I 



366 KEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



There are plenty of blackgame, grouse, ptarmigan, 

 partridges, blue hares, and roe-deer on these hills, 

 which have increased under Lord Malmsbury's rule, 

 and I was much pleased with the gamekeeper Scott, 

 with his intelligence, walking, and attention. Stuart's 

 walking pleased me very much ; when a younger man, 

 beings mvself a ffood walker, I used to notice all who 

 walked with me, but I do not remember one who 

 could compare with John Stuart. Upright as a dart, 

 his step not over long, though he stands more than 

 six feet high, is quick, steady, and elastic, and capable 

 of any distance or endurance. He walks over the 

 face of slippery rocks, on the edge of precipices that 

 would turn most heads giddy, with his hands as 

 carelessly in his pockets as a man's might be who 

 perambulated a gravel walk. 



There is an abuse existino; in the Hio;hlands which, 

 if those prone to it do not take care, will one day 

 correct itself, and that to their decided loss. It is 

 that if the foresters are natives of the place, if they 

 detect a clansman poaching, they will not " tell on 

 him." It is a pity this, because it very naturally 

 disinclines a gentleman to employ the local foresters 

 in a charge for which he pays a very high rent ; and 

 if the native keepers or foresters do not take care, 

 they will find themselves superseded by strangers. I 

 know that this practice exists over all the Highlands, 

 and if I had it in my power I would caution the 

 local population against the error, and teach them 

 that, when in charge of a valuable property, it is as 

 much their duty to punish a clansman who offends as 

 to convict a stranger. Circumstances that have lately 

 happened in the north, and, indeed, the passage of 

 every hour of our lives, ought to show to non-resident 



