240 DAYS OF DEER-STALKING. 



" No, I do not ; was he a Badenoch man?" 



" Not exactly ; nor had he Badenoch cooks that I ever 

 heard of." 



The parties now met, and exchanged greetings and con- 

 gratulations. There were six first-rate harts slain at the 

 wood, and two lesser harts and two hinds at the peat-stacks. 

 The Duke of Atholl's deer (he had shot three in all) were 

 the largest ; for he had ever a quick eye, and an amazing 

 tact in selecting his quarry. One of these was lying on the 

 moor unable to rise, but still alive. It proved to be the 

 large mouse-coloured hart which had escaped the stalkers 

 at Cairn Cherie, and whose fate had been prophesied. A 

 hill-man, unaccustomed to treat with such dangerous ani- 

 mals, went up to him and seized him by the horns without 

 ceremony. An evil deed it was for him ; for the stag, toss- 

 ing up his head, cut him with one of his brow antlers 

 between the eyes, dividing the flesh up his forehead, and 

 giving him a frightful wound. The poor fellow ran up to 

 the Duke, and saying, :< Yon was an unco crabbed beast," 

 fell senseless at his feet. He soon recovered himself, how- 

 ever, and was kindly administered unto, the men deluging 

 his wound with whiskey, which they esteemed a sovereign 

 remedy for all evils under the sun. 



Ponies had been kept in readiness to take home the deer ; 

 they were a hardy race, redundant in mane and tail, and 

 contemners of the bridle. Amongst these was one known 

 by the name of " Old Blair Pony," who had always the 

 honour of bringing home the Duke's deer. It was an office 

 he delighted in ; and he was wont to evince his sense of 

 pleasure by rubbing his muzzle in the blood, and by towz- 

 ling the beast, as Squire Western has it. 



Two or three sportsmen discharged their rifles at the 

 gillies' bonnets, at the distance of a hundred paces, the 

 gillies wisely pulling them off and planting them in the 

 heather, and not standing the shot themselves, as did the 

 Gown-cromb of Badenoch. The light infantry galloped 

 home on their ponies ; then followed the shelties, each with 

 a hart corded on his back, with the head and horns upper- 

 most: these were attended by a group of hill-men and 

 gillies, in their kilts and plaided tartans ; some urging on 



