'After Orders.

'Two waggons to go off to-morrow to Inverness (the nearest markettown, forty-two miles off) for oatmeal, corn, groceries, and other household articles, wines, &c.'

It is enough to say, the Colonel, on leaving his shooting-lodge, fished and shot his way through the country on his road homewards. We must not, however, omit one incident he mentions, which proves that he was not quite singular in his northern expedition. Being at Inverness, he says, 'The rooms are comfortable, the landlord very attentive, and anxious to give satisfaction. I found two English gentlemen were in the house, to whom I introduced myself; and if some other gentlemen had remained an hour longer, the only Englishmen in the Highlands, on the same plan, would have met together, and, by giving an account of our different sport, no doubt we should have passed a very joyous evening, which happened as it was.'

But at a period much more recent than the date of Colonel Thornton's book it was not uncommon for some adventurous sportsman to make a sporting tour in Scotland, with all the paraphernalia of guns and dogs and fishing-gear, shooting across country and fishing every salmon river he came to. Assuming him to be a gentleman, he not unfrequently, on sending his card with a polite request for a day's grousing or fishing, found himself the honoured guest of the proprietor, who, not content with giving him a friendly welcome under his own roof, would forward him with credentials to friends at a distance, by whom he was tolerably certain to be as hospitably entertained. In fact, the society and conversation of an agreeable stranger was rather a boon to those who, living in remote localities, had but rare opportunities of hearing what was going on in the great world from persons who had actually played a part in it; while the stranger, on the other hand, not unfrequently found himself in the society of persons of taste and cultivation which he had scarcely looked for in those remote districts. Scotch hospitality was proverbial: it is so now, but the number of strangers now distributed through the country naturally prevents its being exercised in the same indiscriminate and openhanded fashion.

One of the last-we should say, judging from the circumstance of his being found in such high latitudes, the last-of these sportsmen errant we ourselves encountered not quite twenty years ago in Orkney. This gentleman will be well remembered there, as he had, for some few seasons, made the Hills of Hoy, which afford very fair grouse-shooting, his own. He arrived at

Kirkwall

Kirkwall on the evening of the tenth of August, accompanied by his keeper and a brace or two of pointers, as confident in his purpose to be out on the twelfth as though he were paying a rent for the ground. Great, however, was his discomfiture when an advertisement in the local paper made him aware that the whole district was thenceforth strictly preserved, and that 'all trespassers after game would be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law.' His consternation was only equalled by the conviction he seemed to entertain of the injustice done to him personally. We never saw him again. Whether he resisted, as he emphatically declared he would do, the right of the proprietors of the land to exclude him from their own property, or whether he went on to Shetland on speculation, is uncertain. Most likely, however, the pressure from behind drove him in time to Iceland, may be to Spitzbergen.

Thus it would appear that the field was already closed to the migratory shooter, that the importance and moneyed value of the shootings was recognised in the extreme North. We must go back yet two decades to arrive at the date when the proprietor of wild moor and mountain first became aware that his possessions were acquiring a new importance, were to yield him a return such as he never could have dreamed of; but he could scarcely then have understood how their value should go on steadily increasing from year to year through the growing demand for shooting-ground.

It is not to be imagined that the resolution of letting their land for sporting purposes could have been adopted without hesitation on the part of the proprietors. That a strong feeling did exist on the subject in the first instance is certain. Naturally enough, there was a something repugnant to the just pride of the Highland gentleman in the very idea of parting with his seigneurial rights, even for a season; and the turning into a commercial commodity what had ever been considered a privilege of the family was regarded as an act derogatory to the dignity of the laird. But it did not require much time nor long deliberation to overcome these scruples; the advantage to be gained was too manifest to be long ignored, and the country gradually became tenanted by men of the South. A new system of game-preserving was introduced; many of the wild spirits, who found the attractions of the 'hill' too great to be resisted even in defiance of the law, found employment as keepers or gillies, and were thus enabled to indulge their inclinations in an honest and legitimate way. An onslaught was made on the so-called vermin, winged and fourfooted. The eagle and all the hawk tribe, the crow and the raven, hitherto unmolested, were declared outlaws; the fox and Vol. 118.-No. 235. the

the marten and the wild cat-all enemies of the now precious bird-were persecuted by every newly-imported engine of destruction, every contrivance of snare and trap and poison; and the grouse, delivered from their natural destroyers, increased in quantity sufficient to meet the demands made upon them by their new assailants.

To obtain an adequate estimate of the extent of ground thus parcelled off into shootings in Scotland, it would be necessary to see it mapped. It is not too much, however, to say that threefourths of the high ground, or, to speak more correctly, of the wild moorland north of Tweed, pays a shooting-rent to the proprietor, and not of the mainland only. The shootings of the Western Islands have been, more or less, in the market. In Skye and the Lewis, the entire country, with the exception of a comparatively small territory retained by one or two proprietors, is let off in moor or forest; room, too, is found for the Southern sportsman even in Orkney, where grouse are less abundant, and where seals and wildfowl must help to furnish the day's shooting.

A comparatively small surface of this vast range of wild country has been forested. The term 'foresting' simply means the taking the sheep off the ground and giving it up to deer. The districts selected for this purpose are usually in the more remote and mountainous regions, untraversed by track or roadway, where the deer may enjoy perfect quiet and roam unmolested and unscared by the sight of the passing stranger.

