
the loch in large numbers, as also that " fell tyrant of 
the liquid plain," the pike. Loch Leven is likewise 
famous for its eels, which are " large, fat, and luscious," 
and find their way every year in considerable quantities 
to London, and to other parts of England as well. It 
is a matter of tradition that fine char were at one time 
found in this famous sheet of water, which the late Mr. 
Frank Buckland used to say was the biggest and finest 
trout-pond he had ever seen. 

There are anglers who, never having visited the 
loch and acquired personal knowledge of its fish, are of 



Troutiana. 287 



opinion that they are easy to catch, A visit to the 
water will very speedily dispel that illusion. The trout 
of Loch Leven, although abundant, are anything but 
tame, and are not to be taken without much pains and 
trouble : as has been said of some other animals, ** they 
are game to the backbone," and fight like warriors for 
their lives. 

Anglers on Loch Leven, it may be stated, are entitled 
to keep all the trout they can capture, and that every 
efifort is made to keep up the supply is evidenced by 
the fact of 300,000 fry having been added to the stock 
a few months ago, namely, in March 1889. 

IL 

At present there is no close time for trout in Scot-* 
land ; it is to be hoped, however, that these fish will 
have attention bestowed on them in any future legis- 
lation, and be afforded a period of protection during 
their breeding seasons. Just now Loch Leven may be 
looked upon as the starting-point of the trout angler's 
round. It can be easily reached in two or three hours 
from three of the most populous towns of Scotland, 
while one can generally make sure of a fair day's 
anghng on that classic sheet of water, the fish caught 
being sure to be worth the trouble of carrying home. 
Loch Tay, again, is the usual starting-point with more 
ambitious' fishers, men who think only of catching the 
salmon. Later in the season some of the same men will 
be found on Loch Awe seeking the great lake trout, 
which are ill to find, and not easy to capture. 

It would serve no purpose of utility to carry the 
reader to every seat of trout fishing in the lonely glens 



288 Out'door Sports in Scotland, 

and mountain lochs of Scotland, nor is it necessary to 
descant on the style and appearance of the "burn 
trout" of that country — which, as has been said, are 
still abundant in those places that can be readily found 
by earnest inquirers. Trout are to be got everywhere 
throughout Scotland, and in the northern counties can 
still be taken in quantity, streams and lochs abounding 
all the way from the counties of Fife and Forfar to those 
of Sutherland and Inverness. In Eoss and Cromarty 
shires .too, as Lyall and other guides make known, there 
is plenty of fishing. And there and in other parts of 
the North may be seen some of the grandest scenery of 
Scotland, an ever- varying panorama of hill and glen of 
the most picturesque kind, a true land, in fact, of 
mountain and flood from Aberdeen to Cape Wrath, 
from the falls of Glornach to the banks of Loch Altna- 
harrow. The angling resources of the North have been 
described as inexhaustible : take, for instance, the trout 
stream which flows through Strathbogie in Aber- 
deenshire, in which there are " pucklies of fish," as a 
taciturn farmer's wife admitted to me when I inquired 
if there was any use of trying the Bogie. 

Anglers who despise small fry, and must be " at the 
salmon," try the Dee, which is an early and some- 
what productive stream. Mr. McNab, of the Fife 
Arms, has a long stretch of the Dee on lease, and the 
guests of " mine host " are made welcome to try any 
part of it without charge. The landlord of the Inver- 
cauld Arms, Ballater, holds a lease of a good stretch of 
water, which, if he fails to let as a whole, he will then 
arrange for a rod or two at figures varying from, I think, 
£20 to £35 per month, according to season. April 
being esteemed the best month, his charge for the 



Troutiana. 289 



whole stretch of water for that month is, I believe, 
£100. Trout are plentiful in the Dee, and dwellers in 
the hotels are allowed to capture them free of charge. 
The Ythan, an Aberdeenshire stream, has a run of some 
forty miles, and is famous both for its yellow and its 
sea trout. Anglers residing at Ellon New Inn, and at 
the hotel in Newburgh, can have access to its waters 
free of charge. It is a late river, the Ythan, and is 
about its best in August and September, 

Sea trout are plentiful, and provide quite a plethora 
of sport in two or three Scottish rivers : they can be 
taken by minnows or sand eels, or a strip of herring ; 
but the largest ones are got in the salt water, particu- 
larly in places where streams of fresh water flow in. In 
sea-fishing care must be taken, a steady guide well 
able to handle the boat being indispensable ; the good 
strong ones among the sea trout cannot be taken 
without a deal of trouble. 

" It's a far cry to Loch Awe " from some places, but 
once there and snugly established at one of the water- 
side inns an enjoyable time may be put in by ardent 
anglers, there being " a wealth of water in Argyllshire,*' 
much of it within easy distance of their temporary home. 
A month's hard work will not exhaust the fishing of 
any district of that well- watered county ; it is necessary 
however, to offer this word of warning not only as 
regards Argyllshire, but all other northern counties, 
namely, that most of the rivers and lochs, being let with 
the shootings, are strictly looked after, still there are 
plenty of open spaces, and a few where permission to 
fish can be obtained. The major proposition with High- 
land lairds is, of course, to make money out of the gift 
with which Providence has so largely endowed them in 

u 



290 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

the shape of moor and loch. Numerous angling asso- 
ciations are lessees of water in Argyllshire, and the 
members are always ready to advise a 'prentice hand as 
to the proper bait for a given cast. That I make no 
pretence of doing myself, because I am a little 
"touched" in this matter, and do not hold very 
orthodox opinions, my idea being to get my fish out of 
the water with whatever fly will lure it from its liquid 
home. Trolling is the mode of fishing usually tried on 
the biggish lochs of Argyll and Inverness shires, in 
which pretty sizeable fish are found, " thumpers " of from 
two to four and a half pounds. And for angling homes 
there are nowadays many tolerably comfortable inns, 
where they can do almost everything for the table but pro- 
perly cook the fish which have been caught at their doors. 
Very few people, I believe, notice the changing flavours 
of fresh- water fish, but their flavours are as varied as the 
places where they are caught — often enough spoiled, 
however, in the oodkmg^ frying at country places being 
the fashion, and, as I maintain, no mode of cooking, as a 
rule, kills flavour faster than frying. That process 
reduces all fresh-water fish of the trout kind to a dead 
level of tasta Very large trout should be boiled, taking 
care to put plenty of salt in the water in whicli they 
are cooked. Trout are excellent when roasted before 
the fire in a Dutch oven. Middling-sized trout make a 
good stew or souchet^ a la Hollandaise, so do perch. 

The speciality of Loch Awe, so far as anglers are 
concerned, lies in the fact of that sheet of water being 
inhabited by the Salmo ferox, or "great lake trout** 
"But where is Loch Awe?" methinks I hear some 
reader ask. " It is in Scotland, I know, but in what 
part, and how am I to reach it ? " Yes, Loch Awe is 



Troutiana. 29 1 



in Scotland, in the picturesque county of Argyll, Scan 
your map and you will see, running parallel with Loch 
Fyne, beginning as I may say at the end of the Sound 
of Jura, a long and sinuous strip of blue — ^that is the 
home of the great lake trout. The loch is much 
bigger in reality than when measured by the scale, it is 
over thirty miles long and two in breadtL Travellers 
have no difficult task to encounter in finding the liquid 
home of these trout. The only danger is that, fascinated 
with the scenery en route, the angler may pause by the 
way. There are many beautiful spots that lovers of 
scenery might fall in love with before they take up 
their quarters under the shadow of Mighty Ben 
Cruachan. 

Arrived at Dalmally, a fisherman will find aU he 
can desire in the way of creature comforts so far as 
the commissariat is concerned. Were it not for the 
outlook, he might fancy he was not very far from the 
markets of Leadenhall and Covent Garden. To-day, 
" all the comforts of the Saltmarket " — all the delica- 
cies of the season — are vouchsafed to tourists in even 
remote parts of the Highlands. Could Johnson and 
BosweU rise from their graves and once more gaze upon 
the scenes of their travels, how great would be their 
astonishment! Three seasons ago, I counted seven 
different brands of champagne on the wine card of a 
Highland inn. Communication with lowland cities is 
now so frequent, and so easy, that all sorts of luxuries 
are looked for both at Oban and Dalmally. Good 
Scottish fare — cockie-leekie and haggis to wit — may be 
obtained everywhere ; and the ubiquitous restaurateurs 
of Glasgow would undertake, on receiving twenty-four 
hours' notice, to serve a veritable banquet on any of 

u 2 



292 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

the twenty-four islands of Loch AWe, sending on a 
couple of their French cTiefs for the occasion, nor would 
the menu be wanting in the choicest essentials of a 
dinner of the period. There is choice of houses of 
entertainment on Loch Awe, in all of which may be 
found well- ventilated rooms, soft beds, and wholesome 
fare, with moderate charges to boot; however,! refrain 
from mentioning names as being invidious. 

Hotel accommodation for anglers and other sports- 
men throughout the Highlands of Scotland is, at the 
present time, plentiful and excellent — a great contrast 
to what it was about fifty years ago. Ev6n in the far 
North, elegant and commodious structures have taken 
the place of the miserable inns of long ago ; and so far 
as lodging, liquor, and food come under review, nothing 
is left to be desired by wearied and hungry travellers. 
The days when satirical tourists found so much to sneer 
at are past, and if the person who wrote the following 
severe lines were again to visit the little town where he 
was so badly entertained he would doubtless be gratified 
by the change : — 

" Yo;ar salmon are so fat and red, 
Your fowls so thin and blue, 
'Tis seen which Providence has fed. 
And which were reared by you." 

As my readers have been made aware. Loch Awe is 
famous as the dwelling of ^ the Salmo ferox, which, 
however, is found also in some other sheets of water in 
Scotland, The loch is open to anglers ; for the " right 
of fishing" there is nothing to pay, any person may 
fish, trolling is the usual mode of capture, and five 
shillings a day is the usual cost of the boatman and his 
boat. When at Loch Awe we are still in Argyllshire, 



Troutiana. 293 



and there are, as I have hinted, many other lochs in the 
county, perhaps a hundred and fifty, all of which yield 
handsome tribute to the industrious fisherman, some of 
the trout being very heavy. Loch Shiel I cannot speak 
about from personal knowledge, but a friend, who has 
fished it, tells me it is an enjoyable locality. Anglers 
who can obtain permission from the lessee of the Black 
Forest should try Loch-na-Braw, where a basket may 
in brief space be filled with sizeable trout, weighing 
about three to the pound. On the islands, which are 
included in Argyllshire, are to be found/ innumerable 
sheets of water, many of which are abundantly stocked 
with trout. The islands of Islay and Jura, as also 
those of MuU and Colonsay, are worthy of being visited, 
and sport on all of them is plentiful and lasting. The 
scenery in most parts is more than picturesque, it is 
enchanting, and the days and nights, as a rule, are 
mild all the year round ; there is no spot " throughout 
Scotland" on which an angler could dream away a 
summer so pleasantly as on these beautiful isles of the 
Western Sea. 

Coming now to "the fish" of Loch Awe, I may 
state that on my first visit to that famous sheet of 
water, since which day many years have elapsed, 
things were homelier than they are to-day. A friend 
and myself lived at a farmhouse Tiear {i.e. three miles 
from) the water. We were able, however, to obtain a 
boat in order to fish, but our up-putting during our few 
days' stay was nothing to boast of — very primitive 
indeed. It is close on a hundred years (it was in 1790) 
that the discovery of Salmo ferox took place by a Glasgow 
gentleman of the name of Morrison, who was in the 
habit of visiting the neighbourhood. These fishes were 



294 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

first of all submitted to Sir William Jardine, and it was 
that eminent Scottish naturalist who first scientifically 
described them and wrote of them as ferox, a name 
which he thought suitable to their habits and prowess. 
Although thought to be unique when discovered in 
Loch Awe and described by Agassiz as differing some- 
what from the Continental species, it is now known to 
inhabit various other sheets of water. It has been 
found in Loch Laggan, Loch Shin, and Loch Loyal and 
Assynt, as well as Loch Awe, roving at will and exact- 
ing tribute with dashing rapidity and powerful jaws 
from the smaller fish. Those who reside near tiiese 
lochs capture the big trout with night lines. They are 
occasionally tempted to rise to a small fly during 
the day, but the surest method is the trolling tackle, 
baited either with a small trout or an artificial minnow. 
They are extremely voracious, and having seized the 
bait will allow themselves to be dragged by the teeth 
for forty or fifty yards, and when accidentally freed will 
seize it again with renewed vigour. Specimens of this 
ferox are found in Lough Nenagh in Ireland, and in 
Ullswater Lake in Cumberland ; in Ireland it is known 
as the Buddagh. This great trout has also been found 
in Lough Corrib and in other places in Ireland. These 
giant fish need elbow-room, space in which to feed and 
grow ; they must also have a varied bottom, and these 
conditions they obtain in Loch Awe. One may try for 
many days but not get a specimen; they are so 
mysterious that for weeks not one will be seen ; that 
there is more than one kind is certain, the red-fleshed 
fish being vastly different from the white-fleshed ones. 
A good red trout of Loch Awe is a fish any gentle- 
man may be proud to offer his guests, but the white- 



Trouiiana. 295 



fleshed trout are poor in flavour and coarse in texture, 
and not worth powder and shot The ferox is game to 
the back-bone, it " submits to be killed rather than 
surrender,'' and it has been said of Loch Awe and its 
surroundings that, while the scenery is fine, the sport is 
finer. 

III. 

We have now two " fisheries " in Scotland in which 
trout are bred in tens of thousands— -especially Loch 
Leven trout. It was thought at one time that these fish 
would not thrive in any other sheet of water, but that 
has long since been proved to be a vulgar error. By 
means of their eggs these trout have been sent far and 
near — even to the United States of America. The 
manager of the Howietoun Fishery has announced that 
he is in a position to supply eggs of the Loch Leven 
trout in millions ; the proprietor of the Solway Fishery 
also professes to be able to supply large quantities of 
eyed ova of these fish ; and, as a thousand only cost a 
few shillings, there is nothing to prevent gentlemen who 
are stocking their waters, old or new, useful or orna- 
mental, from selecting these or other fish, which they 
can also obtain as yearlings and two-year-olds. The 
ova or young of American brook trout are likewise 
dealt in at these fisheries, as also the ova and young of 
several other fishes. For gentlemen who let their lakes 
and streams along with their grouse moors or deer 
forests, these fisheries are doubtless a great convenience, 
seeing that it is possible for them to stock their waters 
with an abundant supply of the best kinds of sporting 
fish, which admits, in some instances, of their being 



2ft6 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

let in consequence at higher rents than might otherwise 
be obtained. 

By means of the two fisheries alluded to, "pisci- 
culture " is now established as an art in Scotland. I 
have already spoken of the Stormontfield Salmon 
Nurseries and the experiments conducted by Shaw in 
salmon breeding. The proprietors of the Tay have con- 
tinued for the benefit of that river the system of 
artificial spawning and protected egg nursing which 
were begun at Stormontfield; on some of the other 
Scottish salmon streams pisciculture has also, I believe, 
been tried, likewise at Loch Leven. There is nothing, 
however, to prevent every stream in Scotland from 
being provided with an establishment of the kind in- 
dicated ; it has been again and again proved that it is 
possible to breed salmon from the egg stage till they 
become the size of smolts and have attained probably 
the second year of their age, at an almost nominal 
figure per fish. Let us take it for granted that some 
good stream with plenty of pure water not hitherto 
occupied by such fish is to be converted into a well- 
stocked salmon river ; in the first instance, large num- 
bers of eggs would have perhaps to be purchased, if they 
could not be obtained by agreement from some neigh- 
bouring stream. In due time, however, when the new 
salmon river became able to supply gravid fish, £120 
per annum would be sufl&cient to pay fair interest on 
outlay for construction of ponds and for the work of 
providing an annual supply of eggs. Say that about 
thirty pairs of fish were spawned, each pair yielding 
SOOO ova, and the necessary stock of nult, 240,000 
ws would be the result, and of these, if well looked 
ter, only a small percentage would fail to yield fish ; 



Troutiana. 297 



but taking it that only 220,000 did so, and that such a 
number of smolts were sent to the sea, the return would 
be prodigious if, in the course of three years, the odd 
20,000 were to reach consumers as table fish, of the 
value of 105. each. 

It has already been stated in these pages that the 
mortality to which these fish are subject is enormous, 
especially when left to nature. Bred and fed for a 
year or two, the young salmon when sent out to seek 
their fortune in the sea are better able to take care of 
themselves than when by the natural hatching system 
they are left defenceless to the tender mercies of their 
enemies. So soon as Stormontfield was opened, the 
rental of the river Tay began to increase, and to rise 
from, say, £10,000 £o £20,000 per annum. 

No practical difl&culty stands in the way of piscicul- 
ture, which can be accomplished either on a small 9r 
large scale. I assisted a few years ago at the stocking of 
a little pond on a gentleman's estate, on which occasion 
a stock of 1000 American brook trout were brought in 
safety from a distance of over 120 miles. They 
were contained in a glass carboy and were none the 
worse for their long journey, the whole stock being alive 
and lively. A large tub having been fiUed with water 
from the pond which they were to occupy, they were 
very gradually acclimatised, so to say, and ultimately 
turned into their future dwelling-place. At first they 
all huddled together in a black mass, but, quickly 
gaining courage, they began to look about them, and 
finally were seen in a few days darting about in search 
of food. Where larger quantities are required they can 
be similarly dealt with. Food must be supplied ; liver 
boiled hard and grated is good, and a dead bird or two 



298 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

or a few rabbits may be hung over the water so that 
the troutlets may obtain a plentiful supply of maggots. 
In streams where eggs are laid down care should be 
taken to protect them as much as possible, as fish ova 
form a welcome tit-bit to numerous birds. In all cases 
it is as well to imitate nature as nearly as circumstances 
will admit. On tite other hand, the example of the 
gentleman who laid down 2000 eyed ova in his newly- 
made pond and then threw into it 300 two-year-old 
trout must not be followed. In the " fisheries," crossing 
or inter-breeding is being carried on experimentally, 
and may in time result in practical benefits of some 
kind to all interested. 

From a price list in my possession, I note that eyed 
ova per 1000, carriage paid, can be purchased for 305. 
in the case of Loch Leven trout ; American trout ova 
cost 105. more than that sum per 1000 ; for eggs from 
very superior fish of the same kind £4 is wanted. 
Salmon ova and the eggs of the char range in price 
from 305. to double that amount. Fry of these fishes 
can be obtained at prices ranging from £1 to £5. 

