CHAPTER II 



ECONOMIC VALUE OF GROUSE MOORS 



It has been stated that the popularity of 

 grouse and other shootings, as we now 

 know them, is of comparatively recent date. 

 All through the centuries when, as we have 

 seen, the pastime of hunting both feathered 

 and four-footed wild animals was an ad- 

 diction of the monarchs and their great 

 feudal lords, it is not recorded that either 

 forest or chase, within which these sports 

 were pursued, possessed any monetary 

 value, or were in any respect the subjects 

 of commerce or contract. It was not till 

 the first quarter of the nineteenth century 

 was well advanced that letting of shootings 

 for hire could be traced, and up to the 

 middle of this century the rents obtained 

 for even exclusive and very extensive 



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