REMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 89 



Now, as to the other diflB.culty, of heather- 

 burning, there was too much and too little 

 burnt. The sheep-farmer, who paid high rents 

 — as he said, at least, — not being bound by his 

 lease to burn only a certain portion of the 

 ground yearly, and that only as sanctioned by 

 the keepers, of course practically burnt as he 

 liked. It was all very well recommending him 

 from head-quarters not to burn but as agreed 

 upon between him and the shooting tenant; 

 but self-interest is self-interest ; and, though I 

 generally pulled well with the sheep-farmers, 

 still, very often, just what ought not to have 

 been burnt was burnt. Now, as to the poor 

 tenants' grounds, it was precisely the reverse. 

 They did not care much about burning, but, 

 as to the rank old heather that ought to have 

 been burnt, I never could get them to burn 

 that, because they declared it was the only 

 protection they had for their sheep in winter ; 

 and it would have been as wrong as it would 

 have been impolitic in me to have used anything 

 like coercion with them. Between the two 

 systems, however, we throve badly. Over large 

 tracts we had either no heather or too much. 



My factotum at this time was one Cameron, 

 who had been Burnaby's henchman, and was a 

 jack-of-all-trades, and at that time a consider- 



