INVERNESS-SHrRE. 147 



could pasture where they listed all the day through, 

 on the strictest understanding that every beast 

 should be herded back to the shieling each even- 

 ing, and any that were left in the forest were 

 liable to be poinded, only to be recovered by the 

 payment of a smart fine, all of which regulations 

 worked very well in those days. 



After 1745 the whole of the Badenoch forests 

 except Gaick were let as grazings, but this forest 

 the Duke of Gordon kept in his own hands as deer 

 ground until 1788, when it also was let as a sheep 

 walk, and so remained until 1826, when it was once 

 again placed under deer. 



Gaick covers between twelve and thirteen thousand 

 acres of fine stalking ground, and now belongs to Sir 

 George Macpherson Grant of Ballindalloch, who 

 bought it in 1830 from the Duke of Gordon, and 

 as showing what a desirable forest this is, it may 

 be mentioned that since that time it has had but 

 five tenants. For the last twenty-one years it was 

 held by the late Colonel John Hargreaves, of Maiden 



