498 THE GROUSE IN HEALTH AND IN DISEASE 



Of the above the item of wages to extra keepers, Grouse drivers, etc., has 

 already been dealt with. Many others do not directly benefit the local corn- 

 Household EQunity, but the most essential of all, viz. — household supplies — is 

 supplies. q£ ^jjg utmost importance. It is true that some shooting tenants 

 obtain many of their stores direct from London, but, even so, there are 

 numerous necessaries of life, e.g., butter, milk, eggs, poultry, forage, meat, 

 fish, mineral waters, etc., etc., which can only be procured upon the spot, and 

 wherever there is a local tradesman within a reasonable distance of the 

 shooting lodge he makes a point of catering for the sporting tenants on such 

 lines as will secure their patronage. Probably more than half the household 

 supplies are purchased in the district. So far as Scotland is concerned the 

 average annual sum so expended would, on the basis of the gross shooting rent, 

 amount to about £225,000, to which has to be added a further sum to include 

 sundry payments for the hire of dogs and their keep, hiring of horses, carriages, 

 etc., carting, and various other incidental expenses. Altogether the indirect 

 benefit derived from the shooting tenants in Scotland cannot amount to less 

 than £300,000, representing the circulation in rural districts of money which, 

 but for the existence of the Grouse, would have been spent elsewhere, or not 

 at all. 



In Encrland the indirect benefit derived from the shootingr tenant is less 

 than in Scotland, owing to the fact that in the former country many of the 

 moors are shot from a neighbouring hotel or country house, and it is seldom 

 that a shooting party takes up its residence on or near the moor for any length 

 of time. Still even in England incidental expenses are incurred for hiring, hotel 

 expenses, supplies, etc., which might be reasonably estimated at a sum equivalent 

 to 20 per cent, of the gross annual rental, making a total sum of, say, £50,000 

 spent in the districts. 



From the foregoins figures and estimates it will be seen that the value of 

 Grouse shootings as a factor in the national prosperity may be stated in figures 

 as follows : — 



Gross rents received ..... £1,270,000 

 Gross wages earned ..... 464,000 

 Indirect receipts by the district . . . 350,000 



£2,024,000 