This act of foresting has brought down upon the devoted heads of the owners of the land an immense amount of unmerited abuse and angry remonstrance on the part of well-meaning but mistaken philanthropists and political economists. They appear to assume that every landed proprietor is under a moral obligation not only to render his property food-producing, but also to keep it food-consuming to its utmost capability,-that whoever infringes this moral law is wanting in his duty to the common weal.

Without entering into this vexed question, we must object one conclusion of the opponents of this system. They argue, that with the sheep the inhabitants of the neighbourhood are removed-the country depopulated. Now, we are supported by more than one authority in stating that a forest employs far more individuals than a sheep-farm would do; about as many, indeed, as the sheep-farm and the grouse-shootings of the moor together would do (supposing the latter were so let). First, it should be remembered that one shepherd can take charge of from five hundred to a thousand sheep. Again, that the land forested is for the most part in the more elevated districts,

tricts, where the sheep and cattle cannot exist for about five months of the year, viz. from about the end of October to the end of March; and therefore every sheep-farmer is obliged to have as much pasture on the low ground in woods, &c., as, combined with the feeding on turnips (now adopted by many for their wedders), will suffice to keep the stock during the long winter. This is called the wintering, and it is obvious that the production must be limited to the amount of stock for which wintering can be obtained. It is very doubtful whether it could be, by any means, found sufficient for as much stock as might be raised upon the whole higher grazings of the Highlands, including the parts now forested, since there is great competition for it, and flocks travel sometimes forty, fifty, even as much as a hundred miles to their wintering ground. In this, however, as in other matters, the increased means of locomotion are beginning to tell, and many farmers have lowland as well as highland farms.

Most of the clearances, as they are called-in other words, the ejecting the small farmers and cotters-in many parts of the Highlands, were effected for another purpose: for throwing the small farms together and letting them to men of capital and enterprise. Mr. Colquhoun, in a note, says :

'A great outcry has been raised against the "Highland clearances," and much obloquy cast upon the proprietors of these remote islands and localities for turning adrift their dependents. Many of these poor creatures, although suffering every privation, refuse to emigrate, even when given all reasonable encouragement. It is a hard case, but what can the lairds do? To give employment by reclaiming such land is out of the question, and to support such numbers of starving people would ruin the estate. The only resource, now that the kelp trade has failed, is to reduce the population, at the same time enlarging the grazing farms (the surest return in the Highland districts), and giving leases to respectable Highland tenants.'*

We have gone thus out of our way to repel the charge so freely made against the proprietors of forests, by endeavouring to show that the depopulation of certain districts in the Highlands is due to another and more worthy motive.

The deer-forests let at fabulous rents; but it must be borne in mind that the proprietor has the right to require, at the least, what his land would produce if doubly let, for grazing and for shooting. The deer must pay the rent of the sheep-farm, and interest on the cost of lodges and roads of access, as well as for the privilege of roaming undisturbed in his corries.

The Moor and the Loch,' note, p. 2.

c 2

The

The aggregate, however, of these two returns would scarcely amount to the sums usually paid for deer-forests, which command, in fact, a fancy price, since there are comparatively few of them in the market; moreover, the glorious excitement of a pursuit in which, more perhaps than in any other wild sport, a man is dependent for success on his own resources, his own energy, pluck, and skill, gives to the taste for deerstalking the intensity almost of a passion that must be gratified, however great the sacrifice be to be made for its indulgence.

There is no reason why the Highland proprietor should be blamed for doing only what every landowner in England and elsewhere feels justified in doing-the disposing of his acres in the manner calculated to make him the most advantageous return. It may be taken for granted, that whenever the demand for sheep and cattle shall cause their price to rise so that it will remunerate the farmer for giving such a rent as will overbid the tenant of the deer-forest, the land will be occupied by flocks and herds.

That a considerable tract of country being under game alone must affect supplies of beef and mutton, to a certain extent, is true; but it is equally true, that in consequence of the introduction of an improved system of farming, a great many more sheep are bred in the Highlands at the present day than there were before foresting came into vogue; but fewer black cattle. Horses are dispensed with; fewer people employed; their wages and food are saved, and there is more grazing; the land not being required to yield other crops. The increased demand for butcher's meat is caused, not by the scarcity of the supply, but rather by the increased population, as well as by the present high rate of wages enabling certain classes to live on it, who, years ago, could not afford to do so.

It is very difficult to arrive at anything like an estimate of the moneyed value of the shootings. It varies greatly in different localities; but as railway communication is extended, and distant places are brought nearer in point of time, and made easier of access, the prices are becoming more and more equalised. These are likewise affected by the nature of the ground, its being easy or difficult to walk over; by its reputation for game; by the facilities afforded for obtaining supplies, as well as for postal communication,-and among the many temptations set forth in the florid advertisements of shootings to let,' is frequently to be seen that of a 'mail-gig passing the lodge.'

We have obtained from various quarters, and from persons well qualified to speak authoritatively on the subject of 'Scotch moors,' a mass of information which it is by no means easy to digest or set in order; and, even if it were so, we should be debarred from