298 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



two after this I became too ill to stalk deer, and Lord Malms- 

 bury went to Gusa and the mountains beyond. Here he saw a 

 fine stag, who was pointed out by Donald Stuart, known to his 

 foresters as " the great cart-wheel deer," from his horns forming 

 almost a circle, and nearly meeting at the top. This stag had 

 not been seen by the keepers for two years, and was not one of 

 those I saw, when, after a long and most difficult stalk, as the 

 stag was not stationary but fed on, Lord Malmsbury killed him, 

 giving to his gun fourteen stags out of sixteen shots, a success 

 which, if equalled, cannot be surpassed, and adding to the halls 

 and rooms at Achnacarry a head to cut down almost all, if 

 not all, the other trophies. 



There are plenty of black-game, 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, 

 being myself a good 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 existing in the Highlands 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 foresters do not take care they will find themselves superseded 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 



