PERTHSHIRE. 203 



which, however, the forces of Nature can usually 

 accomplish but too well without the aid of witchcraft. 

 The cloth worn as the most suitable to this forest 

 is a peculiar slate-grey, which varies very much in 

 appearance according to the light in which it is 

 viewed, but doubtlessly well adapted to sunshine 

 and shadow on stony ground. The "Atholl grey" 

 was introduced about one hundred years ago by 

 the fourth Duke, whose foresters' dress then consisted 

 of an Atholl grey swallow-tailed coat, " yests to 

 match " (as my tailor's bill puts it), red and green 

 Tartan hose, with an Atholl Tartan kilt, the 

 whole being topped by an Atholl bonnet — a sort of 

 Balmoral, one, with a red, green, and white diced 

 band, identical with the regimental ribbon of the 

 old 25th King's Own Borderers, now the Scottish 

 Borderers. When the present Duke succeeded in 

 1864, he substituted black and red worsted hose for 

 the Tartan ones, modernized the cut of the coat, while 

 an Atholl grey stalking-cap, with peaks fore and aft 

 and ear-flaps, took the place of the bonnet, and 



