88 EEMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



on the 12th of August, and I cannot help suspecting 

 that in order to make up the hundred brace, a fair 

 proportion of squeakers were included. It was sup- 

 posed at the time that Mr. Campbell's object in making 

 this great slaughter amongst his grouse was to obtain a 

 good annual rent for the grouse shooting on his moor, 

 and as this singular day's sport found its way into the 

 newspaper, it is probable Mr. Campbell obtained a good 

 sporting tenant from the south. In 1856, 1 heard from 

 a friend whose son was shooting in Scotland that it was 

 the worst season that had been known for a great many 

 years. In the spring, the weather had been so severe 

 as to destroy many of the young birds ; and at a more 

 advanced period of the summer some epidemic disease 

 had destroyed a vast number of the old and young 

 birds, and that a considerable proportion of those that 

 were shot were not fit for the table.* To obviate in 

 some measure this evil, it was considered absolutely ne- 

 cessary by some of the best sportsmen to give the grouse 

 a jubilee in the season of 1857. If this was not done, 

 many of the gentlemen who rented moors, intended to 

 give them up, for to continue their destruction might 

 be compared to killing the goose to get the golden eggs. 

 I have heard that the grouse on the moors f in the 

 northern counties of England had escaped the disease. 

 At the table of families where I visited, grouse coming 



* By the perusal of the following note, it will be seen that there was 

 excellent shooting in Caithness, when on 60,000 acres, of which 10,000 

 were kept as a deer forest, in 17 days with usually 4 guns, 1000 brace 

 of grouse, 60 brace of black game, besides some hares, were shot. 



t On the farm of Conybovdd, Corgaff, Strathdon, in April 1858, a 

 grouse dropped her eggs in a corn-field, opposite the farm house. So 

 near an approach to cultivated fields and human habitation is rery rare 

 in this wild bird of the moors. 



