24 THE GROUSE 



with, on the other hand, less freedom 

 perhaps, less isolation, and withdrawal 

 from the worries and tyrannies of modern 

 social life. The equipments of a first- 

 class moor or deer forest are now nearly 

 all on a very elaborate and expensive 

 scale. Nothing in the economy of sport 

 in the British Isles exhibits a more striking 

 contrast when the past is compared with 

 the present. Few and simple were the 

 requisites of the shooting tenant of fifty 

 years ago ; while a description of the 

 establishment and outfit of the present 

 day of even a far-away Highland shoot- 

 ing lodge would be enough to disturb the 

 rest of many hardy gentlemen sportsmen, 

 whose simple, homely, natural lives and 

 modest necessities remain in the memories 

 of some of their youthful contemporaries. 

 Going still farther back, though to a far 

 less remote period than the monarchical 

 and great feudal hunts before spoken of, 

 great Highland chiefs, when they sallied 

 out to shoot over distant parts of their 

 estates, were content to abide in dwellings 



