FIEST AND SECOND EDITIONS. XI 



communications from himself, but also for other intelligence 

 which I have obtained by his means, and through his in- 

 fluence. 



The Duchess Countess of Sutherland has condescend- 

 ingly procured for me a full account of her magnificent 

 possessions in the North, which has been most ably put 

 together by Mr. Taylor, to whose skill and diligence I am 

 greatly indebted. I wish my limits had permitted me to 

 publish the whole of his interesting document ; but I have 

 inserted the most essential parts of it, in detached places, 

 where I thought they would be most effective, and I beg 

 to offer my best thanks for them. 



To my old friend Mr. John Crerar*, the king of 

 sportsmen and good fellows, I owe a long-standing debt 

 of gratitude, not only for past instructions in the art of 

 deer-stalking, and the various nice points and subtleties 

 it embraces, but also for other observations which he has 

 lately communicated to me regarding the habits of the 



* Mr. John Crew;- (lor thus his name ought to have been spelt) 

 entered the Duke of Atholl's service in 1776. He was an honest, 

 faithful, and most at t ached adherent, of astonishingly active powers, 

 ami possessed of admirable skill in stalking and shooting the deer ; 

 always selecting the finest harts. He was also a composer of music, 

 and many a dance have the lads and lasses had to the sound of my 

 old friend's violin. He is universally beloved, and now resides on his 

 pension at Pulney, Locbside. The members of the Curling Club of 

 Dunkeld lately presented him with a silver quaich upon the occasion 

 of his attaining his ninetieth year, and as a token for their affection 

 for him, and their admiration of the skill and ardour which he so long 

 displayed in all manly games. Robert Crerar, one of his sons, is a 

 wine-merchant in Swallow-street, and his cellars rejoice in the best 

 Scotch whiskey. Charlie Crerar, another of his sons, is now head 

 forester in Atholl. 



