34 A HIGHLAND LAIRD 



battue^ when you have, the lower grounds driven in a 

 narrowing circle of beaters towards the guns that are 

 stationed on the heights above. You may roll them 

 over then by hundreds, or even by thousands ; and it 

 must be owned they come as a godsend to the High- 

 land kitchen, where the soup is made on the liberal 

 receipt of the Ettrick Shepherd half a dozen hares to 

 each tureen. 



Walking over the grouse-ground you come upon 

 sheep in each grassy hollow ; and although they may 

 be sufficiently picturesque objects, with their shaggy 

 fleeces and their curling horns, yet they are decided 

 nuisances in many ways. The shepherds may be on 

 bad terms with the gillies, and may revenge themselves 

 on the grouse-eggs and the young broods, which they 

 naturally come across in the course of their peregrina- 

 tions. The collies in any case are always disturbing 

 the ground ; and on the very day you have devoted 

 to a favourite beat you find that the herds of sheep are 

 being driven in, and gathered in flocks to be numbered. 

 In the solitudes of the forest of Auchnaclosky there is 

 no nuisance of the kind. There you are absolutely 

 alone with nature, and the red deer, and the " vermin " 

 that are carefully kept up in order to keep down the 

 grouse. Auchnaclosky consists of a conglomeration of 

 half-inaccessible hills, split up by the deep precipitous 

 valleys that lead to nowhere in particular. Unless you 

 were as much at home in these as the laird himself, or 

 the keepers who have charge of that portion of his 

 grounds, you would be perpetually landing yourself in 