Angling as now practised is greatly dependent on the 
protected waters being well stocked with fish, and by 
the modes mentioned above these rivers and lochs can 
be rendered populous with trout at comparatively small 
cost; a quantity of 10,000 trout ova can be purchased 
for the sum of £6, and if that number were to be suc- 
cessfully hatched, it would, of course, add largely to the 
chances of sport on even a pretty large loch. At the 
" fisheries " in Scotland a very large trade is carried on 
Jboth in eggs and fry as well as in larger fisL The es- 
tablishment at Howietoun cannot have cost less in its 
construction than £12,000 or £14,000. It is a sight 



Troutiana. 299 



that is worth seeing, especially at feeding time. It is 
an open secret that the fish at Howietoun are hip- 
pophogists ; they feed on the flesh of horses, some four 
or five of which are killed every week by the attendants 
and duly devoured by the denizens of the various 
ponds; only healthy animals are received for this 
purpose, and, before being despatched by means of the 
poleaxe, they are allowed for a period of three weeks or 
a month to roam over the juicy grasses of the neigh- 
bouring fields. Other food-stuffs are also in use, par- 
ticularly clams, which are brought to the ponds in 
enormous quantities from the fishing port of Newhaven' 
near Edinburgh ; snails are likewise in request, and a 
particular snail which is found in Loch Leven has now 
been acclimatised at Howietoun, and will in future 
years play a prominent part in the feeding department, 
as the fish eat that particular snail with great avidity, 
and thrive and grow fat upon it apace. As one of the 
labourers at the place says, "The meat for the fish is a 
great eatem in the expense," and the feeding arrange- 
ments of all kinds at the fishery have been carefuUy 
devised, and are systematically carried out. This 
fishery is half-an-hour's drive from the railway station 
at Stirling and is well worthy of a visit. The other 
Scottish fishery, which is also a sight worth seeing, may 
be reached from Dumfries; it is called the "Sol way 
Fishery." 



( 300 ) 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

Trout and Sport in the Borders. 

Following the trout to those streams that run in the 
south of Scotland the angler is sure to find sport, not, 
perhaps, in the same abundant measure as in days long 
vanished, when there were no fast-speeding railway 
trains to bear fishermen away from the big seats of 
population to the rivers and lakes of rural places, but 
quite sufficient to prove satisfactory, if the ambition of 
the angler is modest enough not to covet fish for the 
mere desire of being able to return home carrying a 
creel crowded to its lid with the speckled beauties of 
our border streams. Many anglers are now so bent on 
what Mr. Euskin has called **the lewd sensation of 
slaughter " that nothing will stay their hand but the 
want of fish ; there are men who only think of their 
present work, and give no heed to the years that are 
coming, hence they do not blush when they are caught 
with a dozen or two of baby fish in their possession- 
trout of the future, in fact, which next year, or next 
again, would have afforded something like real sport 
As to what may be called the streams of " the borders," 
their waters flow in a wide range if we interpret the 
phrase in a wide sense. It is somewhat difficult, how- 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 301 

ever, to say where the borders begin or end, but the 
counties of Berwick, Eoxburgh, Selkirk and Dumfries, 
as well as Galloway (Kirkcudbright and Wigtown), 
may all be laid under contribution by the border 
angler. 

Some of my earliest angling reminiscences are con- 
nected with the liver Till, a tributary of the Tweed, 
At the time indicated, many fine trout were captured in 
that stream by means of salmon roe — a very killing bait > 
with which it is now illegal to fish. Several persons 
throughout Scotland at one period supplied this sub- 
stance, and one or two of the " muggers " residing at 
Yetholm were famed for their preparation of roe ; but 
the chief provider of this bait for the use of anglers in 
Scotland was a person named Easton, who carried on 
the business of a hairdresser in the town of Hawick, and 
was himself no mean angler; his roe commanded a 
higher price than that supplied by any other dealer, and 
tdtimately became a means of his " making money," as 
the saying goes. In the days referred to, some fine 
large trout could occasionally be taken in Till water by 
means of several kinds of bait, but chiefly by worm and 
salmon roe. The " muggers," as the gipsies of Yetholm 
are called, are keen fishers, and good at the work — a 
band of gipsies never want for fish. In the old coaching 
days, I remember upon one occasion, while travelling to 
Edinburgh, of the coachman of the Moflfat coach being 
offered as many trout as would have filled a small 
washing-tub for half-a-crown ; they had been captured 
by two muggers who were travelling in the dis- 
trict, their angling upholstery being of the rudest 
description ; but all gipsies seem as if they had been 
sent into the world to fish for trout or salmon, holding 



302 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

it to be no sin to take a "fish" when it oflFers — "fish" 
in the borders usually means a salmon. 

Much has already been written in these pages about 
the Tweed, more particularly with reference to its 
salmon, for which it has always been famous, while the 
men who have* fished it have never lacked notoriety, 
especially the professional fishermen who found work 
and wages on its waters. One of my pleasant memories 
goes back to John Younger, the shoemaker poet of 
St. Boswells, who wrote in his time a remarkably good 
book on angling, so good that it really ought to be 
reprinted — ^indeed no more reliable guide as to baits and 
casts of water in his own countryside has ever been, or 
is ever likely to be, published. John Younger used to 
" let out " bitterly when he was provoked about Mr. 
Scrope, the deer-stalker and salmon angler, " who stole 
my flees and published them as his ain." No doubt 
Younger was ill-used in this matter. In his work on 
salmon angling, Mr. Scrope gave drawings of a number 
of flies which the shoemaker of St. Boswells had 
"invented" for his own use, and which he "busked" 
and sold to his friends and patrons, who were numerous, 
for in the course of his lifetime he had acquired the 
good opinion of many men. Dukes and other nobles, 
poets, play-actors, journalists and weavers, cotton lords 
from Manchester, and merchants from Glasgow, together 
with " writers " from Edinburgh, delighted to call on 
the village shoemaker, to talk over the agreeable art in 
which they were all interested. 

As Younger had previously published plates of his 
" ain flees " in a book he had written, he was able to 
claim his own handiwork. The shoemaker, who was 
an ardent Eadical, wrote pretty severely of the man 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 303 

he used to call the " aristocratic salmon catcher." A 
portion of what he said may be transferred to this page. 
" Mr. Scrope, some year or two thereafter, published a 
splendid book on fishing, under a show of plates and 
price as great in proportion to mine as the amount of 
his original fortune in life was above mine, not as he 
stood higher in knowledge of his subject or in manual 
ability, but in worldly circumstances, and consequently 
in the world's eye. Thus the world goes generally — 
while I am valued at eighteenpence, Scrope sells at two 
guineas ! God help me and the world both ; we are a 
farce to think on, a sorry farce indeed. It is puzzling 
to suppose which is the most to be pitied. Scrope's 
six flies are mine, of course, to a shade; they cotdd 
indeed be properly no other, only that he has described 
them in other words (even figured them in painted 
plates), with perhaps more quaint formality in tufts 
and toppings, and under fanciful local names, such as 
' Meg in her braws,' ' Kinmont Willie,' ' The Lady of 
Mertoun/ and so on.*' 

Younger was able to give all who visited him good 
counsel as to border angling, and the best baits with 
which to catch trout. And, if his opinion about the 
bi^er fish was asked, he used to say in his forcible 
way: "It takes a man to catch and play a salmon. 
There's a gentleman living here on Tweedside that sits 
in his boat and sends his man on to the bank to land 
his fish, in the mean time hooking another one when he 
can with his second rod. Now, any fool may hook a 
salmon, but it needs a wise man to get the fish out of 
the water — ^in my opinion to play and land the salmon 
is the test of the true angler." The gentleman alluded 
to was Mr. Scrope, whom the men of Tweedside, he 



304 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

used to say, looked upon with contempt as an 
angler. 

Thomas Tod Stoddart, with whom I had once some 
correspondence, was another of the " Angling Spirits of 
Tweedside " ; as poet and fisherman he was well known, 
and one or two of his works, I gladly notice, have been 
recently reprinted. Stoddart in his day was " haQ fellow 
well met " with such men as " Christopher North," the 
Ettrick Shepherd, Professor Aytoun, Robert Chambers, 
Thomas De Quincy, " Russel of the Scotsman," and in 
his lifetime with Sir Walter Scott, the great " Wizard 
of the North," himself, and was appreciated by them 
alL Get leave to go a-fishing with Mr. Stoddart and 
you were sure of having an enjoyable time of it ; if, 
perchance, you were a poor hand at the business your- 
self, you had the advantage of seeing your companion 
" luring the speckled trout from the brook " with all 
his might and with the trained skill of an adept at the 
business. And you had in addition at intervals, that 
is, in the pauses of fishing, a flood of talk — and such 
talk ! It was as good as a liberal education to spend 
a couple of days with this well-known Tweed cele- 
brity of the fishing-rod. With the Tweed and all 
its tributaries he was minutely acquainted ; he knew 
the whimpling bumies, and was familiar with the pools 
where lay ensconced " the monarch of the brook " ; he 
could tell the exact spot of water where you might find 
that "fell tyrant of the liquid plain," "Mr. Pike." 
Then he could say words of wisdom about the botany 
of the river-side ; he knew much of the natural history 
of Tweeddale, and had been familiar all his days with 
the " tales of the borders," — the legends and the lyrics 
of the troublous times which had set their marks of 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 305 

tragedy and romance on the glens and on the towers 
and castles of the district in which it was his fate to 
reside. But here there is not space to chronicle all 
that might be said about Stoddart ; he has, however, in 
some degree chronicled his own life in the autobiography 
prefixed to his ' Songs of the Seasons/ 

Of Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, who was a " natural 
sportsman," much might be said in these pages, but I 
cannot write much about his sporting proclivities from 
personal knowledge, not having seen him " to speak to " 
more than perhaps three times. The late Dr. Eobert 
Chambers told me that " James " was one of the keenest 
and cleverest trout-catchers he had ever known, and if 
I am not mistaken Professor Wilson (" Christopher 
North ") has spoken of his prowess with the fishing-rod 
on the border streams, especially those in the neighbour- 
hood of his residence, not far from St. Mary's Loch and 
" Yarrow stream," where well-filled baskets of fair-sized 
trout, running from three-quarters of a pound to double 
that weight, can still be captured without great exertion. 
Speaking of St. Mary's Loch reminds one of Tibbie 
Shiels and her well-known cottage, the " howfif " of two 
or three generations of anglers from Edinburgh and 
other places who used to frequent the border districts. 
" Tibbie's " has been immortalised by several writers as 
the rendezvous of some of the cleverest men of the 
country ; ministers of the Gospel, professors from Edin- 
burgh and Glasgow, publishers, advocates, writers to 
the signet, authors, actors, and artists have often held 
"high jinks" in St. Mary's Cottage, where many 
words of wit and wisdom have been heard over the 
toddy which used to grace the board at night, and in 
the mornings the " Loch o' the Lowes " was handy for 

X 



306 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

a bracing bath and a long swim. Most of the rivers in 
Selkirkshire yield sport, there being in some of them 
abundance of haK-pound trout, which fight boldly for 
their lives. and give work to the angler. 

The writer has now in his mind's eye another sports- 
man who delighted to roam by the border waters, namely 
John Wilson, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, best known as the " Christopher 
North " of Blackwood's Magazine. The professor used at 
divers times and in many places to speak of James 
Hogg, not as a poet, but as a good shot and an excellent 
fisher. The Shepherd of Ettrick could always seduce 
the philosopher from his work in town by inviting him 
to come and kill a blackcock, or take part in a gathering 
of coursers. Many a joyous day they passed in each 
other's company, and often the pair would merrily chaff 
each other. The professor on one occasion invited Hogg 
to visit him in Cumberland about the 12th, but the 
Shepherd could not see it: "My dear and honoured 
John," he writes back, "I never thought you had been . 
so unconscionable as to desire a sportsman on the 11th 
or even the 13th of August to leave Ettrick Forest for 
the bare, scraggy hills of Westmoreland! Ettrick 
Forest, where the black cocks and white cocks, brown 
cocks and grey cocks, ducks, plovers and peaseweeps 
and whilly whaups are as thick as the flocks that cover 
her mountains, and come to the hills of Westmoreland 
that can nourish nothing better than a castrel or stone- 
chat ! To leave the great yellow fin of yarrow, or the 
still larger grey locher, for the degenerate fry of trout- 
beck, esthwaite, or even wastwater ! No, no, the request 
will not do ; it is an unreasonable one, and not like 
yourself." 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 307 

Wilson was a fair all-round sportsman, and in his 
day many and many a bird fell to his gun, and many a 
salmon felt the power of his haodling, but it was in 
trout- tishing that Wilson excelled, and " the contempla- 
tive man's recreation " was his great delight. With his 
trout-rod in his hand he could count not on single fish, 
not even on dozens, but on dozens of dozens ! There 
lived once, as has been often told, an American who 
was such a splendid shot that whenever a bird saw him 
approaching it saved him the trouble of shooting by at 
once falling dead at his feet. Wilson with his angle 
possessed a similar gift; it looked as if there was a 
competition among the trouts as to which should first 
have the honour of swallowing his bait ; they came to 
him not in single spies, but in battalions. Here is 
what Hogg said, upon an occasion when Wilson con- 
tributed an extemporised supper to a famished party who 
had eaten up a small country inn ; he asked them if they 
liked trout, and, lo ! when an affirmation was given, he 
produced the result of his day's work in such numbers 
that all present were literally astonished : " Your creel 
was fu', your shooting-bag fu', your jacket pouches fu', 
the pouches o' your verra breeks fu', half-a-dizzen 
wee anes in your waistcoat, no' to forget them in 
the croon o' yer hat, and last o' a', when there 
was nae place to stow awa ony mair, a willow wand 
drawn through the gills o' some dizzen great big 
anes." 

To chronicle Wilson's feats would undoubtedly 
astonish the reader : at one place he takes six dozen, at 
another ten dozen, at another eighteen dozen. One day, 
whilst limping about, having wounded his heel leaping 
with a band of tinkers, he tried to ease the pain by 

X 2 



308 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

fishing in Loch Awe ; he hooked 2i,ferox. " His hne was 
weak, and, afraid to lose it, he cast himseK into the loch, 
yielding to the motions of the strong creature until it 
became fatigued and manageable. Then he swam ashore 
with his victim in subjection, and brought it home, but 
he was without the bandage, and his heel bleeding 
copiously." 

My readers do not grow weary, I hope, of such remi- 
niscences, they crowd the chambers of my memory, and 
along with other recollections of the kind might be 
greatly extended. Notices in particular might well be 
given of. the Eichardsons and Kerrses, one of whom 
told a gentleman who had engaged his boat, but never 
oflfered him a pull at his flask, that " them that drink 
by themselves should fish by themselves," and so pulled 
ashore. The Purdies, too, deserve brief record; all 
who have read the charming life of Sir Walter Scott 
written by his son-in-law, John Gibson Lockhart, are 
already familiar with " Tom," the great novelist's out- 
of-doors attendant and forester. A brother of Tom's, 
Charlie Purdie, was the Abbotsford fisherman. One of 
" the Purdies " — John — born in the first year of the 
century, died about three years ago, having attained 
the good old age of eighty-six years. Old John, 
at one time fisherman attendant to Mr. Broadwood, 
lessee of the Pavilion water, was an angler of the 
old school, and would not countenance any but the 
old-fashioned ways of fly-busking and fishing ; " new- 
fangled" modes of doing things on Tweed were his 
aversion. John was much respected, and often visited 
by anglers and patrons in his cottage close by the 
Bridge at Darnick. 

In his 'Lay of the Last Angler,' the Rev. Robert 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 309 

Liddell has, as the following lines demonstrate, some- 
thing to say about this Tweedside celebrity : — 

" John and I are oldish friends. 
O'er forty years our time extends, 
He's been with me for many a spurt on 
The streams and pools of bonny Merton ; 
He's given me many a useful lesson, 
How to be * canny,' or to press on 
A heavier strain against one's fish, 
And tire it out as he would wish. 
He could get out a splendid line 
Into the wind, or * fishing fine ' ; 
In heavy water, when afloat. 
No one could beat him with the boat ; 
In short he's master of the art 
In all details and every part ; 
If Cambridge gave degrees to anglers, 
John would be first of Senior Wranglers." 

Sir Walter Scott was not himself a disciple of good 
old Walton, but his friends were made free of whatever 
water he possessed, and with the view of being shown 
plenty of sport were handed over to Charlie Purdie, 
who was probably lessee of the Abbotsford water ; but, 
whether or not, there was salmon fishing for such of 
Sir Walter's visitors as could handle a rod, whilst many 
a merry party was made up at the Abbotsford dinner- 
table to bum the water. 

" Burning the water " was forty and fifty years since 
one of the most enjoyable of all the sports of all the 
broad borders. True it was a pastime of a rough-and- 
ready sort ; being, however, an open-air function of an 
unusually hilarious kind, many liked well to participate 
in the excitement to which it gave rise, and often even 
at the risk of being half drowned some green hands 



310 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

would insist on taking part in the business. It is almost 
unnecessary to say that " burning " was a winter even- 
ing's recreation, and I regret to add that most of the 
fish killed were big with spawn, " bagots " we called 
them, or salmon, perhaps, which had just performed 
that important duty — ^these were known on Tweedside 
as " kelts." Burning the waters, once so frequent on 
the Tweed and some of its tributaries, is now an ill^al 
mode of fishing, although, as old customs die out slowly, 
it may still be occasionally heard of as being in vogue in 
one or two out-of-the-way places seldom visited by " the 
bailiffs." The burning may, when the water is suitable, 
be accomplished from the banks of a stream, or by 
means of one or more boats, according to the size of 
the party taking a share in the work. No sport (hare- 
hunting excepted) gave more delight to the master of 
Abbotsford than the leistering of a salmon by the light 
of a pine- wood torch in the early part of a long winter's 
night, when a feast on some occasions would be impro- 
vised, a fire would be kindled, and a kettle* would be 

* Salmon is never better cooked than when prepared as a 
" kettle." The Tweed kettle, it has been written, :wa8 invented by 
the monks of Melrose, who were famous in their day and generation 
for good liviDg. It was said of them that they 

" Made gude kail 
On Fridays when they fasted, 
Nor wanted they gude beef and ale 
As lang's their neighbours* lasted." 

Sir Humphry Davy's mode of cooking a Tweed fish was the same 
ad in the case of the kettle : " First catch your salmon,*' he says, 
** then kill him by dealing him a quick blow on the head, cut the 
fish thVough the bone at inch distances (having first taken out all the 
intestinal matter), hold him up after this that the blood may flow 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 311 

got ready ; meantime a bowl of whisky punch would be 
brewed, flour scones and oat cakes would be handed 
round, accompanied with sundry glasses of prime Edin- 
burgh ale, or, as it was called in fun, fine Scottish 
Burgundy, so that the ladies and gentlemen who formed 
the good company were well feasted. 

The leistering would proceed, and on occasion not 
without mishap: some unlucky but eager wight, anxious 
to display his skill in handling the salmon-kiUing spear, 
would overbalance himself and fall into the water, but 
no fatal result ensued; quickly rescued by his com- 
panions, he would be at work again after having a 
quaich well fiUed with Abbotsford whisky administered 
to him by Sir Walter's butler, who was in attendance, 
having first visited a neighbouring cottage and obtained 
a change of clothes. Burning the waters has always 
been accompanied by just a spice of danger. I have 
myself seen men at the work who on occasion made 
narrow escapes from death by drowning. Poachers 
were exceedingly partial to this mode of salmon catch- 
ing, which, as has been stated, is now illegal, and cannot 
be practised even by the owner of a fishing. Formerly 
the salmon lairds themselves used to be fond of the 
pastime, and were not slow to take a share in it. 
Oftentimes the scene at a burning was exceedingly 



out of the body, then place him in a bath of cold water for ten 
minutes. Next take him to the pot, in which the pickle must 
be boiling previously, and then slice him down, throwing the 
biggest cuts into the pot first, and letting the water come to the 
boiling point after each slice has been thrown in." That formula 
was characterised by "Meg Dods" as being after the old fashion 
of the pickled salmon prepared at the Scottish fisheries for the 
London market, than which nothing was at the time thought better. 



