HEATHER - BURNING 395 



who had leased the sporting rights of their farms, and who spoke of doubling and 

 trebling the bag of Grouse by burning tracts of ground in order to get the land back 

 into the proper rotation for sheep, viz., one-tenth of the moor burned per annum. 



The rejjorts of these and other successes obtained by heavy burning were not 

 long in being spread abroad. Partly from increase of knowledge, and partly to 

 satisfy the sheep interest, more intelligent methods were pursued. On Change of 

 many estates the principle was adopted — " The shepherds light the po^^^y- 

 fire, the keepers put it out." As a principle rather than as a practical usage this 

 is not far from the ideal. The shepherd wants the acreage burned for food, the 

 keeper wishes the patch or strip method maintained for the segregation of birds. 



Matters in the early seventies were thus proceeding through the usual course 

 of friction and inquiry towards mutual understanding and settlement, when in 

 1872 and 1873 the great disease year occurred.^ 



Just as 1881, by the introduction of the Ground Game Act, may be described 

 as the Jena of the rabbit, so for a very different reason 1872 and 1873 may 

 be said to be the Austerlitz of the Grouse. From end to end of the Grouse 

 area an epidemic created unparalleled destruction ; authorities realised that old 

 methods must give place to new ones, and from that date the intelligent manage- 

 ment of moors may be said to have commenced. 



Broadly speaking, we may divide the history of heather-burning into three 

 periods, not always synchronous, but through which the majority of moors 

 have passed at one time or another. 



1800 to 1850, when the heather was burned by the shepherds in wide tracts, 

 and one - tenth of the moor was fired every year without any attempt at 

 scientific burning. During this period shooting rents were low. Large ist Period 

 blocks of land were hired in Scotland for as many sovereigns as they now ^ *° 

 fetch hundreds of pounds. The frequently quoted example of the sporting rights 

 of the Island of Lewis, hired by Lord Malmesbury for a period of years for £25 

 per annum, is a case in point. At this time few moors were rented in England, 

 and although Grouse driving had just begun in Yorkshire the results generally 

 were not great, and the flint-lock, contemporary writers tell us, still had its 

 devotees in the firing line ! Mr Suowie of Inverness was the only shooting 

 agent for Scotland, and the names of moors for hire could be contained on a 

 single sheet of foolscap. 



1850 to 1873 marks the transition period of heather-burning. Moors generally 



' Vide vol. ii. Appeiidi.K I. 



