14 THE GROUSE 



it is very difficult now to say. Love of 

 sport has been a national characteristic in 

 all ages, and, as has been said, has had its 

 highest development in our own country. 

 Complimentary huntings seem to have 

 been often given, as they still are, on the 

 visits of friends. There seem also to have 

 been occasions in former centuries when 

 the heads of clans or tribes, accompanied 

 by many of their followers, met at 

 appointed rendezvous, ostensibly for pur- 

 poses of sport, but where and when other 

 business, such as the settlement of inter- 

 tribal differences, was discussed, and if 

 possible adjusted. Nor have the forests 

 and the chase been without their romantic 

 and poetic celebrations. One of these 

 " nature's bards," Duncan (Ban) M'Intyre, 

 who flourished in the latter half of the 

 eighteenth century in the mountainous 

 region bordering the counties of Perth 

 and Argyll, has had the honour paid to 

 his gifts and memory of having had one 

 of his most beautiful productions, Spring 

 in Bendonran, originally written in the 