312 Oat'door Sports in Scotland. 

picturesque on a dark night ; as the glare of the torches 
flashed out a light on bank or water, and as fish after 
fish was transfixed on the prongs of the leister, the 
excitement, helped by various appeals to the bottle, 
would wax fast and furious, till the last salmon was 
leistered for the night, and the last man had taken his 
departure, homeward bound having a walk of five or six 
miles in prospect, lightened, however, by the knowledge 
that he would obtain a warm welcome, seeing that he 
carried in the pocket of his maud [plaid] a couple of 
sixteen-pound fish. 

Sir Walter Scott, as has been already stated, was no 
hand with the fishing-rod himself, but he exhibited 
keen sympathy for all out-of-door sports, and, in his 
capacity of sheriff of the county in which he lived, he 
was even lenient in dealing with the poachers of his 
neighbourhood, much to the chagrin sometimes of his 
brother lairds, who were desirous of putting down 
poaching by means of the strong hand of the law, and 
without consideration of circumstances ; but the great 
novelist used to say: "No, no; all the cases are not 
alike, and I'm disposed to wink at the offence of a man 
who kills a hare for his own pot." Tom Purdie,* Sir 

* Tom deserves a passing word in this brief chronicle of Border 
Sports, seeing that, next to Sir Walter, he was "the great man" 
of Abbotsford. The sheriff discovered him at the bar of his court, 
and, from being a sort of " ne'er-do-well," converted him into a 
useful member of society and faithful and affectionate out-of-doors 
servant — a sort of hybrid, between a farm grieve and a forester. 
Having in his early days been himself a bit of a poacher, Tom was 
ill to cheat, and was as honest as steel. Here is a little scene 
from Lockhart's *Life of Scott,' which will better show the 
status of Tom Purdie than a page or two of elaborate writing: 
" Scott, being a little fatigued, laid his hand on Tom's shoulder and 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 313 

Walter's well-known henchman, was reputed to have 
been himself at one time a border poacher. 

The " Abbotsford Hunt," in the opinion of all who 
were privileged to enjoy the fun and excitement which 
attended it, was the finest meeting of the kind in all 
the borders. A farmer of the Dandie Dinmont type, 
who used to take part in the sports of the day, coming 
home late at night, after having liberally partaken of 
the hospitalities of the occasion, with just a " wee drap " 
of the contents of the far-famed Abbotsford punch-bowl 
" in his 'ee," exclaimed to his better half, " Losh, woman, 
what a day we've had ! I wish I could sleep till this 
time next year : the Hunt is the only thing that's worth 
living for." 

That farmer's opinion would, no doubt, have been en- 
dorsed at the time by the opinions of a hundred people 
who had been equally delighted. But, although the 
Hunt was a popular gathering, the lord of Abbotsford 
took care that it should be as select as possible — the 
right people only were asked to take part. Sir Walter 
knew that it would not do to let the affair be common 
to all, and his conservative instincts insured that the 
company should be tolerably select. There were many 
who would have been proud to have been asked that 

leaned heavily for support, chattering to his * Sunday pony,* as he 
called the affectionate fellow, just as freely as with the rest of the 
party; and Tom put in his word shrewdly and manfully, and 
grinned and grunted whenever the joke chanced to be within his 
apprehension. It was easy to see that his heart swelled within 
him from the moment that the sheriff got his collar in his gripe. 
Whoever might be at Abbotsford, Tom always appeared at his 
master's elbow on Sunday when dinner was over, and drank long 
life to the laird and the lady, and all the good company, in a 
quaich of whisky, or a tumbler of wine^ according to his fancy." 



314 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

received no invitation. I am not too much exciting the 
expectation of the reader, I trust, for the Abbotsford 
Hunt was not a chase after the fox, it was simply a 
coursing meeting ! As it went on, the fun grew fast 
and furious, host and guests enjoying themselves as if 
they had been so many children out for a romp. 

Sir Walter was a very good horseman, having in his 
day been adjutant to a corps of yeomanry. Behold 
him, then, mounted on Sibyl Grey, a kind of big 
pony, surrounded by friends and attended by his re- 
tainers. Lairds and farmers, of the true Dandie Din- 
mont cut, were present from distant border farms — ^from 
Liddesdale and Teviotdale; and philosophers from 
London, as well as lawyers from Edinburgh, formed 
part of the concourse. Guests who were inmates of the 
house, whether they were members of the peerage or 
partners in his printing-oflSce, must to the hunt. Lady 
Scott and her daughters in their comfortable "sociable" 
made all who came welcome; other ladies in other 
carriages ; old men in dog-carts, and young men on foot; 
good walkers, able, by taking a short cut across the field 
and plantations, to be at the scene of action as quickly 
as those who rode on horseback or were carried in a trap 
were all there. 

The scene of the hunt was usually selected, not only 
for its plenitude of hares, but for its surroundings. 
About Newark Castle the sportsman stood on classic 
ground. "The dowie dens of Yarrow" were not far 
distant, and full oft some of the visitors would recur to 
the conclusion of " the lay *' : — 

" When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill, 
And July's eve with balmy breath 
Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath." 



Trout and Sport in ike Borders. 315 

This kind of sport having been often described, it 
woiild be only tiring my readers to say much more 
about it. The place usually selected for the hunt was a 
stretch of low mountain-side, where were watery gidfs 
to be feared, and dangerous bogs to be circumnavigated ; 
men and horses, too, full often going splash into some 
treacherous morass, covered with a bright green carpet, 
and looking anything but a trap. Crowds on foot and 
on horseback would push after the dogs, and while doing 
so many a man would measure the ground. The great 
author himself, on more than one occasion, while cau- 
tiously jogging along on Sibyl Grey, has been made to 
kiss the grass which bordered some hidden ditch or 
drain ; and once, when Sir Humphry Davy was in full 
enjoyment of the sport, he plunged neck-deep into a 
well, from which he came forth a pitiable spectacle. 
Mackenzie, the venerable author of the * Man of Feeling,' 
had a quick eye, and would observe a hare before any 
one else : the old gentleman was a frequent attendant of 
the hunt, and was always, old as he was, the brightest 
of the bright company, active and dSbonnair, full of 
spirit. Sir Walter himself was wondrous active, riding 
along the line, directing, inspiring the day's work with 
many a joke for those who could take it, and with kind 
words and a winning smile for all, feeling more at home 
even than he did in his library, when busily preparing 
a bundle of manuscript for Ballantyne's devouring 
printing-presses in " Paul's Work." 

Hospitality was plentifully dispensed in the course of 
the day to all around, cakes and ale being liberally 
handed about, with tastings of stronger liquors for those 
who liked to partake of them; the Abbotsford stock 
cask of whisky having a wide reputation, drams were 



316 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

in demand, the quaichs being frequently requisitioned by 
the stalwart border farmers, who were on the ground 
early and remained to the last. The day's work, as 
was fitting, was brought to a termination in the dining- 
room with the customary banquet — a jovial dinner of 
good things ; of fragrant and palatable soup, made from 
hares killed in the battle ; of trout caught and salmon 
speared in the waters of the classic Tweed ; of Cheviot 
mutton, bred and fed by the laird ; of moorcock shot 
on the estate ; of fruits grown in the garden, and wine 
stored in the cellars of Abbotsford. "The dinner" 
was usually a joyous affair, and for those of the coursing 
company who were, as the saying goes, " too blate " to 
join Sir Walter and his guests, there was spread a 
second table, at which as much good cheer was served 
as was set out in the chief dining-room. Sir Walter 
was kind to all, and, although he feasted the great 
on fitting occasions, he never forgot the small ; even 
when surrounded by the greatest of the land, the 
brightest in intellect or the richest in purse, he never 
forgot his humbler friends and neighbours, the yeomen 
of the district, among whom his popularity was un- 
bounded. There was not a farmhouse or cottage 
within many miles of Abbotsford in which the great 
novelist was not a welcome guest. " Hail-fellow-well- 
met " with the farmer, and always in favour with the 
farmer's wife, he was dignified withal, and never forgot 
himself, or allowed those with whom he spoke to forget 
that he was not only the lord of Abbotsford, but sheriff 
of the county as well. 

Enough, perhaps, has now been said about the 
Abbotsford Hunt, at which I never was present ; what- 
ever claim I may possess to reproduce the scene arises 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 317 

from the fact of a note-taking relative having more than 
once been among the company. 

In glancing over what I have written, I find I have 
forgotten to chronicle the brewing of the punch, which 
was a speciality of all Abbotsford dinners when there 
was company. 

This compound was explicitly made after the fol- 
lowing manner : First of all — and it is important—* 
see that you have by you a few bottles of fine old 
Jamaica rum ; if you have, then proceed as follows to 
make up a syrup of cold spring water, lime juice, and 
the finest lump sugar; begin by melting your sugar 
little by little, then squeeze your lemons, from six to 
fourteen, through a drainer into a bowl — see how this 
tastes — ^it should neither be too sweet nor too sour ; if 
you approve of the foundation, begin to add the rum ; 
there is no rule as to the quantity, but take care to 
leave room for the water, which should be pure and 
cold, and when the bowl is five-sixths full squeeze in 
the juice of a couple of limes by dipping them in the 
contents, and running them round the inside of the 
punch-bowl. Take care, in confectioning this delicious 
liquor, not to have too much water for the quantity of 
rum, nor too much rum for the bulk of water ; study 
the blend ; one of spirit to five of water should about 
hit the mark — chacun a son gout. 

All the sports of Scotland are, of course, common to 
the borders, and the men of the district are keen sports- 
men; steeple-chasing, hunting and horse-racing they 
take an active share in when opportunity offers. The 
well-known "burr" of the border is often heard at 
Doncaster, and there are men in the south of Scotland 
who have not missed seeing " the St. Leger " for the 



318 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

last quarter of a century. There are, or at least there 
used to be, societies for the encouragement of manly 
sports aU over the border. 

If I am not mistaken, the first properly constituted 
society for the carrying out of border sports was 
" St. Eonan's," at Innerleithen, where, for many years, 
the Ettrick Shepherd was in his glory as the pre- 
siding genius of the scene. 

'^ The St. Eonan's border games " were, I think, ori- 
ginated just after the publication of Sir Walter Scott's 
novel of ' St. Eonan's Well.' They were conducted by a 
body of border archers arrayed in doublets of Lincoln 
green, and wearing on their heads broad Tam-o'-Shanter 
" bonnets of blue." For many years this meeting was a 
great success, and was often honoured by the presence 
of Sir Walter. The Shepherd was captain and general 
manager of the games, and took part in several of the 
pastimes incidental to the joyous meeting, many a time 
and oft taking a prize from out the grasp of younger 
men. At the dinner with which the sports wound up 
Hogg took the chair, which he filled to the admiration 
of aU who graced the board. 

Bordermen are fond of their fishing-rod and gun, 
and their character for loyalty and patriotism has 
found scope in the Volunteer movement. Foxhunting 
has always held its own. A pack of foxhounds is kept 
up with all requirements by that most popular border 
nobleman, his Grace the Duke of BuccleucL Grey- 
hound coursing is, however, the sport of the borders, the 
Earl of Haddington being a most princely supporter of 
the leash on the borders, or, indeed, in aU broad Scot- 
land. His lordship has in his service the well-known 
Sandy Grant, one of the best of trainers. Many 



Trout and Sport in the Borders. 319 

southern fanners breed their own dogs, and strains of 
blood may be found at local meetings which might 
prove victorious further afield. Bowling is also a border 
institution ; wherever you find a curling pond you are 
never far from a bowling green. At Abbotsford Sir 
Walter had his bowling green erected near the house of 
his coachman, in order that he might sit there at night 
and listen to the evening psalm of Peter Mathison, his 
faithful master of the horse. A feature of the bowling 
season of the present day is the great border bowling 
tournament, which generally takes place at either 
Hawick or Galashiels, and lasts two or three days, the 
sport being generally presided over by that most genial 
sportsman and gentleman, Admiral Bailie, of Dryburgh. 
Such friendly trials of skill present to us a happier 
state of affairs than the border fights and feuds of two 
hundred years ago. 

At certain seasons — on Fastern E'en in particular — 
there take place in several of the border towns spirited 
and keenly-contested games at handball, in which one 
division of a place wiU be pitted against another divi- 
sion. I do not know the origin of the practice, but it 
has been a custom, I am told, of centuries, and even the 
women take a part in the pastime. Handball is also 
played in other parts of Scotland, especially in the 
parish of Scone, in Perthshire, at the same date, the 
bachelors playing against the married men, or in such 
other fashion as may be agreed upon. In his ' Book 
of Days,' Dr. Eobert Chambers chronicles this popular 
Scottish custom as *' Candlema' Ba'," but falls into the 
mistake of calling it footbalL " On one occasion, not 
long ago," says the Doctor, " when the sport took place 
in Jedburgh, the contending parties, after a struggle of 



320 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

two hours in the streets, transferred the contention to 
the bed of the river Jed, and then fought it out amidst 
a scene of fearful splash and dabblement, to the infinite 
amusement of a multitude looking on from the bridge." 
These desultory and, I fear, rather bald notes of 
border doings in the way of sports and pastimes may 
be appropriately brought to a conclusion with a note of 
an old border practice, still kept up with care in the 
south of Scotland — I allude to " the common riding," 
or riding of the marches. This ancient custom is loyally 
and merrily kept up in the towns of Selkirk, Hawick, 
and Langholm ; indeed at Hawick this annual festival 
has almost the character of a carnival, and is carried on 
for days, and nights as well, for on such festive occasions 
he would be a bold policeman who would dare to enforce 
the hours of the Forbes McKenzie Act. At Hawick 
on these occasions may be heard the old war song, or 
at least a version of it : — 

'^ Sons of heroes slain at Flodden ! 
Met to ride and trace our common ; 
Oral fame tells how we got it ; 
Here a native muse relates it — 

Tyr hoebbe ua, Ye Tyr ye Odin ! 
Sons of heroes slain at Flodden, 
Imitating Border Bowmen — 
Aye defend your rights and Common ! " 



( 321 ) 



CHAPTER XX. 
Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 



I regret to say that, in the name of sport, I have 
during my lifetime looked on or taken part in a good 
deal of brutality, and it is certain there are many men 
who might, were it their cue to do so, -make a similar 
confession. Some animals are not hunted in any fair 
meaning of that word, but are doomed at once to death, 
and the death to which they are doomed is often one of 
extreme cruelty. Cock-fighting, which I have seen, as 
also rat-kiUing, were often enough shocking exhibitions, 
as must have been bull-baiting and two or three others 
of our vanished sports. Half-a-century since, cock- 
fighting was pretty common in the rural districts of 
Scotland, and was even at one time a pastime in vogue 
at parochial schools, the vanquished fowls being ac- 
cepted by the master as a perquisite. At an even later 
time there were in Glasgow at least a couple of well- 
frequented rat-pits, the doings in which afforded 
gratification to many lookers-on; but such pastimes 
have happily gone out of fashion ; it is long since cock- 
fighting came to be looked upon with a cold eye both 
by scholars and their parents, and now one never hears 

Y 



322 Out-door Spdrta in Scotland. 

of that kind of sport in Scotland except, perhaps as a 
reminiscence. 

Another so-called sport which has in Scotland been 
pretty well frowned down is badger-baiting, which at 
one time was common enough. I am bound to confess 
that upon the Occasion of my first witnessing a fight 
between a badger and dogs no sense of fair play was 
evinced, dog after dog being set on the animal till he 
succumbed, his death, as a matter of course, being a 
foregone conclusion. For my appearance at one of 
these sickening spectacles I was indebted to Jamie 
Skinners, with whom I have already made my readers 
acquainted. That poor waif took me with him to a 
farm about three miles west from Edinburgh, occupied 
by the Laings of the Eoyal Horse Bazaar, where two 
or three of the animals in question were usually to 
be found. The " ploy," as Jamie called the afiair, had 
been arranged to gratify the ofiScers of the Army then 
quartered in Edinburgh Castle and at the cavalry 
barracks of Jock's Lodge. The affair was altogether 
revolting, the brock being ill to draw had to be 
smoked before he would leave his earth. On coming 
out he was promptly seized by a dog, when there 
ensued a terrific struggle between the two animals, the 
dog speedily getting the worst of it ; but, a fresh terrier 
being set on the exhausted badger, the struggle was re- 
newed, the services of a third dog being required before 
the wretched beast was killed. There was really no 
element of sport in the affair, and it certainly left on 
my mind a most disagreeable impression. 

At the next fight of the kind at which I was present 
(under the same auspices), the badgers — there were 
two — had the best of it, as after a prolonged struggle 



Vevimn of the Moors and Manors. 323 

jbhe dogs were worsted, two of them being killed. The 
^fiEedir was simply a "worry " from beginning to end, the 
animals . of both kinds being terribly vicious, and 
^vidently determined neither to take nor to give quarter : 
.ond of th6 badgers, indeed, became particularly savage 
in the course of the fight ; bi;t both, it may be men- 
tioned, made their escape for the time. The comment 
made on the battle by poor Jamie I have not yet 
forgotten ; " And so," he said, " those fellows ca' them- 
selves gentlemen, an' what they are doin' sport ; puir 
feport, it's surely a nickname.*' 

The poor waif was right in the expression of his 
sentiments ; badger-killing is a kind of pastime which 
no true sportsman ought to have any sympathy with, 
far less take part in it. It is of the essence of all sport 
that the beast or bird to be hunted shall be allowed a 
fair chance to escape — shall, in fact, have law. 

Why the badger should be selected to be baited and 
killed I have never been able to understand. These 
•animals are frequently found in the Highlands, and are 
perfectly harmless, if left undisturbed. Badgers, bar 
their paws, are not unlike small pigs; like foxes, 
they live about rocky places or tree roots, feediug 
chiefly on snails, worms, and frogs, and on such dead 
animals as they happen to fall in with, and are ex- 
ceedingly particular about the furnishing with soft 
moss of their holes; they are frugal and careful 
animals, the badgers, and why they have been selected 
for persecution is not easy to understand. 

So far as I have been able to ascertain, a badger has 
not the game qualities nor the staying powers of the 
fox, nor is it endowed with the cunning of that animaL 
On the contrary, it is choleric in the extreme, and flies 

Y 2 



324 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

into a paroxysm of passion when it is interfered with, 
and then becomes exceedingly vicious and determined. 
There has been much controversy as to one or two 
points connected with the natural history of this 
animal, and in particxdar as to its period of gestation. 
Many believe that it carries for a period of thirteen 
months, and there is evidence to attest that many 
months have elapsed before the female has dropped her 
young, the litter usually being six or seven. This is a 
matter on which I am unable to give my personal 
opinion. The old writers about badgers whose works I 
have consulted do not say a single word about the 
period of gestation of the animal, or the number of its 
young. One author tells his readers to " beware of the 
badger's teeth," they are so sharp and venomous as to 
bring certain death to those whom they bite. Dogs seem 
instinctively to fear this,animaL On the occasion 
referred to, three of these animals, " gamesome " terriers 
as a rule, fairly turned tail when they saw the brock. 

