ON GROUSE-DRIVING 159 



through the acquisition of some Naboth's 

 vineyard, and, generally speaking, a more 

 business-like way of going about things 

 than in the more casual and desultory 

 sport of other days. 



In the Highlands it must be admitted 

 that the material advantages of driving 

 are not placed beyond doubt, and may 

 be called in question with some justice. 

 Though driving has steadily increased 

 there of late years, and individual moors 

 can show striking results, yet it is doubtful 

 whether there has been any increase in 

 the general stock of grouse, and there are 

 probably fewer grouse on the Highland 

 hills to-day than there were sixty years 

 ago. 



But whatever may be said of the High- 

 lands (and an able writer 1 has clearly shown 

 how one of the chief ends of driving is 

 defeated in mountainous country, where 

 the tops, on which the old birds mostly 

 live, lie above and outside the driven area), 



1 Mr. A. Stuart- Wortley, The Grouse, " Fur and 

 Feather Series." 