The badger should, I have hesud it said, be waited for 
of nights, when he can be better hunted ; the animal 
is not often seen during the day, and if an iuterview is 
wanted he must then be dug out : when in his earth 
he is in a place that might have been designed by some 
military engineer. An old relative of the writer told 
him that on one occasion he saw a badger keep at bay 
all the dogs on a farm, some nine in number. Almost 
no dog will taste the flesh of a badger, but I remember 
seeing in the West Highlands badger hams, that were 
excellent, certainly not inferior to hams cut from a 
well-fed porker. Highlanders, too, were at one time, 
and may still be for anything I know, great believers 
in the efficacy of badger's grease ; in some Highland 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 325 

places it formed the universal cure for all kinds of cuts 
and wounds. Belief in its eflBlcacy no doubt helps the 
cure. The skins of badgers are made use of by the 
Highlanders as pistol furniture; they make their 
philibegs of them, 

II. 

I am pretty well acquainted with the otter, an 
animal much fancied in some districts as a medium 
of sport, and which is regularly hunted at certain seasons 
of the jeai. In one or two rivers that I know, the 
otter plays havoc with the fish; moreover, he is 
somewhat dainty in his tastes, and must have, if 
possible, for his nightly meal a portion of a fine new- 
run salmon. Old Sandy Mackenzie, ferry boatman on 
a Scottish salmon stream, told me that he gets about 
thirty fish in the course of the year ''on the rocks 
yonder," with only a big bite taken out of their 
shoulder; they are not hashed in any way, but are 
perfectly good to eat, and have been eaten by himself 
and family for eleven years, the flesh being carefully 
cut at the bitten part so as to avoid any impurity left 
by the animal's teeth. Sandy watched the rocks for a 
season without ever seeing the otter or otters that did 
the mischief, but his wife every now and again found 
the fish early in the morning. 

A day with an otter (I was present on two occa- 
sions at a himt) yields exciting sport — ^sport not free 
from danger on some rivers. Description in print 
seldom does justice to an otter hunt, during which so 
many things occur, that it would take pages to record 
them. The sport being on the water adds largely, of 
course, to the interest of the struggle. It is not, I think, 



326 Out-door Sports in Scotland. . 

generally known that water is not the " native element " 
of this animal, of which, indeed, it is not.psurticularly 
fond, and in places, for example, where there ib a 
crook in the stream in which it may be fishing, 
it will assuredly leave the river and cross the land 
in order to regain the water. The otter prefers 
life in dry quarters. The period of gestation of the 
female otter, I have been told by persons who have 
studied their habits, is close on two months ; they breed 
all the year round and are fond of their young. Otters 
have bred in captivity. They have a misfflon, these 
animals — ^it is to devour all the eels they can find ; they 
eat trout, of com^e, and they disfigure the salmon in 
the mode I have stated, but from information received, 
I think they prefer the eel as food ; they are adepts in 
finding these slippery customers and are known to 
" remove " a large number of them in the course of the 
year; in several parts of Scotland the otter is not 
molested because of its penchant for the eel, which is 
held in detestation by many Scotch people. 

So long a time has elapsed since I saw the otter hunt 
I have referred to, which took place on the river Tyne 
under the auspices of the young Dunlops (the sons of 
the distiller), that I am unable to say where the pack 
came from, but my impression is that it was from some 
place on the borders — probably it was a scratch pack 
got up for the purpose. The affair lasted for three days, 
at intervals, and caused quite a sensation, gentlemen on 
the concluding day coming from Edinburgh to see the 
sport. I remember pretty distinctly the kill, which 
occurred on the dam just below tiie bridge at Tair- 
bairn's Wauk Mill. All were on foot, and the crowd was 
so great that a little boy was knocked into, the water 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 327 

and nearly drowned; those present were so busy 
watching the otter, which was at close quarters with 
the dogs, that the accident was unnoticed except by one 
of Mr* Dimlop's grooms, who jumped into the dam at 
the wooden bridge and intercepted the child as he was 
being carried away by the current. So far as I know, 
there never has been in Scotland any regularly or- 
ganised hunt of the otter ; in various places the young 
men, where there is a good stretch of river, turn out 
with lighted wisps and hold a burning of the water 
with a view to kill any otters they can fall in with. In 
saying this much I am not dealing with what is on 
hand in the way of sport at the present time, but am 
harking back " on the charity of memory," 



III. 

. Upon one occasion while passing a few days in the 
North, I saw what is now not a very common sight, a 
specimen of the wild cat, which has during late years 
become a scarce animal in Scotland. The cat in question 
had just fought with, or rather kUled without any fight, 
a poor little rabbit ; it was a beautiful animal that cat, 
agile and eager, a little larger than the domestic variety, 
but of a fine grey colour regularly striped with black. 
These animals, when they were plentiful in the Scottish 
Highlands thirty or more years ago, committed great 
depredations among the game, annually killing thou- 
sands of the beasts and birds of sport. The wild cat 
was described to me by a Highland shepherd as a '' most 
deviliah being," so that it is somewhat surprising to 
fiind that several landlords and lessees of shootings have 
given orders for their preservation. Doubtless, like 



328 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

other wild animals, they have had a part assigned them 
to play in the economy of nature. The old idea is 
being revived that grouse disease is owing to the 
balance of nature being disturbed by the over-destruc- 
tion of birds and beasts which have be^i designated 
" vermin." Had the enemies of the bird of sport not 
been ruthlessly killed off, the crippled and weak grouse, 
it is said, might have been seized upon and dealt with, 
so that none but strong and healthy animals would 
have been left to multiply and replenish the heather ; 
but it is now pretty well known that ''the disease" 
has largely prevailed in places where gamekeepers 
had proved rather lax in vermin-killing, and it is, more- 
over, now a pretty general opinion that the good health 
of the bird of the heather is more dependent on a 
proper supply of fresh food than on any other condition 
of the grouse moors. 

Returning to the wild cat^ I remember being taken 
to view " the midden " of a household of these pests. 
It was a sight! The bones of a score of different 
animals that in literal hundreds had fallen a prey to 
these tiger-like beasts lay around, telling an eloquent 
tale of daily devastations committed. I cannot give an 
account of the origin of these beasts or how they 
breed; all I know is that they are, when excited, 
perfect fiends incarnate, and can fight with an earnest- 
ness which, I have been told, is quite awful to see, I 
am writing, of course, of the true wild cat. There are 
other cats which also live in the wildest state of 
freedom, and breed in plantations and in rocky places ; 
these, I take leave to suppose, are deserters, or the 
descendants of deserters, from the family circle — cats 
of evil disposition gone to the bad. All such when 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 329 

sean by keepers are remorselessly shot, and on some 
lowland estates in particular scores are killed in the 
course of a year. A lady friend of the writer having 
had a favourite cat trapped and destroyed, I inter- 
viewed, at her request, a neighbouring keeper to hear 
what explanation he would offer on the subject. 

" Yes, sir, my men trapped the cat," was the reply 
niade, " and there is nothing to be said about it — he 
acted on my orders. We kill a dozen or two in the 
course of a year — they are awful poachers, these brutes ; 
I have known one to carry off in a couple of days a 
whole covey of partridges, and I have seen another one 
tear a poor young rabbit almost to rags; there is 
nothing in the poaching line that cats are not up to, 
and I shoot them down without mercy, and everybody 
knows that here about" 

Many, I dare say, who peruse these pages will be able 
to recall poaching incidents committed by domestic 
cats; some persons have in rural districts largely 
benefited from the work of such animals. One can read 
in some sporting reminiscences of cats that were excellent 
caterers and brought in a daily something for the pot. 
One cat known to me used to frequent a rookery and 
bring home any of the young crows which had fallen 
from their nests. A cat I was told about by a friend 
was a famous poacher — ^in one season it brought home 
foTirteen young hares. 

Something may now be said regarding the polecat, 
another of our most destructive vermin — ^a bloodthirsty 
animal, as all who know its habits will admit. It is 
not often seen, but gamekeepers are occasionally made 
to feel its presence ; it is active but somewhat repulsive- 
looking, and is known to do a great deal of damage in 



330 Outdoor Sports in Scotland. 

game preserves. Happily the polecat is much less 
plentiful than it used to be, although more abundant 
than the wild cat. The polecat is an exceedingly active 
animal, and has been known to travel long distances in 
search of food for itself and young ones — ^fourteen or 
sixteen miles at a stretch. Attempts have more than 
once, I believe, been made to tame this animal, but 
without success. One reason for the growing scarcity 
of the polecat is, undoubtedly, the high value which is 
placed upon its skin, the fur being in request, and as 
much as 2s, has been netted by gamekeepers for good 
samples. 

It is not my intention to enumerate all the beasts 
that are obnoxious to game preservers and are fast 
being exterminated by the more zealous keepers, who 
in many instances are rewarded by payments in the 
shape of " head money " for the wild animals trapped 
or shot, the tails of which may be often seen nailed to 
doors about the gamekeepers' quarters. The marten, 
like others of our formerly abundant vermin, is now 
exceedingly scarce, although many are of opinion that 
it did as much good as harm in the preserves. The 
marten used, I think, in the olden time to be accounted 
a beast of the chase, and was fairly hunted- The weasel 
is so well known ^s not to require much description, 
neither do I require to say much about the stoaU* 

* The following graphic extract from the supposed * Diary of a 
Stoat ' affords an admirable illustration of the life of a beast of 
prey. It is from the pen of Major Morrant of the Cape Mounted 
Hifiemen: — ''Slept rather heavily, having drunk too much hen- 
pheasant's blood the evening before, but went for a stroll about 
5 A.M. I soon found a yellow-hammer's nest, but, jumping a little 
too far, just missed the old hen. However, I sucked her eggs. 
Shortly afterwards I winded something in a low old thorn tree, and, 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 331 

These beasts, doubtless, have their work to do. The 
balance which Nature has established and guards so 
jealously must not be disturbed ; if it be, we know well 
that, in some shape or other, we shall have to pay the 
bill of costs. When, for instance, grouse become too 
plentiful on a stretch of heather, their enemies begin to 
multiply. Whenever vermin are over-abundant, it is a 
sure sign of there being more birds than there ought to 
be; and it is the same throughout animated nature. 
When the French gardeners shot down their small 

climbiDg up, found a nest with four fine young blackbirds in it, and 
I made a nice light breakfast of their blood and brains. How the 
old birds did scream, and what a fuss they made about it 1 Per- 
haps they will remember to build higher another season. I then 
made « neat stalk and killed a skylark, and, as the sun was getting 
high, thought of retiring, when I came on the fresh track of a 
hare. I knew her form would be close by, so followed it in 
breathless silence. Sure enough she was sleeping on the side of 
an old back. Getting well above her, I leaped lightly on her back, 
and my teeth were fast in her neck before she was fairly awake. 
Then how the stupid creature screamed and struggled I Just as if 
it was of any use. 1 suppose she was thinking of her little ones, 
for she was giving suck, I afterwards noticed. However, I left her 
quiet enough in about ten minutes. Being rather tired, I had a 
long and refreshing sleep under the root of an old tree, but, waking 
thirsty about three o'clock, went down to a little stream and had a 
drink. Two ladies were sketching the old bridge, and I played 
about for a little while and heard them admire my graceful move- 
ments, and wonder how any man could be barbarous enough to set 
a trap for such an interesting creature. Had another long sleep, 
and a pleasant stroll in the evening, but had not much sport, a nice 
covey of partridges giving me my supper and a quarter of an hour's 
amusement. The old birds kept fluttering under my nose, ap- 
parently both lame and broken-winged, but I had been served that 
trick before, so I only laughed at them, and managed to chop eight 
of the young ones. Then I retired for the night, hoping for as 
happy a day to-morrow," 



332 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

birds because they took tribute of the fruit, they were 
speedily made to encounter a worse plague in the 
abnormal increase of the insects which used to be 
preyed upon by the birds which had been so uncere- 
moniously killed. 

There is some philosophy in this; we can at least 
draw an inference or two from it, and teach what seems 
to be sometimes forgotten in the terrible anxiety which 
is always expressed for a large number of birds, 
namely, that it is better to have a hundred birds in 
fine condition and of heavy weight, than two hundred 
half-hungered " piners." 

The rat must now be noticed as an animal of evil 
repute ; in some quarters no good qualities have ever 
been placed to his credit. Not many years since it was 
brought before a learned society as a subject of debate 
whether or not the rat ought to be utterly exter- 
minated. This rodent affords another instance of the 
strength of the old proverb aboilt a dog with a bad 
name; the poor animal has quite a number of good 
qualities, and, like a few other animals of evil repute, 
has, undoubtedly, "a mission" to fulfil; but, for all 
that, men's hands have been so long as I am able to 
remember actively turned against it, and the rat is 
every day in consequence hunted to death by fanners, 
gamekeepers and others ; and in the course of a year 
countless thousands of them are remorselessly killed. 

It is a curious circumstance that the rat with which 
we are all so familiar — ^the common brown rat — ^is an 
interloper, that has displaced the old original black rat 
of the country, at one time so plentiful in the United 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 333 

Kingdom. This animal, like many other rodents, is a 
breedy creature, and if it were not industriously 
massacred day by day would speedily multiply its 
kind to an extent that would prove intolerable. To 
show the rate of kill, I may mention that I once saw 
470 skins of rats that had been trapped on one farm in 
the course of ten months. I very stupidly neglected 
to ask what was to be done with them. The rate of rat 
increase is little short of that ascribed to rabbits; a 
mature pair will yield thirty in a year, and the young 
ones will breed as soon as they have attained the age 
of four months. We are a long way yet from probably 
seeing "rat-pie" on our dining tables, but, as the man 
in the burlesque says, " a day will come" — when rats 
may have to form a portion of our food. And why 
not ? There are nations that eat their rats, and there 
are those among ourselves who have eaten rats and liked 
them. Farmyard or granary rats are known to be 
wholesome enough, and are quite as palatable as rabbits 
when nicely cooked. 

At certain periods of the year rats migrate to the 
preserves and commit havoc among the nests of the 
partridge and pheasant ; they seem to have a penchant 
for the eggs of birds and fowls of all kinds. A game- 
keeper told the writer that the rats accounted for a 
very considerable portion of the eggs of all game birds : 
**They are arrant and ingenious poachers," he said, 
•'constantly at work and so numerous that their 
depredations are soon felt, and so keepa^s, in duty 
bound, show them no mercy." 

It would be bad policy to exterminate the rat; it 
performs important duties as a scavenger, and is thus 
a factor in the promotion of health in our cities. 



334 Oat^obr Sports in Scotland. 

and the good it does in this respect ought to be placed 
to its credit as a set-oflf to its evil deeds as a general 
marauder. 

« The balance of Nature cannot be disturbed without 
*' something happening," and man is surely intelligent 
enough to know that. To him has been given dominion 
over all created things ; by the aid of superior intellect, 
he is enabled to exercise controlling power. Some 
persons who* have thought out the many and varied 
problems presented to man in connection with all 
created things are of opinion that, had man not 
interfered, the balance established by Nature would 
never have been disturbed ; but these opinions may be 
traversed ; it is surely man's duty to take the good of all 
he sees, and turn it to his own uses. No doubt the 
wolf has some kind of mission to fulfil, or it would not 
have been created ; man will certainly take care, how- 
ever, that the business of the wolf shall not be to 
devour man. Different opinions have been enunciated 
so far as the balance of Nature affects our sports and 
pastimes ; one thinks there should be no bird on the 
heather but grouse, and no beast in the deer forest but 
the stag and its kind; whilst another person thinks 
that, were hawks allowed to increase 'and take their 
share of the small birds, we should get about the 
right balance. A close time for all birds has been 
more than once advocated; but a close time for aU 
means a close time for the sparrow as well as for 
the sparrow-hawk. " Every man for himself," said the 
keeper as he told his master that he shot the nightin- 
gales because they sang so loud at night as to keep his 
pheasants awake. 
How many of our wild animals, it has often been 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 335 

asked, die a natural death ? The answer is, Few indeed. 
Some birds and beasts would, no doubt, but for the 
cunning devices of man, live to a grand old age. 
Elephants, we are told, occasionally exist for a period 
of 400 years. Camels also attain a very old age; 
many are reputed to live for a century. Eagles are 
believed to live as long as camels, and swans have been 
known to live three times as long as any eagle. The 
pelican, too. is a bird that, when left alone, sees many 
summers and winters. How long a deer may live has 
already been discussed. The fox, if left unmolested, 
would likely see his seventeenth year, whilst the timid 
hare might die a natural death in half the time were it 
not hunted to death long before. The lives of wild 
animals are fuU of privations — a series of never-ending 
troubles. When no danger may be apprehended from 
man, they are fearful of their " natural enemies " — the 
sweet-singing lark fears the hawk, which in turn may 
become the prey of the falcon ; saddest of all, thousands 
of wild animals die annually from absolute starvation, 
whilst other thousands, nay, tens of thousands, as in 
the case of grouse and salmon, are carried off by 
periodical epidemics. 



Gamekeepers are not in agreement as to the degree 
of criminality which attaches to the owl as a destroyer 
of birds that are more valuable than it is. Many 
keepers, indeed, continue to kill this picturesque animal 
as if it were a villain of the deepest dye, and I have 
more than once seen a long row of their heads displayed 
on gates and doors as a token of the gamekeeper's 



336 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

industry. There are several varieties of this bird, but 
the bam owl is the one which is best known. From 
careful inquiries made in several parts of Scotland, I 
deduce that with the owl, as in the case of the pigeon, it 
has hitherto been a case of " Jeddart Justice " ; the bird 
has been killed first and then been tried, by examining 
his stomach, when what was seen at once testified to his 
innocence, so far as the gamekeeper had any interest in 
it. There are usually two sides to all questions, and 
no doubt these birds have been caught doing mischief 
in the preserves ; but, if a balance of the good and evil 
they do be struck, it would, I fancy, be found that the 
good predominates. From its instinctive love of mice, 
and the activity which it displays in catching them, 
this bird has been called a cat in feathers. On one 
estate on which, for a time, to " protect the game," all 
the owls seen were .ruthlessly shot, rats and mice 
speedily became so abundant as to show that a blunder 
had assuredly been made in dooming the birds to de- 
struction — another instance of improper meddling with 
the balance of Nature. 

Among the more destructive of the feathered vermin, 
may be named the hen harrier, which, I have reason to 
believe, kills a large nimiber of grouse and partridges. 
Birds, it must be borne in mind, can make the circuit 
of an estate in a much shorter period than any four- 
footed animal can possibly do, and are therefore quite 
capable of doing four times the mischief. We must 
not forget, in estimating the evil done by birds of prey, 
that the very worst of them even do some good in 
killing off the lame and the halt on grouse moors, 
pheasantries, and partridge preserves, leaving only the 
strongest birds to multiply their kind. 



Vermin of the Moors and Manors. 337 

I have even to put in a good word for the jay and the 
raven, although both are severely frowned upon by 
vermin-hating keepers, who decline to listen to any 
plea of extenuating circumstances. No doubt these 
birds are adepts in sucking the eggs of other birds, 
and unfledged young ones of all kinds afford them a 
dainty meal, as when impelled by hunger the raven 
will do wondrous deeds of evil I have myself found a 
couple of these feathered fiends busy "murdering ".a 
tender young lamb, which crime they commit in a semi- 
scientific way, by first of all depriving it of its eyes, 
after which the poor animal is at their mercy. My 
father, who was a keen observer of animals oif every 
kind, was on one occasion an eye-witness of a case of 
poetic justice which befell a couple of ravens, or more 
likely carrion crows. They were busy preying on the 
carcass of a ewe, which, being disabled by falling into a 
ditch, had become an easy prey to the black marauders, 
and after enjoying a good gorge on the eyes of the 
animal and a part of its tongue, were indulging in a 
rest — ^in fact, they had feasted so sumptuously that 
they were hardly able to move. A fox, which had been 
watching their movements from the bank of the ditch, 
then stealthily crept up, and in a moment had seized 
one of the crows, and giving it a severe crunch with its 
teeth, flung it aside, and had made the other bird a 
prisoner before it had time to realis.e what had hap- 
pened to its companion. 

•The carrion crow — there is a variety of crows, 
and it would require more space than I can afford to 
describe them all — is much hated in some parts of the 
country, and is remorselessly killed when opportunity 
serves. I have preserved some anonymous verses of a 

z 



338 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

sort of poetic rhapsody uttered on this crow, of which 
the following is an example : — 

" I ftm the dreadM carrion crow, ca ! cft I 
I can choose and deyonr whatever I may, 
And gouge out the eyes of a sheep, ha ! ha ! 
The rook and the raven are keen for prey — 
But I feast as I like by night or day, 

1 am the fiendish carrion crow, ca ! ca ! " 

Having had numerous chances of studying tbem, 
nothing in regard to the crow family has ever stmck 
me so much as the eye power of the raven, which seems 
to be really wonderful. I remember some years ago 
seeing a sheep killed by an excited dog in a field in 
Berwickshire, and of its lying dead on the grass, I 
was fishing near at hand, and went on with my work, 
being all the time well within sight of the dead animal; 
in about fifteen or twenty minutes after the sheep 
had been worried to death, I was startled by the 
hoarse croak of a raven — where it had come from I 
know not, and I could see well around me, but a few 
minutes only had elapsed before another, and another, 
came on the scene, and soon a score of these birds were 
seen coming in a darkening train to enjoy an antid* 
pated feast ; curiously enough, the birds all cancie from 
one point of the compass, but the wonder for me was 
where they had come from and how they had so quickly 
seen the carcass of the dead animal. 



( 339 ) 



CHAPTER XXL 

The Fox: Fox-hunting. 

Masteb Betnard, as all connected with the sports and 
pastimes of the period know, is an animal of conse- 
quence, and was long since acclaimed "King of 
Vermin." The. fox is " protected," and we were. -told 
by the late Lord Malmesbury that upon making his 
appearance at school he received the cold shoulder from 
his companions, because his fether was a fox-killer. 
Farmers and others who wantonly kill the foxes on 
their grounds are looked down upon and *' cut " by all 
who delight in fox-hunting. The fox by consensus of 
sporting opinion has been nominated the animal of " the 
hunt," and yet fox-hunting is the simplest of all sports. 
Curiously enough, however, no one can give a very good 
reason for its long-continued popularity, but it aflfords 
an excuse for the meeting of many persons at the cover- 
side, previous to which there has probably been provided 
for the Corinthians of the company at the mansion-house 
of the master an excellent breakfast of many good things. 
It is undoubtedly a rather mixed company which 
assembles, all kinds of persons being permitted to be 
present, the masses mingling with the classes for the 
moment. Look at the horses! What magnificent 
animals some of them are — there may be a dozen on 

z 2 



340 OtU-door Sports in Scotland. 

the ground that it would probably cost several thousand 
pounds to purchase, and along with these cracks of the 
hunting field there are sure to be two score or more 
that would be dear at thirty pounds a piece. Ag a in, 
there are animals on the scene which, while not at first 
sight looking " up to any hounds," will probably, before 
the day is done, change hands for not less than a hun- 
dred, or probably twenty pounds over that sum ; they 
have been brought there to be sold : faultless at their 
fences, they beat in the course of the run many of the 
more showy animals, and are quickly spatted by those 
gentlemen who know a good hunter when they see one. 
My old acquaintance, Eichard Eayner of Edinburgh, 
used to make many a deal on the hunting field, and as 
horse-dealing men go, " Dicky," as he was familiarly 
ciEdled, was perhaps a shade or two better than his 
compeers. His brother, John, wrote himting sketches 
for the Courant newspaper, and was able to pen a 
pretty graphic account of such runs of the Midlothian 
hounds as he attended. 

In "the memory chambers of my brain-house," to 
use a Carlylean phrase, I have sundry recollections of 
these exceedingly fine and much-enjoyed Midlothian 
meets, ready to come forth at calL There are, perhaps, 
few now living who remember the stirring days of " the 
thirties," and early on in " the forties," when there was 
such marked individuality of style among the men who 
followed the hounds, and when of an evening there 
ensued lots of fun in " The Eainbow," or the " Old Cafe," 
or sometimes in " Ramplings," or in the house on the 
opposite side — it is of Edinburgh I am writing. Hunt- 
ing has been, so long as I can remember, a favourite 
Scottish pastime, but fifty, or even forty years ago, it 



The Fox: Fox-hunting. 341 

had a finer flavour about it than during these later 
times. It is to be regretted that no capable writer has 
given us • a history of the Eoyal Caledonian Hunt, 
which would be of great interest, especially if garnished 
with personal reminiscences and stories of its members, 
together with memories of *' the packs,." and also of the 
persons who took an interest in the fine sport of fox- 
hunting. 

It is of the fox, however, as one of our " Vermin," 
that I have set myself the task of writing, having col- 
lected a considerable amount of information regarding 
Reynard, having besides analysed the information 
of others, and selected such portions of it as look 
most reliable. In reality the fox is an animal about 
which little that is exact is known; still one finds 
occasionally men in every hunting field pretty well 
informed regarding the natural history of the chase and 
the beasts and birds of sport, and therefore able to 
follow the fox or the hare with intelligence. I am not 
much of a fox-himter, but having witnessed as a 
yoimgster many meets, and sometimes " been in at the 
death," probably know as much about the fox and the 
hounds as most outsiders. It is not too much, perhaps, 
to assert that seven-eighths of those who join a meet 
know little about the animal, in proof of which let me 
give the opinion of one mighty hunter. " Well, of 
course you know we hunt it, and, as you also know, it 
is good sport ; but really now, I cannot, upon my word, 
tell you any more about it. We start it somewhere, 
and when it breaks cover we hope to kill it after a good 
run, but it often earths up, and we lose it. It appears 
to me, do you know, that the fox has originally been a 
breed betwe^ a wolf and a dog, and has then, in course 



342 Out-^oor Sports in Scotland, 

of time, taken on yarious characteristiGS on its own 
hook. But I dare say you will find all you want in 
some of the natural history books — there are different 
kinds of them, you know, away abroad." 

The following bits about the fox are a selection from 
much matter I have collected bearing on the natural 
history of the animal : they are worth repeating as 
examples of the old-time knowledge that was current 
about most animals of sport, but which is now of course 
known to be ridicxdous. " It is the cunningest creature 
known ; it can cheat its enemies by suddenly halting 
and lying as still as a clod or a stone, which it becomes 
like whenever it pleases, so that it hath often poroved 
able to cheat both the huntsmen and his dogs by means 
of this very wonderful gift, which Providence hath not 
bestowed on any other animal. ThCi fox is libidinous 
in its habits, and enters into amorous commerce with 
any other brute so inclined." 

Eegarding the smell of the fox, according to one 
writer, " if greyhounds course him on a plain, his last 
refuge is to wet his tail, and flap it on their faces as 
they come near him, sometimes squirting his thicker 
excrements on them so as to make them give over the 
pursuit." These are curious but certainly not savoury 
details. Pennant ssLjsa'boxxt the scctU: ''The smell of this 
animal, in general, is very strong, but that of the urine 
is most remarkably fetid. This seems so offensive even 
to itself, that it will take the trouble of digging a hole 
in the ground, stretching its body at full length over it, 
and there, after depositing its water, cover it with earth 
as the cat does its dung. The smell is so offensive that 
it often proves the means of the fox's escape from the 
dogs, who have so strong an aversion to the filthy 



The Fox: Foayhurtting. 343 

efQuvia as to avoid encountering the animal it came 
from." 

Another story which is told of the "filthy fox*' 
is, that when it covets the nice hole of the *' cleanly 
badger/' it straightway stinks it out and takes up its 
quarters in the vacated living place, which it at once 
proceeds to enlarge and improve, constructing two or 
three distinct entrances and exits in case of danger. 

The cunning of the fox is remarkable. I have 
myself seen one steal up to a couple of young hares and 
pretend to be friendly with them, play with them, and 
make fun to them, if I may use such an expression, then 
like a flash dash at one of the pair, and seizing it firmly 
be off, and out of reach in double-quick time. The 
tricks of the fox to evade its pursuers are numerous, 
and many stories have been told of its devices for out- 
witting its enemies. A whipper-in relating some of his 
experiences told of one that circled several times in 
lessening ranges from two or three gigantic boulders, 
and, concentrating its power, effected a leap that cleared 
the rings, and so, throwing the dogs off the scent, 
ultimately escaped. Mr. Stables gives currency in 
one of his works to a curious anecdote of the fox, 
indicative of its resource upon an emergency. One of 
these animals escaped from a wood, from which it was 
likely to be dislodged by the hounds, and proceeded to a 
piece of furze waste, where it had its hole and its young 
ones. The main body of the pack took off in another 
direction ; two of the hounds, having scented Eeynard, 
found him out in his hole, but Master Fox was equal to 
the occasion : he made the hounds welcome, showed 
them his cubs, and danced about and gambolled around 
the visitors till they took off, much, no doubt, to the 



344 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

relief of the clever actor, which must have endured a 
rather bad quarter of an hour of it, but the action taken 
by the animal was very remarkable. 

Those who have seen Eeynard dug out have been 
surprised to find that his home had been constructed 
with the skill of an engineer. Although cunning and of 
sbeaking habits, the fox is game to the end and dies 
hard. The animal is in bad repute as a general robber 
of game preserves and hen roosts, but it ought to 
count in his favour that he kills and eats a great many 
rats and mice, as also a large number of the weaker 
game birds that would die in any case. I have gleaned 
from various persons, pretty well acquainted with the 
natural history of the fox, that its period of gestation is 
two months, when it produces a litter of six or seven 
young ones. The female enjoys the credit of being 
dotingly fond of her cubs, which, when danger threatens, 
she conceals with wonderful cunning, and if their 
hiding-place be attacked she fights for thena till 
she is killed. The young ones become reproductive 
in the course of eighteen months, and foxes have been 
known to live for fifteen years, but it is very question- 
able, considering the hard conditions of their life — being 
so regularly and keenly hunted by clever hounds — ^if 
these animals will live, on the average, for more than 
seven years, during which period, if no accidents have 
befallen, the bitch will have given birth to firom fifty to 
sixty young ones. Young foxes are as playful as young 
lions, but they become dangerous in time, and the bite 
of a fox is a thing to be carefully avoided. 

Dogs and foxes have never, I believe, in spite of what 
has been said to the contrary, been known to inter- 
breed \ nor has it been found possible to domesticate the 



TIte Fox: Fox-hunting. 345 

fox, although numerous attempts have been made. The 
fox often proves a match for its enemies, and has been 
known to achieve wonderful escapes from imminent 
death, solely by its cunning, while the animal possesses 
' a happy knack of escaping traps, or rather of avoiding 
them ; for one taken five will 'escape — ^the fox can some- 
times manage to " spring '* a trap and then quietly enjoy 
the bait, first looking it all over and smelling it very 
careftdly to find out if it be genuine. These notes on 
the natural history of the fox might be largely extended 
were it necessary. 

There have in my time been regularly instituted hunts 
in Scotland, and I have been present at several, but 
cannot say I have ever been able to pen such a 
record of the runs as some others of the men who 
seem to write on such subjects with a good galloping 
pen. One of half-a-dozen men who had been enjoying 
a good run one day with a Midlothian pack, on being 
asked to describe it, said, and it was all he could say, 
" Oh, it was stunning and no mistake." Another good 
hunting man said, " Capital, capital ! thirty-five minutes 
without a pause, and killed — a fine kill ! " It is certain 
that the art of vividly describing a fox-hunt has not 
been widely bestowed; on a person saying so to 
Mr. John Eayner, his answer was, " No, it is a gift : 
some of us see more than others." Happening to see 
one of the runs which he wrote about in the Cimrant 
newspaper, I quite agreed with him ; on that occasion, 
at all events, he had seen much more than the writer of 
these remarks. The recollection of my first rtm as a boy 
is still green in my memory* It lasted for forty-five 
minutes and was tolerably varied ; I kept well up with 
the best of them, thanks to the good advice of a friend of 



346 Outdoor Sports in Scotland. 

Mr. Bamsay's (of Barnton); advice which is worth 
transcribing for the benefit of novices. 

**Look here, my boy," said my mentor, "you will see 
the find and the break away, but never heed the music; 
hold your tongue and keep a firm bridle, let the rest ot 
the fellows make as much noise as they like, you be 
quiet. Don't be in a hurry, there is plenty of time ; 
keep near me if you can. I always take a stem posi- 
tion for the first couple of miles ; after that, when two- 
thirds of the field are tailed off, forge your way to the 
front. Another thing, never put your horse at a fence 
if there should be a gap or a gate handy ; above aU, 
take care to keep behind the hounds. Sit firm on yonr 
horse, and then look about you a little ; study the old 
stagers, and do as they do. Keep your eye on the pack, 
and always try hard to be in the same field with the 
huntsmen. Now, then, we're off, my boy ; come on." 

Any description that could be oflTered of my first run 
would not much enrich the ** literature of the hunt" 
The affair dwelt long in my recollection, as was natural 
enoilgL To those who know the country it may be 
stated that we started the fox a httle way west £rom 
Corstorphine, and kUled in a field close to Kirkliston 
Distillery, probably five mUes from the start, the bit of 
country traversed being exceedingly varied, part of it 
being occupied by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Bailway. 
Like most novices of the hunt, I was not much afraid 
of the hedges and ditches we had to face ; but, seeing 
my friend making for safe places, I followed his 
example. We crossed the Union Canal by the bridge, 
but not so the river Almond, which tried my nerves a 
Uttle, but in the end I was well to the front when we 
killed, and was complimented by the Hon. Mr. Sandi- 



Tim Foss: Fox-hunting. 347 

lands and other gentlemen who were in the run. The 
laird of Bamton was present. At the period of which 
I am writing he was about the best-known sportsman 
in Scotland; ''Bamsay of Bamton" was a household 
word throughout Midlothian and some neighbouring 
counties, and his name, as I had recently occasion to 
know, is still green in his own countryside. I have 
sat behind him now and again on the " Defiance " coach, 
which he often drove as far as Cramond Brig. His 
portrait in the well-known " Barnton Hat " is still to be 
seen in some of the comfortable Scottish country inns. 

Needless to say, Mr. Eamsay was haU-fellow-weU-met 
with aU sorts of people. No event of a sporting kind 
was thouglht a success unless he was present to see it. I 
have seen him spear an otter in the Almond where it 
flowed through the grounds of Mr. Hope Vere above 
Cramond Bridge, and in many of the coursing matches, 
held on his own and neighbouring estates, he was a 
keen participator. One of his favourite " howffs " when 
residing at Bamton was " Jemmy Jack's " smiddy, and 
he was never more delighted than when he was treating 
the miscellaneous crowds that of an evening assem- 
bled there to bread and cheese and ale, with occasional 
supplies of hot mutton- pies from a neighbouring 
baker's shop. The "characters" of the community 
seemed instinctively to know when Mr. Eamsay would 
be at the " smiddy," and some dozen or so of persons 
who were connected in some way with the sport of 
that time would assemble to see him and partake of 
his hospitality. By the aid of my mind's eye I am yet 
able to picture some of those " worthies." Jamie Skinners 
has been already mentioned as one of Jemmy Jack's 
constant visitors ; then there was John Omit from Paddy's 



348 Out-^oor Sports in Scotland. 

Bow at the village of Blackball, he waa nicknamed 
"Ferret Jock," and travelled the country as a pro- 
fessional mole-catcher, and, at the same time„ did a 
little poaching " on the quiet " ; there was Robbie, the 
tailor, the fleetest runner in all the country-side, and 
Tarn Olephane, the best shot in the parish of Cramond, 
which was famed for good guns ; then there was Jemmy 
Jack himself, and young Sandy Semple, a sporting 
farmer. To these men sport of some kind was as the 
breath of life; when they could not enjoy it, they 
talked about it; and nothing delighted Mr. Bamsay 
more than to hear their varied reminiscences, their tales 
of hairbreadth 'scapes by flood and field. I have heard 
Tam Clephane relate how he swam across the river 
Almond, just where it debouches into the sea, and when 
it was in full flood, to visit his sweetheart, then a 
servant in Dalmeny House. He carried his clothes on 
his back, tied up in a Vmackintosh,' at that time a 
newly invented substance. Having paid his respects to 
Mary, now his wife, he again crossed the water, and, 
after hurrying on his clothes, would get a tumbler of 
reeking hot toddy at Mrs. Maccara's inn by the river- 
side, and *' never feel a bit the waur ot" 



( 349 ) 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Golf. 

Theee has within these last few years been something 
like a boom in golf. Men play now who never played 
before, and men who played before now play all the 
more, no one being in the least the worse in con- 
sequence of the boom, whilst some feel all the better — 
the players in their health, the dealers in the up- 
holstery of the game. Some of our literary gentlemen, 
too, have benefited by the boom ; or, to put the case the 
other way, the boom has probably benefited by them ; 
either way, however, it may be set down as an iustance 
of cause and effect. The votaries of golf have increased 
largely within my remembrance, and, although many 
good golfers have crossed the bourne, the places they 
left have been more than opcupied. It was on Brunts- 
field links, which has for a long period been famous as 
a golfing ground, that I first saw the game played, and 
as a boy took many a longing look at the men in the 
red coats who so dexterously handled their clubs, 
and of tener than once it crossed my mind that some day 
I might be able to don a red coat myself, and strike the 
baU from hole to hole with the best of those I saw 
playtQg of an afternoon ; moreover, the after-dinner 
mirth proceeding from the club-room strengthened this 



350 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

ambition, and " what fine dinners I shall get " became 
a factor in my juvenile speculation. 

Since those days golf has gathered to the greens 
fresh crowds of disciples. Not only here in Scotland 
has the game been growing in favour, but in England 
likewise. " Golf " is at the present time a standing 
heading in the Field newspaper, and the game now 
boasts an "annual," in which much is recorded con- 
cerning the pastime that is of interest to its votaries. 
And abroad, all over the world, especially in those 
places where two or three Scotsmen are to be found 
(and in what part of the world will not two or three 
Scotsmen be found ?), golf has become a much-loved 
pastime. Seeing the game is of ancient origin, and has 
been played by kings and commoners alike, it is well 
that its history should be summarised, and that some 
incidents which have signalised its progress should be 
related, that its social surroimdings should be described, 
and a word or two said about the poetry and song to 
which it has given birth. 

Grolf, it may be at once stated, derives its name from 
the club it is played with, which in Grerman is kolbe, 
and in Dutch kolf ; as to the name of the inventor of 
the pastime history, so far as I know, is silent 

The difference in their social aspects between golfing 
and curling is, that one is the game of the professional 
and mercantile classes, the other being a pastime 
common to the masses as well as the classes. There 
are men who, having only seen golf played on one or 
two occasions, have called it " a pastime of fools." It 
has been related of an eminent Scottish lawyer who, 
when living at St. Andrews during the vacations of the 
court, used to sneer at and mock " the madmen," as he 



Golf. 351 

called them, who found delight in driving a baU from 
hole to hole ; " It is a mere exercise of muscular force," 
he used to exclaim, " needing no effort of the brain " ; 
but that lawyer in time became a player, and after- 
wards used to tell his friends that "fidl good golfers 
must have intellectual power, judgment of distances, a 
fine hand, and possess powers of calculation." In 
saying so Mr. MacFees only spoke the truth, as many 
find out when they join the band. For men of 
sedentary habits golf is "just the very thing they 
need." As a literary friend once said to the writer, 
" Golf is Al for a person like myself. I am at my desk, 
as you know, full five hours a day, and an hour on the 
links in the afternoon sets me up ; in fact, I can drive 
my ball and consider my articles at the same time." 

Golf has a history ; it is of great antiquity, and 
it is rather remarkable that a book dealing with it 
in its antiquarian aspects has not yet been com- 
piled. Probably now, when many of our littSrcUmrs 
play the game so well — especially on paper — ^we shall 
not be much longer without a complete chronicle of 
golf as played, and by whom, in its earliest days. 
Mr. Eobert Clark's handsome collection of essays and 
articles on the pastime has been greatly appreciated by 
all who have seen it, and many were hopeful that his 
volume would prove the precursor of the kind of work 
now indicated. The information contained in it will 
certainly be found useful by the future historian ; as a 
matter of fact, Mr. Clark's book might be taken as 
furnishing the foundation stones of such a full history.. 
In Scotland, in days of old, golf was the sport of kings, 
and in modem times many of our eminent men have 
deftly handled the deck and the sand-iron. 



352 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Centuries ago, when golf seemed too flourishing, 
it was frowned upon by the authorities as likely to 
interfere with military training. As early b& the 
fifteenth century golf had become so popular as to 
attract the attention of the State to the fact, and 
straightway it was ** cried down," because it interfered 
with the serious work of learning the use of arms, then 
thought to be the first duty of all. James I. is reputed 
to have been a goKer, the first Charles waa also a 
disciple of the game, and, while on a visit to Scotland 
in 1641, it is said he was golfing on the Links of 
Leith, when a messenger reached him with the un- 
welcome news of a rebellion having broken out in 
Ireland, on hearing which he threw down his club, and 
at once hurried up to Holyrood House to read the 
despatches which had been sent to him. 

The game of golf is eminently social, although some 
disciples have been known to nourish hatreds against 
rival players ; but there are many clubs, and many good 
fellows are members of them, despite the fact of passing 
fits of jealousy. Eating and drinking together in the 
name of good fellowship used, perhaps, to be more a 
feature of golfing some thirty or forty years ago than it 
is to-day. Much interesting information can yet be 
picked up about the table practices of former days, and 
the details of the commissariat, as regards some of the 
Scottish clubs, "Many of the members being well 
inclined to the good things of this life," as was said by 
Dr., then Mr. William, Chambers at a Lord Provost's 
dinner. By way of illustration, I have selected the 
following "items." Such entries in the club records, 
for instance, as the following are plentiful : " The 
meeting as usual cracked their jokes over a full glass. 



Golf. 353 

and enjoyed the evening harmoniously with a song.'* 
In the club minutes of the " Honourable Company of 
Golfers " (1782), it is intimated that port and punch 
shall be the ordinary drink of the society, unless upon 
the days when the silver club and cups are played for ; 
at these meetings, claret, or any other more agreeable 
liquor, will be permitted. In 1788, it was a rule that 
the preses of the club should call for the bill before it 
exceeded half-a-crown per member ; failing to do this, 
the preses might be called upon to pay the overplus. 
Port and sherry wines, rum, brandy, gin, and small 
beer were allowed at dinner at the discretion of 
members, the charges being included in the general 
account. How modest those banquets were may be 
readily gathered from such an entry as the following : 
" Resolved that, as the price of provisions is very high, 
Mr. Moir should be allowed Is. &d. each for dinner." 
The " drink " formed a separate item. 

These club dinners were always satisfying and very 
enjoyable indeed, despite their cheapness. The cost 
of a dinner for fourteen of the "Honourable Com- 
pany of Golfers " in the year 1801 is set down as being 
£10 135. Ad,, including twenty-three bottles of wine 
(sixteen of the number being claret). Let the reader 
bear in mind, that at the time referred to a quaiter of 
excellent lamb could be bought for a shilling, a good 
fat capon only cost ninepence; vegetables for a large 
dinner-party sixpence ! The following is a characteristic 
club entry of a later day: *'24th June, 1815. No 
particular business occurred at this meeting; but, as 
news had arrived that morning of the entry of the 
Allies into Paris, it put the whole members into such 
spirits, that the glass circulated pretty freely, and the 

2 A 



354 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

usual hour of departure was protracted to the detriment 
of the stock. Bill, £4 85. 6rf., whereof from stock, 
£2 0«. 6d." Not till the year 1830 (24th of April) 
was champagne placed on the table of the Bruntsfield 
Links (Edinburgh) Club. The introduction of that 
wine was an innovation that excited comment, especially 
among outsiders. At that . period champagne was 
seldom drunk in private life, except on the tables of very 
wealthy people ; claret, and occasionally hock, being the 
chief liquors used, in addition to the universal port and 
sherry of the dinner-table, and the Madeira produced at 
ceremonious calls. Claret was always a "Scottish 
wine ; " centuries ago, barrels of it were hawked through 
the streets on sale to all and sundry in " stoups " or in 
pints or half-pints. 

To-day champagne and other expensive wines are in 
use in Edinburgh, . and are presented at dinner, or at 
evening parties, by many whom one would not expect 
to involve themselves in such expenditure as the con- 
sumption of that wine implies. As to champagne on 
the golfing green, I was not a little surprised three 
years ago, at being told by a couple of caddies who 
were sitting in a house much frequented by golfers, that 
they were waiting to drink a bottle of champagne that 
had been promised them by the players of a *' four- 
some," A champagne luncheon or dinner is often 
battled for on the golfing links, matches of many kinds 
being made. Apropos to the first introduction of 
champagne at the club dinner alluded to, Mr. James 
Ballantyne of happy memory, the author of several very 
fine Scottish lyrics, and himself a keen golfer, used to 
tell of an old merchant to whom the wine in question 
came as a revelation. "I'm real fond o' that fizzin' 



Golf. 355 

French wine," he used to say, "it gangs a' ower ye; 
some drinks gangs till yer heid, but lord, sir, the 
shampane gangs till yer feet as weel. I maun buy a 
bottle to drink the wife's health at her birthday 
dinner." 

It forms no part of my plan to notice the different 
golf clubs of Scotland, but an exception may be made 
in the case of "the Honourable the Edinburgh Company 
of Golfers," which may presumably be looked upon as 
the chief institution of golfers in Scotland. No one 
knows the date of its formation, but it was incorporated 
by a charter from the magistrates of that city eighty- 
eight years ago ; its origin is, however, lost in the mists 
of antiquity, but the first of a series of regular minutes 
signed by Professor Forbes, of CuUoden, bears date 
1744 The club, or golf-house, of that body used to be 
situated at Leith, but is now in the ancient burgh of 
Musselburgh, on the same links where is held the 
Edinburgh race meeting. Many of the best men of 
Scotland have in their day and generation been members 
of this club. The secretary and treasurer of the Com- 
pany, who died in October 1795, a worthy gentleman 
and noted Ion vivant, was much lamented by his friends, 
his mode of singing many of the classic Scotch songs of 
the period being long remembered; his humour and 
style were quite irresistible. He saw out three sets of 
boon companions, but himself gave way about the age 
of sixty. It used to be said of Jamie Balfour that he 
could run well enough at times when he was unable to 
stand. 

At St. Andrews, in " the ancient Scottish kingdom 
of Fife across the Forth," will be found a colony of 
keen and constant players. St. Andrews, indeed, may 

2 A 2 



356 Outdoor Sports in Scotland* 

be described as the golfing capital of Scotland. There 
many people who have little else to do "talk goM" 
from early morning to bedtime : old matches are over- 
hauled, new ones made. Players are freely criticised 
and ancient jokes and stories revived AU classes are 
more or less interested in the game at St. Andrews : the 
merchant as weU as the retired colonel or major, the 
tailor, the shoemaker, and the regiment of more or less 
reputable hangers-on that " get a living out of goE" 
Coming from church any one with alert ears may be 
sure of hearing much golf talk; returning from a 
dinner-party, the goK talk of the table is sure to be 
continued. The ancient town is famous in many ways, 
and is visited at suitable seasons by the celebrities of 
all places. 

There is a golfing club still extant in St. Andrews 
which was in existence a hundred and thirty-five years 
ago. It is now housed in the Union Club-house, a 
commodious and comfortable building, and its members 
play for its medals. On great days quite a concourse 
of spectators gather round the players, and an immense 
degree of interest is taken in the play. St Andrews is 
the home of a large number of educated persons, and 
the seat of two universities. Its society is excellent, 
and on fitting occasions all the celebrities of the 
place may be found on its links. The following lines 
occur in a poetical address : — 

" St. Andrews ! they say that thy glories are gone, 
That thy streets are deserted, thy castles o'erthrown : 
If thy glories be gone, they are only, methinks, 
As it were by enchantment transferred to thy links ; 
Though thy streets be not now, as of yore, full of prelates^ 
Of abbots and monks, and of hot-headed zealots^ 



Golf. 357 

Let none judge us rashly, or blame us as scoffers, 
When we say that instead there are links full of golfers. 
With more of good heart and good feeding among them ; 
We have red coats and bonnets, we've putters and clubs, 
The green has its bunkers, its hazards and rubs^ 
At the long hole across we have biscuits and beer. 
And the Hebes who sell it give zest to the cheer;' 

"But what is golf?" will doubtless be asked by 
some who may peruse these remarks on the surround- 
ings and economies of Scottish sport. "You have 
told us i^uch about it, but you have not said what 
it is." 

Well, I am coming to that part of my work, with 
which, doubtless, I should properly have begun. I once 
heard the same question put to Mr. Eobert Chambers 
(it was at a little luncheon party in the London Fisheries 
Exhibition), and the champion golfer's reply was 
characteristic. 

" It is," he at once answered, " a medicine or tonic 
we take north of Tweed for all sorts of ills ; it cures 
many current maladies in the shape of megrims, or 
indigestion, and for colds or coughs there is nothing 
like golf." 

"And how do you play it?" was further asked. 
" Oh, in our kilts, of course," was the reply ; " it is a 
national pastime." 

Mr. Robert Chambers was exceedingly fond of a 
little fun, but, as will be admitted by those who knew 
him, he was an excellent authority on all that pertained 
to the game, and he has described it in a brief and pithy 
way. According to Mr. Chambers, " the object of the 
game is, starting from the first hole, to drive the ball 
into the next hole with the fewest possible number of 



358 Ouhdoor Sports, in Scotland. 

strokes, and so on round the course. The player, or 
couple of players, whose ball is holed in the fewest 
strokes has gained that hole, and the match is usually 
decided by the greatest number of holes gained in one 
or more rounds; sometimes it is made to depend on 
the aggregate number of strokes taken to hole one or 
more rounds." 

It may be further stated for the benefit of the ignorant 
that it is played on links, or downs of considerable 
area, from hole to hole, with a ball made of gutta- 
percha, two ounces in weight, and propelled by 
means of a club. These holes are about four inches 
actoss, by three or four inches deep, and are cut in the 
turf at unequal distances, ranging from perhaps one 
hundred yards to four hundred yards, and so arranged 
as to form a circuit of the ground. Some circuits are 
rather considerable ; if I am not in error, the full round 
of St. Andrews Links is nearly four miles, there being 
nine holes to encounter each way.- Two persons usually 
play together, or the match may be a "foursome/' a 
mode of playing now very much in vogue. It is seldom 
that golfers play in single file, by " themselves alone." 
When one is seen doing that, it may be taken for granted 
he has some particular object in view, such as im- 
proving his style of play, or he may be practising 
industriously for a coming match of importance, many 
good golfers believe in " practice." 

GoK is eminently a social game, as BaUantyne's 
song has it : — 



^b 



* We putt, we drive, we laugh, we chat. 

Our strokes and jokes aye clinking, 
We banish all extraneous bat, 
And all extraneous thinking. 



Golf. 359 

" We'll cure you of a summer cold, 
Or of a winter cough, boys, 
We'll make you young even when you re old. 
So come and play at golf, boys. 

" Three rounds of Bruntsfield Links will chase 
All murky vapouis off, boys, 
And nothing can your sinews brace 
Like the glorious game of golf, boys ! " 

The game, it may be said, never changes ; its surround- 
ings may be varied, but the good old round goes on as 
before ; what it was fifty years ago, when I first handled 
a club, and used to lounge in Gourlay's workshop at 
Bruntsfield Links, it is to-day, and has been since the 
days of " Old Edinburgh," when merchants were ac- 
customed to shut their places of business for an hour 
or two that they might indulge in a game of golf. 
" Gone to the Unks," would be written on the door, 
" will be back in two hours." On the occasion of a fine 
old-fashioned. High Street shopkeeper not being back 
at the specified time, a wag who was passing pencilled 
underneath the legend, ** Got drunk and can't return." 
" An awfu' like thing to say aboot a Baillie," as the 
merchant observed when he saw the legend. Those 
were primitive but happy days, business not being 
" driven " as it is now. 

Eecurring for a moment to the " business " of the 
game, it is hardly possible to describe it very minutely. 
What has already been said under that head cannot 
convey any adequate idea of the finesse required when 
playing in earnest.. An experienced player, endowed 
with the necessary strength, can send his ball any 
distance at the first try, but, even if able to propel it 
two hundred yards at a stroke, that feat may not gain 



360 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

him a victory. Much more is required than mere 
strength. It is not till the ball has arrived near home 
that the fine play, on which success chiefly depends, 
commences. Long " driving," to a man possessed of 
great physical power, is not diflScult to achieve; his 
powers of play are not tested till he reaches the holes ; 
then, being at close quarters, he must bring into use his 
nerve and dexterity, his fine touch and his " measuring 
eye," all of which are needed to get the ball home and 
win the match. It is the man who gets his ball from 
hole to hole in the least number of strokes that wins 
the match. 

As a general rule golfers look well to the upholstery 
of the game, which is not very varied. " With what 
instruments do you play the game ? " asked an English 
gentleman who was recommended to try goK. ** Oh, 
just clubs and cleeks an' a bit baa," was the homely 
reply of the boots at the hotel who had been asked the 
question. As a general rule, golfers are very particular 
about the make and quality of their " clubs and cleeks " ; 
each player usually possesses a complete set of six or 
eight, or even ten ; these instruments of play diflfer a 
little from each other ; in a few instances considerably, 
as some positions require a play-oflf club, others a eleek, 
others a sand-iron, &c. The clubs are carried by a 
caddie, who may be, as it may happen, either an old 
man or a boy. Many of the caddies are adepts at the 
game, and able occasionally to instruct even good 
players. Once upon a time, 1836 to 1842, there was a 
caddie on Bruntsfield Links who was a wonderfully fine 
player, and who earned a considerable sum of money 
by showing the game to novices : as a companion said 
of him after his death, " Jock was a by-ordinar player ! " 



Golf. 361 

But " Jock," as he was generally named (that was not, 
I believe, his real name), was more than a player, 
he was a shrewd judge of character, and possessed the 
happy knack of spiriting sixpences and shillings, and, 
on not a few occasions, half-crowns from the pockets of 
his patrons. " Weel, sir," he would say to a novice on 
his debut, " it's easy wark to prophesy that ye'U soon be 
a player, ye hit the baa like an auld yin already." 

Such words from an authority like Jock were well 
worth the readily handed-over shilling, and the pint of 
ale at the far end of the links. To an old visitor, who 
had been playing for a few months at North Berwick, 
he was heard to say, " Dear me, sir, ye're no' like the 
same player ye was when ye went awa' till the sea- 
side, yell bate awbody here except my Lord; I 
ha'e never before seen such improvement for the 
better ! " Jock was a pawky fellow, and there are many 
left who follow in his path. I have in the course of 
my conversation with golfers heard many fine stories 
and anecdotes. Mr. James Ballantyne used to relate 
one of a man who, having got married at two o'clock, 
was doing a round on Bruntsfield Links at five, quite 
oblivious that at that hour he ought to have been 
dressed for departure on his marriage tour. Many 
good stories of goKers of the olden time were in circu- 
lation throughout the clubs a few years ago, but, as old 
members died, they gradually became forgotten, and are 
now seldom related. " Caddies who have risen in the 
world " might form the heroes of a volume, as many 
boys who in their day *' carried the clubs " ultimately ob- 
tained fortune and fame of a kind. Some caddies become 
"professionals," and earn a good deal of money by 
playing matches and teaching the game. 



362 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

^ , 

This sketch of golf and its surroundings may be 
drawn to a conclusion by saying that all who play the 
game are in love with it, and much prefer it to any 
other, curling excepted; and the two happily never 
clash ; the one is a summer pastime, whilst the other 
can only be played when John Frost has been pro- 
claimed king. As may have been gathered from the 
foregoing remarks, " character " is sure to manifest itsetf 
on the golfing ground. Temper, good or bad, as the 
case may be, comes to the front, and persons have been 
known to worry on the golfing links for days over 
trifles that at other times and in other places would 
only excite a smile. Men who take to golf when they 
have grown old are iU to learn ; they don't like to ask 
a caddie for instructions, and sufler in consequence, the 
player showing himself to be " a greenhorn, that canna 
strike his ba\" Beginners should study to get well 
entered, and not fly into a rage or turn sour when the 
urchin who is attending them exclaims, " That's no' the 
way 1 " A good beginning is essential, and learners, 
however venerable, must not be thin-skinned. 

Note on Shinty. — Shinty was at one period a 
wonderfully popular game, especially with boys, but I 
seldom see them playing it now ; it seems, indeed; to 
have gone altogether out of fashion, cricket and football 
having no doubt largely taken its place in the neigh- 
bourhood of all populous towns. In some parts of the 
Highlands, however, matches at shinty are still played 
with great vigour by opposing sides. In playing golf 
both sides go the same way, each opponent as a rule 
driving a different ball, and to the player who succeeds 
in getting through aU the holes in the fewest number of 



Golf. 363 

strokes is adjudged the victory. In shinty one side fights 
against another : a ball or small block of wood being laid 
down at a given place is fought over by the combatants 
till one or other side succeeds in getting it to the ap- 
pointed goal or boundary, which may be denoted by a 
small hole in the ground, or by such a mark as may 
be agreed upon — it used to be called /'haiL" The 
machinery of the game is simple: the ball aforesaid, 
which may be a barrel-bung or be made of wood, and a 
long stick with a crooked end, with which to propel 
the ball to the goal or hail ; these sticks are of a rough- 
and-ready sort. At most places where the game is 
played, rules have been devised for its conduct, and these 
differ in some respects in different localities. Generally 
the sides are composed of equal numbers, each of the 
players having but one object in view, that being the 
driving of the ball to the hail as speedily as possible. 
As a rule the ball must not be '* handled," except on 
such occasions as it may be caught; it ought to be 
propelled by the stick only. I have seen a game last 
for hours, and then be abandoned because of the day- 
light having passed away. At some matches they fight 
to time as in football. Play extends over a good 
length of ground, the line being sometimes as long as 
three hundred yards. When the writer first visited the 
Highlands, he was an eye-witness of several most 
exciting matches at shinty, the Highlanders being 
enthusiasts at playing the game. At certain seasons of 
the year bouts of play are arranged between various 
parties, as, for instance, the married and single men of 
the same parish or district, or between the bachelors of 
two neighbouring parishes. The matches on such oc- 
casions are fought with a wonderful amount of vigour 



364 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

and determination ; some of the combatants indeed are 
80 earnest in pursuit of their pastime, and so determined 
their side shall win, that they will be found fighting, 
sans all dress but their kilts. Many a sharp tussle 
occurs on the occasion of such matches, which have 
been known to end sometimes in broken shins and 
bloody noses ; when the blood " gets up " among these 
Highlanders, they are sure to get angry, and then 
begins a quarrel that may not easily be healed. I am 
unable to state the origin of the game of shinty, which 
may be classed with hockey. The word in use to 
denote the game should, some learned persons say, be 
"shinny," as that word denotes the penalty exacted 
from persons who violate the rules of the game- 
namely, a rap on the shin or ankle with the stick. 



( 365 ) 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

Curling. 

The jubilee celebration of the Royal Caledonian Curling 
Club was held in Edinburgh in 1888. Appropriately 
enough it took the form of a dinner, 350 persons sitting 
down to table. As may be supposed, there was muchr 
speech-making and much talk of the " roaring game," 
as curling has been called from the noise made by the 
stones as they career over the ice. Dinner always 
forms a feature of curling matches. Sometimes the 
sides playing make a bet, the one defeated having to 
pay for a modest dinner for those taking part. It is a 
poor club that cannot on the occasion of the annual 
match afford to dine ; the fare, the pikce de resistance at 
any rate, being of course the usual well-boiled junk of 
salt beef with the time-honoured accompaniments of 
carrots and greens ; " a noble plat i' faith," as Sir 
Walter Scott said — a dish always warmly welcomed, and 
promptly done justice to by hungry curlers fresh from 
a prolonged bonspiel, even although it has been preceded 
by well-filled tureens of hare soup " rich and ruddy," 
made from the formula left as a legacy to her country 
by Meg Dods, of the Cleikum Inn, at St. Ronan's : — 

" Let the Englishman boast o' his roast beef and radish, 
O' his pies and bis puddings, and mony things mair, 
Just gi'e me the best o' auld Scotland's ain dishes, 
The beef and the greens, the true curler's fare.** 



366 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

The dish just named, salt beef and greens, was doubt- 
less selected in early days for the curler's dinner for 
the reason that it could be supplied in true " cut-and- 
come-again " fashion at moderate price. Many of the 
keenest curlers of Scotland were (and are) poor men, not 
able to pay a share of a large dinner bill, and so in those 
days of curling, when shillings and even sixpences were 
scarce, a rule was made by most clubs that the cost 
of dinner should not exceed a sum ranging from two to 
four shillings, and for the latter sum an excellent dinner 
of soup and fish, in addition to the stereotyped salt 
beef and greens, with pies and puddings in profusion, 
not to speak of a liberal supply of the national beverage 
to be converted into toddy, was provided. In some 
clubs a stand was made in seasons of depression against 
the higher charge for dinner, which bore hard on poor 
men, who, despite their poverty, made a point of dining 
at the club. 

No end of toasts, at any rate a long string of them, 
all more or less appropriate to the work of the season 
follow, many of the speeches being well worth hearing ; 
songs well sung, and recitations powerfully given 
form a feature of such festive occasions. Some clubs 
"keep a poet" to sing in praise of the game, and 
his new " lay " is generally looked for with feelings of 
pleasure. Sometimes when " the bawbees " become 
scarce, one or two of the choice but poorer spirits of the 
club will not be present, greatly to their regret The 
following little story under this head is apropos : — A 
poor weaver, unknown to his wife, a woman of penurious 
disposition, had saved up, throughout the year, a little 
sum for his curling dinner, all in sixpences, which coins 
were hid away in an untenanted birdcage, but his antici- 



Curling. 36T 

pated pleasure was never realised. His wife thought one 
day that the cage would not be the worse for being well 
scoured ; taking it from the nail on which it was hung, 
the hidden sixpences were discovered and at once con- 
fiscated, greatly to the horror of the poor weaver, wha 
saw his anticipated feast vanish into thin air. In that 
weaver's house the grey mare was the better horse. 

To begin an essay on curling with an account of the 
dinner bill of fare is, as Scotch folks say, " putting the 
cart before the horse ; " properly some historical outline 
of the game ought first to be given. 

At the dinner in question Lord Breadalbane, who 
occupied the chair, reminded the company that, " though 
they were assembled for the purpose of celebrating and 
doing honour to the fiftieth year of the Koyal Caledonian 
Curling Club, it was by no means to be insinuated that 
the game of curling was only fifty years old. In fact, 
the exact origin of the game was not known, being lost 
in the dim ages of the past." 

There are writers about this game who maintain that 
it was introduced into Scotland by Flemish immigrants 
about the end of the fifteenth century. The pastime 
was known when Camden published his ' Britannia,' 
as he tells his readers — or rather one of Camden's trans- 
lators tells them— that, in the Uttle island of Copinsha, 
near the Orkneys, "are to be found in great plenty 
excellent stones for the game called curhng." It 
is not necessary to recapitulate the many discoveries 
made of old stones, which have been numerous. It 
may, however, be received as authentic that stones, 
bearing a pretty ancient date, have at various times 
been found; one was recovered from an old curling 
pond, beaiing the date of 1551 ; another, with the date 



368 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

of 1611, was found aear the village of Torphichen ; 
whilst a third was taken out of a loch at Eoslin, having 
the year 1613 deeply cut into it. The game was 
doubtless in full swing at the dates indicated. Curling 
stones belonging to later periods have often been found 
in walls of houses, which falling in ruins had been 
the means of their being discovered. 

When wintry weather sets in and symptoms of a good 
black frost begin to make themselves felt, the tongues 
of a curling country-side at once begin to wag, and con- 
versation is speedUy concentrated, even when going and 
coming from the kirk, on what is uppermost in the 
minds of all, namely the coming match, or the grand 
time of it that they experienced last winter. Atmo- 
spheric appearances are keenly scrutinised ; keen curlers 
know how to " measure the weather,'* anxiously scanning 
the starry firmament at night, wondering, while ao 
engaged, if the frost will hold. Bold weather prophets 
emit their fearless "yes," whilst doubting and timid 
spirits shake their wise heads and pronounce their 
" not very sure of it, after all." But hope is not to be 
extinguished. It is the eve of a great match, and 
the country-side expectant; the best curlers of six 
different districts are to take part in the contest — ^men 
of many battles who have tried their strength on the 
same ice in the fights of successive winters, and, while 
sometimes victorious, have been often beaten, but 
eagerly come up when called upon, and buckle to their 
work as if they were certain that in the end victory 
would be the reward of their skill At such a time " the 
stanes " are taken from their summer resting-place and 
carefully looked over, their settings cleaned up a bit, 
the granite receiving an application of the polishing 



Curling. 369 

cloth which causes it to shine like glass. The struggle for 
the Derby is not of greater moment to votaries of the 
Turf than the match of the season is to those around the 
place where it is to be played. 

As r^ards the formula Of the game, it can only at 
best be described in a somewhat bald manner. The 
spirit which the players infuse into it, the style of 
play, and the niceties which are characteristic of 
individual players — ^these must be seen, because much 
of what is enacted beggars description. The diagram 
of a curling rink on the preceding page is for the benefit 
of those who have never seen " a match." 

The ice is selected with care where a choice can 
be obtained ; it should be quite smooth and free from 
cracka To obtain a stretch that is absolutely level is 
not always easy ; but, if it prove to be oflF the straight, 
any bias is speedily discovered, and those playing act 
accordingly j such a contretemps adds to the zest with 
which the game is carried on. Every one playing ought 
to possess a pair of stones ; these are round and rather 
flat, not more than ten inches in diameter, made in 
many cases of polished granite ; each stone will weigh 
with its handle, taking an average, about thirty-six 
pounds^ In order to play sides are made up, usually 
four against four ; one of each four, a foreman, is known 
as the " skip.** The stones are hurled, or, as may be 
said, dashed along the ice by means of the handles pro- 
vided, the stretch of ice being usually some thirty-six 
yards long, and two or three yards broad. The object 
of the curler is to place his stone as near to the tee as 
possible. It is in the skill with which this is accom- 
plished that the interest centres. Some attempts do 

2 B 



370 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

not count ; unless the stone has beeli driven a certain 
length the eifort is barren; this position is marked 
off by what is called the hog score, represented by 
a line drawn across the ice at a given distance from 
the tee. Eival sides do everything they know, each, 
of course, being eager to secure a victory. The game 
consists of placing so many stones nearest ta- the tee, 
around which one or two rings have been placed for 
easy measurement — tees and rings and hog scores are 
all duplicated, so that players may change ends. 
(See diagram.) One of the four pf each side plays 
alternately, and it is a point of honour with every 
man to do his best to get his stone to the training 
point, or to knock away the stones of his opponents, 
and to avoid collision with those of his Own side. As 
the game progresses, the players work themselves into a 
state of great enthusiasm: any one ignorant of what 
is going on who happened to come suddenly in view 
of the scene would fancy he had fallen among Bedlam- 
ites, such is the noise and racket to which a heartily 
played bonspiel gives rise. And wonderful are the 
various phrases and expressions made use of dnring 
the continuance of a game* " Yes, wonderful indeed," 
said a dignitary of the English Church, who had just 
made his first appearance on a curling rink near Edin- 
burgh. " What does he mean by * Soop him np ' ? " 
asked the Archdeacon ; " and what am I to understand 
by ' Kittle him weel,' and that toast given at luncheon, 
pray what is ' gleg ice ' ? *' But it would require many 
pages to provide a glossary of the sayings emitted by 
curlers in the heat of their work, seeing that the curlers 
of different localities use pecidiar expressions of their 



[thenewvohk 
PUBLIC LIBRARY 



ASTOR, LEKOX AND 
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 



Curling. 371 

own relating to the game, and that each club has toasts 
of its own. 

" * Chip the winner,' * Pass the guard,* 
*Inwick' a *draw,* 

* Ettle for my broom, lad,' 

When ye come awa' ; 

* Put the weight o' your hand till't 

And drive tae the snaw,' 
Hurray for the jolly game o' curling ! " 

The stones now used in the game might be called 
works of art when compared with those at one time in 
use, drawings of which have been preserved. When 
given by way of prizes, ** stanes " are always made of 
fine material (of granite usually), and of elegant shape, 
and they are never made so heavy now as they used to 
be in " the long ago." The history of curling in its 
modem aspects, say as it has been practised during the 
present century, is well known, many of the clubs being 
in possession of annals which extend over a hundred 
years 

The history of one of these institutions, that of 
Sanquhar, in the county of Dumfries, was published by 
its secretary on the occasion of its centenary in 1874. 
The following paragraphs give a brief rhvme of the 
work: — 

It appears from the records that there has never 
been keener curlers in Scotland than those of that good 
town — who were so numerous in the year 1774, that 
upwards of sixty of them were able to meet upon the 
ice. Townspeople who took no part in the game, other 
than watching its progress, often acted to the players in 
a despotic manner, hooting and hissing them when they 
were beaten ; when the players of Sanquhar sustained 

2 B 2 



372 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

defeat, their townsmen told them they had tamiahcd 
the good name of the parish. On one occasioii irhen 
the curlers came sadly home from a match in which 
they had been worsted, the news having preceded them, 
they were received with a storm of groans and hisses, 
the state of the game in which they had taken part 
being roughly marked in chalk on the door of the town 
halL One man on such an occasion left his tink in 
tears, and, so it has been told, returned to his wiTe 
crying like a child, only to be well scolded by his 
better half. So anxiously on some occasions was 
the news of defeat or victory awaited by the ncm- 
combatants, that a little purse was made up for the 
messtoger who came first with the decisive news of an 
important bonspieL It is on record that a Sanquhar 
woman, whose husband, a keen curler, and, of course, 
member of a club, had been one year so long oat of 
work that he was unable, in his poverty, to attend a 
match to be played at a considerable distance, that she 
stood in the churchyard on the Sunday previous to the 
match, and begged die needed money from all and sundry 
so that " her man " might go to the bonapiel ! 

One day, a large number of the Sanquhar Curlers, 
thinking their side had lost the game, retired to a public- 
house, to drown their sorrows in a " wee drappie," but, 
while lamenting their sad fate, news came that their 
side, instead of losing, hsd won the game, so that the 
'' wee drappie " indulged in for consolation was speedily 
swollen into a "big drappie'' in celebration of the 
victory. 

In addition to parish rinks and district clubs, not a 
few Scottish gentlemen have a pond or lake, to which 
Aey invite their curling friends to play a friendly 



Curling. 373 

match, entertaining them to luncheon, and generally 
doing their best to make a good day for those present. 
At these friendly bonspiels good play is often witnessed, 
many taking part having a fine eye for placing their 
stones, and being well able to use the besom, in order 
to smooth the path to the tee. "It is as good as a 
well-played game of billiards ! " exclaimed the English 
Church dignitary referred to. " I have never seen such 
fineness of touch even on the board of green cloth." 

Lord Balfour of Burleigh, in his after-dinner speech 
at the Jubilee banquet, was quite right when he said 
that the curling rink afforded a meeting-place for all 
ranks and conditions of men, and that " upon the ice 
all ranks and conditions of men were equal with one 
exception, and that was that the best curler was the 
best man." His lordship, continuing, gave an amusing 
illustration of that being so. " One day in a railway 
carriage in which a party were travelling the somewhat 
tedious journey to Carsbreck (where the great match 
between North and South takes place), an individual in 
the carriage had bought a morning paper^ and while 
reading it turned to a Mend seated in the other comer of 
the compartment and said, ' £h, Geordie, A' see you are 
drawn ag^in a Lord the day." Geordie did not say much 
in reply; but, looking round, he quietly remarked, 
' Weel, maybe A'll be the Lord afore nieht. ' " 

Than their winter game no pastime is dearer to the 
country-people of Scotland, as is proved in part by the 
Scotsman having introduced curling wherever he has 
settled down to live. The Scots have been called a 
" sour " and " dour " people, but no signs of that being so 
ever become apparent on the ice, where all playing seem 
bound in the bonds of good fellowship. " There is/^ 



374 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

says a recent writer in praise of the game, " a brother- 
hood, fraternity amongst curlers; they seem bound 
by a sort of invisible tie almost stronger with them 
than the votaries of any other pastime." Curlers, at 
any rate while handling their stones, are eminently 
social ; at a match Jack is as good as his master,* and 
they meet as equals on a common platform. All are 
interested : the peer who owns the land, the farmers and 
peasants who till it ; the ministers of the parish, the 
schoolmaster, and the doctor; the village blacksmith, 
the carpenter, the mole catcher ; the " daft man " of the 
district— everybody in fact, and the wives and children 
most of aU, have their minds occupied with " the match," 
the morning of which dawns clear and cold as the 
neighbouring farmers drive into the village with buxom 
wives and winsome daughters by their side, "the 
summer of their discontent," if it be permissible to alter 
a weU-known quotation, " made glorious winter by a 
touch of frost." 

About a century and a half ago, the Lord Provost, 
magistrates, and councillors of the city of Edinburgh, 
headed by their officers in their state liveries, are reputed 
to have walked in solemn procession to witness the 
curling carried on by the citizens in the North Loch 
(now Princes Street Gardens). Edinburgh curlers since 
that time have always held their own in the game, 
many of them being in great repute on the rink. 
Happily for all concerned in curling, the professional 
betting man has not yet been permitted to make his 
appearance on the rink — on the ice there is never heard 
any shouting of " I'll take odds," or " 6 to 4 on the 
Paisley man." Some players may risk a tumbler of 
toddy or '* drinks " on the score to be made by their 



Curling^ 375 

side, and sides may be made up to play for the beef 
and greens, but, so far as I know the surroundings of 
the game, the roaring bookmaker has not yet found a 
place in connection with it, nor is he wanted. 

The literature of curling may now be briefly referred 

to ; the pastime has been time and again celebrated in 

print, in interesting and distinctive works, as well as 

in a thousand fugitive pieces, scattered throughout the 

pages of our periodical literature, whilst the encyclo- 

peediAS give formulas of the game. One or two of the 

works devoted to the rink may be briefly alluded to. 

The earliest attempt to compile a formal history of 

curling was made in the year 1811 ; the pamphlet was 

the work of a Scottish minister, the Eev. John Eamsay, 

of Gladsmuir; copies of this print have now become 

very rare, especially those printed on large paper. A 

work on ' Curling' was printed at Kilmarnock, in 1828, 

which has gone through several editions, some of them 

with " additions " ; an essay on ' Curling and Artificial 

Pond-making,' by Dr. John Cairnie, of Largo, was also 

published in the year 1833. Many local works have 

from time to time been issued from the provincial press 

— chiefly reports of dinners and meetings ; one of these 

is of more than ordinary interest, it is the * History of 

the Sanquhar Curling Society,' already referred to. 

The game has, of course, afforded no end of " matter " 
to many of the humbler Scottish poets who have written 
in its praise. An official work on curling is, I am 
glad to hear, in preparation. 

The poetry which has been " made " on curling, if not 
of a high order of merit, is generally conceived in a 
hearty and happy spirit. Few of the poems dedicated 
to the rink are of a sentimental X5ast, but the verses 



376 Out-door Sporty in Scotland. 

which follow give a fair idea of the never-feiling self-. 
esteem which is a pronoiinced feature in the character 
of all curlers, and especially of their poets : — 

** Old England may her cricket boast. 
Her wiokdts, bats, and a* that. 
And proudly her eleyen toast 
Wr right good .willy and a' that; 

For a' that, and a' that. 
The channel stone on icy plain 
Is king o' games for a' that. 

*' Green Erin's sons at wake and fair, 
Wi' roar and yell, and a' that, 
May toss shillelahs in the air 
And crack their crowns, and a* that ; 
For a' that, and a' that. 
And better far than a' that. 
Our roaring game aye keeps the flame 
0' friendship bright, for a' that." 

Like the game itself, the poems written in its h(maar 
contain a good deal of what may be called the roaring 
element in them. As a matter of &Gt, many of them 
are not a little Bacchanalian, but in ccmsequenoe are all 
the better suited for the after-dinner hours of the dubs. 
A few quotations will serve to show the kind of stuff of 
which curling songs and poems are composed. Many 
of them have been written to suit the music of popular 
tunes, and to celebrate the prowess of well-known local 
knights of the rink. 

One of these local songs begins as follows : — 

" Here's a health to the glorious name. 
In this company needless to name. 
The game of all others 
That must make men brothers, 
Three good cheers for the glorious gameii'' 



Curling. 377 

The following lines are from a poem, spoken at a pro- 
vincial dub, in honour of a victory : — 

** A hundred hats and besoms wave, 'mid that triumphant yell, 
Old bald heads throw their hat in air, and the loud chorus swell ; 
The nervous fair at distance start, the schoolboy in amaze 
Bests on his skates, and marvels much at father's loud hurras.** 

A selection of the poetic effusions which appear every 
year in the 'Annual' would make an interesting 
volume. Here is a verse or two from the latest of these 
year books : — 

'' They tell o' games in ither laodf 
Where tyrants haud their sway ; 
Gi'e me the manly game in which 

Baith peer and peasant play. 
For I've nae »kill o' games, my lads, 
That arena' for the free. 

Auld Scotland's game and Scotland's ain, 
The channel stane for me," &c. 

The following is from another of the curling songs, of 
which so many are extant — 

" When dolefu' dumps an' carkin' care 
Torment a man an' fash him sair, 
At cnrlin' let him tak' a share 

And channel stanes set birlin' 1 . 
He'll find, I'm sure, in half a crack 
His dumps a' flee, an' spunk come back, 
He'll face the de'il an' a' his pack 

After a game at curlin' 0." 

One more sample and I am done with the poetry of 
curling — 

** Enthroned in snowy splendour, 

Lo I the winter reigns around. 

And dark blue rolling waters 

Now in icy chains are bound. 



378 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

To the rink, then, let's away 
While the son smiles faint on high, 
For the western wind may hlow, boys, 
And old Winter soon must die. 

** Come, swell the glorious scene, boys. 
On the snowy plains so cold — 
Come, swell the roaring game, boys, 
With its social joys untold- 

To the rink, then, let's away," &c. 

By way of concluding these desultory remarks on 
curling, it may be stated that the game is regulated by 
the Eoyal Caledonian Club, which is to the rink what 
the Jockey Club is to horse-racing. That society was 
instituted in 1838, the want of such a governing body 
having long been felt. When the Eoyal Club was first 
proposed a committee was appointed for the purpose 
of considering the mysteries and ceremonies, as abo 
the rules and laws of the curling clubs of Scotland, and 
to prepare a mode of initiation, and a set of rules and 
regulations to be observed by the Grand Caledonian 
Curling Club, and the different curling clubs associated 
therewith. Under the auspices of the national institu- 
tion, the laws of curling were collated and revised, and 
rules laid down for the conduct of the pastime. That 
the society was required is shown by the fact that at 
the present time nearly six hundred clubs and about 
24,000 curlers obey its laws, and carry on the sport of 
the rink according to the rules laid down for their 
guidance. Under the auspices of the Royal Club there 
have been several grand matches between the societies 
of the north and south of Scotland, which have all 
excited keen interest, and attracted large crowds of 
spectators. 



( 379 ) 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

Patrons and Parasites of Sport. 

Harking back for fifty years, the grand tournament 
given at his castle in Ayrshire by the Earl of Eglinton, 
of " Flying Dutchman " celebrity, whose name is asso- 
ciated with the Derby and other sporting events of his 
day and generation, stands out as the most prominent 
social function of the year '39. The tournament would 
have undoubtedly proved a very brilliant spectacle but 
for the downpour of rain which spoiled the show, at any 
rate on the first day, when the gallant knights looked 
sad, and the brilliance of their armour was dimmed by the 
pitiless fall of water, and her majesty the queen of beauty 
was compelled to come to the lists not on her cream- 
coloured palfrey, but, alas ! in a close covered carriage 
in which no one could see her. I had something to do in 
connection with the tournament, my particular mission 
being to bring to Edinburgh an article from the pen of 
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, which he wrote on the scene 
of the chivalric show for one of the popular magazines 
of the period. I remember having had pointed out to me 
in Glasgow, while standing on the stairs leading to the 
"Buck's Head" Hotel, two of the great actors in the 
Eglinton spectacle ; one of the pair, as an old waiter 



380 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

said, was the " wicked marquis " (of Waterford), the 
other was Prince Louis Napoleon. Those who wotdd 
read of the Eglinton tournament as it should have been 
can turn to the pages of Lord Beaconsfield's brilliant 
novel of ' Endymion/ and read his description of what 
took place at Montford Castle. 

As the noble baronet, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, said 
of the Eglinton spectacle, ''Here on these two days 
were found assembled the chivalry of the kingdom, 
and all our finest women." The chief patrons of Scot- 
land's manly sports were present at the tournament, as 
many of them were afterwards at the Caledonian Hunt 
meeting at Cupar, which proved a gay and successful 
afiTair. The race meeting held at Stirling always drew 
crowds of sporting men. Mr. Eamsay of Bamton, who, 
if I am not mistaken, had at the time an estate in the 
county, always came to the front on the Stirling course. 
In that year his mare Swnheam landed the Grold Cup, 
whilst the genial laird of Ladykirk won the Sauchie 
Stakes with Berwickshire. Among those present were 
Mr, Merry, the Hon. Mr. Sandilands, Wauchope of 
Edmonston, Falconer of Carlowrie, and Mr. Mure 
Younger, of Caldwell, as also Mr. Binning Munro. 
Lord Kelbume, afterwards better known as the Eail of 
Glasgow, was in evidence- at the Paisley meeting, and 
many still living remember the sporting eccentricities 
of this generous-hearted nobleman and his dare-devil 
friends. Li the days to which I am alluding, the 
^ Western Meeting " which took place at Ayr was un- 
doubtedly the best of all the Scottish race gatherings ; 
in 1839 the Gold Cup was won by Mr. Eamsay by the 
aid of Lanereost^ amid the cheers of the *' noble throng " 
present on the occasion, '* all our sporting patrcms being 



Patrons and Parasites of Spdrt. 381. 

on the ground/' as was stated by the gentlemen of the 
jpress who then reported Scottish meetings. 

The opportunity has been taken throughout the fore- 
going pages to note in passing brief particulars of a few 
of the characters — and they have been numerous — 
connected with Scottish out-door sports in the days 
when the fourth William was our king, and since* The 
work exacted from many of the persons engaged was of 
the most humble kind, and some others who hung about 
on occasions of sporting functions might be described as 
" rogues and vagabonds/' which in reality they were. 

I shall venture to name a few of my old acquaint- 
Mices who were " always at it/' who hunted the fox^ 
coursed the hare, fished for trout, or trod the moors in 
search of grouse, and most of whom, like Tam Samson, 
one of the heroes of Bobert Bums, have crossed the 
bourne — 

^ Now safe the stately salmon sail, 
And trcmts be-dropped wi' crimson hail, 
And eels weel kenned for souple tail, 

And geds for greed — 
Since dark in death's fish creel we wail 

Tam Samson dead ! " 

It would not be difficult to arrange a long procession 
of " characters " connected with Scottish sport, leading 
off with " Money Bob," as his familiars were wont to 
call him, who had his finger during his lifetime in many 
a pie. Bob furnished the sinews of war in his day 
for more, perhaps, than a hundred sporting events^ he 
was in the latter years of his life a money-lender^ but 
never a Shylock. He began, I am told, as a public 
coachman ; from the box he gravitated to the bar of the 
Gun Tavern, then he fitted up a house in Shakespeare 



382 Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

Square (a place that is now covered by the General 
Post Office of Edinburgh), and in which men who would 
gamble in a naked way could shake " the bones " aU night 
long if it pleased them to do so, and many of the young 
bloods of the modem Athens elected to " keep it up.'* 
Afterwards the proprietor of a well-known suite of 
billiard-rooms, Bob became a bill discounter, but, so far 
as I could learn, his rates of discount for doing a *'bit 
of stiff," as he called it, were not exorbitant, and so long 
as the interest was paid he never evinced much desire 
to have the biU taken up. Many a fine hunter was 
bought by means of a biU discounted by Bob, and for 
a few sporting matches he found the money. When 
after the Edinburgh and Ayr meetings any fellow was 
short of a hundred or two. Money Bob was seldom 
appealed to in vain, if the man was at all what he 
should be or had a friend whose name was good enough 
for the amount. Bob had a couple of galloping horses 
of his own that occasionally, when puUed out at the 
local meetings, won a race. His get-up was a picture ; 
his linen was always irreproachable, his hat glossy in the 
extreme, and liis boots polished to perfection. It used 
to be said that he dressed himself carefully three times 
ev6ry day. On several occasions Bob played the part 
of judge at Musselburgh on the occasion of the Edin- 
burgh meeting, and therie were owners of horses who 
raced there who asserted that the judge was on occasiou 
oolour-bliild. When so accused, he used to smile 
meaningly, and say in his quiet way, " Ay, ay, we a' do 
it ; at least we get the blame of doing it, whether we 
do it or not." As an indication of the esteem in which 
he was held, it may be mentioned that in one week, 
shortly before his death, Bob receivedj no less than 



Patrons and Parasites of Sport. 383 

twenty-nine presents of game ! He deserved all he got ; 
he was really a good fellow. 

Many of the sportsmen of Midlothian, and the officers 

of the regiments in garrison frequented the Edinburgh 

billiard rooms, Joe Bootland, Moon, and also Taylor being 

well patronised. Whilst playing an occasional game at 

pool, I was much struck by one of the habitues of 

Taylor's. I allude to a gentleman known as "the 

Squire," who according to his own confession was down 

" on his luck ; " " but, look you," he used to say, *^ I still 

have as much left as will insure me bread and cheese 

for life." What the Squire's *' bread and cheese " meant 

will be understood, when I state that I more than once 

partook of it, having spent an occasional Saturday and 

Sunday with him at his house in Portobello. For 

breakfast we had sheep's kidneys arid mutton cutlets 

beautifully done by his housekeeper — an excellent cook ; 

then, after a walk to Fisher Eow, three miles distant, 

where the Squire would purchase a cod fish or small 

turbot, we came back to a luncheon of oat cakes and 

Stilton cheese washed down with a few glasses of prime 

Edinburgh ale, then an excellent liquor, "Scottish 

Burgundy '' it was christened by the dethroned French 

king who once lived in the palace of Holyrood. 

Luncheon finished, a run up to Edinburgh was the rule, 

and after a game or two of bUliards at one or other of 

the rooms, and a call at the Eainbow or the Cafe Eoyal, 

we would stroll to Portobello going by way of the 

King's Park to Jock's Lodge, where we halted, then after 

a glass of Madeira with two or three of the officers, a 

leisurely stroll of half-an-hour landed us at dinner. The 

menu : Ox-tail soup, delicious cuts of broiled codfish 

with oysters stewed in beef gravy. Note — Oysters were 



884 Ont-door Sports in Scotland. 

in those days plentiful and cheap. A very tasty curry 
would come next in order, followed by some of Mrs. 
Tait's excellent pancakes, and then the Squire would 
say, " Now, my good fellow, you have had your dinner." 
A few glasses of port to our cheese, and then the host 
would relate some of his shooting experiences, which had 
been extensive. I only know of one questionable act 
of the Squire's. One season he allowed himself to he 
seduced by a certain '' Mr. Peters " to spend a month on 
his moor and have as much shooting as ever he could 
stand up to. The Squire was a bom sportsman and 
could not resist an invitation to a moor or to a meet of 
the hounds, provided he was promised a good mount 
The " Mr. Peters " alluded to was a mystery, but he 
always turned up a fortnight or so before grouse shooting 
was timed to begin^ seeking for some one to spend a 
month with him at his little place. " Mr. Peters " was an 
adept in selecting a shooting, and, on the occasion of the 
Squire's visit, he had got one long coveted, a full mile 
stretch of which ran like a wedge between two of the best 
moors in the North. "Mr. Peters** did not mention 
that fact to his guest, and never hinted that the sheaves 
of com thrown down at several places had been know- 
ingly placed there to attract birds &om his neighbours' 
moors. Unfortunately there arose a scandal about the 
matter, and the poor Squire, although perfectly blame- 
less, was thought to have been "art and part," as 
we say in Scotland^ in the sharp practice of **Mr. 
Peters," who had contracted for the sale of his birds 
with a poaching game-dealer, and contrived to make 
his shooting pay handsomely. No one knew who this 
man was ; he was a good player at pool, and always 
stood on his dignity ; after one night rebuking a fellow- 



Patrons and Parasites of Sport. 385 

player for calling him '* Peters/' the prefix of " Mr." 
was afterwards always ostentatiously added whenever 
it became necessary to address him. What became of 
this person I could never learn, he disappeared . from 
the billiard rooms as quietly as he came to frequent 
them. 

One of the Squire's reputed feats may be here related. 
For a wager of twenty pounds he engaged to hit with a 
pistol bullet twenty out of twenty-five George the Third 
penny-pieces placed in a row, each one distant three 
inches from the other, and all placed at the same height ! 
The peculiarity of the feat was that the Squire under- 
took to fire blindfold at the coins, the bandage being 
removed by agreement three times in the course of the 
performance. I was not an eye-witness of this feat of 
the Squire's, but, as it was talked about, have no 
doubt it took place. On one occasion twenty-one of the 
pennies are said to have been hit, almost in the centre. 
Another remarkable feat of the Squire's, which was 
greatly talked about at the time, was his having twice 
in one night made a ten stroke at billiards ! 

It is not to be expected that I shall say a word here 
regarding the ** young bloods " of the period I am writing 
about ; some of whom are now very grave gentlemen 
indeed ; I do not pun when I say so, as I am speaking 
of those who are still alive. Many of the then happy 
young fellows are, however, dead. The sons of a great 
man of the North, who had a big estate and plenty of 
sport, all died in exile and in poverty. The Charles 
Edward Stewart who died lately in London, and his 
brother John Sobieski, who, in the days I refer to, used 
to pose in Edinburgh as descendants of the Pretender, 
were fond of having a quiet bout at billiards, and once 

2 c 



386 Out'door Sports in Scotland. 

or twice I had the pleastire of marking for them. 
Charles Edward, if I am not mistaken, was, when he 
died, something in the wine trade in the great metro- 
polis. They published, I remember, with Tait of 
Edinburgh, a work on Scottish tartans, which they 
entitled the * Vestiarium Scoticum,' and they enjoyed, 
if I am not in error, through the kindness of Lord 
Lovat, plenty of sport at a charming place in the 
county of Inverness, called EQean Aigas. 

Descending now from princes to peasants, I wonder 
how many in Edinburgh will recollect " Cuddy Wully "; 
very few, I fancy, as he was growing old when I knew 
him. The first time I was present at a coursing match 
on the north end of Corstorphine Hill, I saw a hunch- 
back composedly looking on from the back from, I am 
sure, the largest ass that was ever seen. *'Who is 
that ? " I said to the slipper. " Oh, that is Cuddy 
Wully," he replied ; " have you never seen bim before ? " 
I never had, but afterwards beheld him frequently, and 
often had a chat with him. He had a mania to be an 
onlooker at all kinds of sport, no matter the distance he 
required to travel to see it. The last time I sfciw him 
was at a fishing match on the river Almond ; there were 
half-a-dozen competitors along with a few friends to see 
the sport. I was astonished as we approached an old 
bridge to see perched upon.it " Cuddy Wully" on his 
patient ass ; the match having been kept as private as 
possible, I never knew how he learned it was to take 
place. It was a somewhat curious circumstance that, 
as " Cuddy WuUy " was being carried to his grave on 
spokes by eight bearers in the old homely Scottish fashion, 
a party of huntsmen and lookers-on at sport came up 
to the funeral procession, and on learning whose funeral 



Patrons and Parasites of Sport. 387 

it was all of them uncovered and allowed the mourners 
to pass on to a lonely kirkyard " close by the sands of 
the sea." A still more curious fact comes to my 
memory as I recall the burial of Cuddy Wully — ^it is 
that the old man who dug his grave, the sexton of the 
parish, had officiated during the season as earth-stopper 
to the hunt, taking for a time the place of his son, who 
was confined to his bed for several months from the 
effects of a kick given by one of the himters at a meet 
near Queensferry. 

I shall now take leave to say a few words about a 
Midlothian family of my acquaintance, the Omits, all 
of whom, as may be said, were parasites of the trees of 
sport Old John, the mole-catcher, was well employed 
far and near, and was a dexterous hand at his business ; 
he occasionally officiated as an earth-stopper, and was 
by ^'profession" a hedger and ditcher. Young Bob 
was employed as a trainer of greyhounds, and as occa- 
sional slipper at coursing meetings. Tam wsts learning 
to be a gardener at Lauriston Castle, when I first knew 
the family. Old « Mother Omit " and Bell, the eldest 
daughter, were frequently employed by the neighbouring 
foresters in *' barking " ; all the family worked, and 
attended church regularly. It was noticed, too, that 
they had good clothing and looked well fed. In course 
of time it leaked out that the Omits did a lUUe in the 
poaching way, but the little was ultimately found to be 
a great deal. Every member of the family poached, 
" Mother " being the leading spirit in the business — ^an 
adept in robbing the nests of the pheasants, but only 
taking an egg at a time. Old Bob got as many hares as 
he could carry, and an uncle, who was head carter 
to the goods delivery contractor of a steamboat 



388 . Out-door Sports in Scotland. 

company trading from Leith to London and other ports, 
had great facUities for disposing of the surreptitiously 
obtained birds and beasts of sport, and so for a time 
the Omits flourished exceedingly. 

I need not weary my readers by stating how they 
were discovered, or by reciting the story of their flight 
to America, where I was told they had succeeded in 
settling themselves in a prosperous manner. These 
reminiscences might be greatly prolonged, as all Scottish 
sports have in times past had their hangers-on, just as 
they have to-day. Well-known faces were to be seen 
at the hunts, men who would rather earn a sixpence by 
holding a horse or stopping an earth than a shilling at 
some more legitimate employment. I have brief 
chronicles of many such stored away in old note-books, 
but shall not venture to bring them before the curtain 
at present. 




LONDON : PRINTED BY Wii. CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
STAHFOED STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 



i 



I 'j'^^yy-ici.j.i"-^ 



JUL "-- 1942