AND ANGLING SONGS. 239 



aud ferns, was a matter of little difficulty, the game of the district 

 was by no means, I have reason to think, so abundant as it is at 

 present. On Lord Napier's property, which embraces three or 

 four large sheep-farms, the birds, chiefly black-game, were but 

 thinly scattered. Irregularities connected with it affected the 

 distribution of the cover, and told on the day's sport. There was 

 a great scarcity of heather, and the little there was flowered on 

 the tops of the hills or laws, in the shape of a mere fringing to 

 peat-hags, which were quarried in the summer months, shortly 

 after or about hatching-time, by the shepherds, their dogs accom- / 

 panying them. The grey fowl breeding-grounds incorporated 

 with the district are mostly unexceptionable, and less liable to be 

 disturbed. Those on the Thirlstane property furnish only an 

 average illustration of the capabilities of Ettrick-head to produce 

 and sustain black-game. 



It is to the connecting ground of the forest with Dumfries- 

 shire that we must look for a proper exemplification of these 

 capabilities. The tract of country I allude to is rich in that 

 peculiar herbage which this sort of game delights in. There are 

 rushy sykes in abundance, bent, sprett, and moor grasses, ling 

 and other mosses, the Scirpus ccespitosus, for instance ; ferns, 

 crow-berries, etc., along with our common heaths. On some of 

 the pens or laws is found the cloud or nubb-berry, Rubus chamce- 

 morus. The cranberry, also, is a native of this range of terri- 

 tory. Both these fruits are highly relished by grouse and black- 

 game, and exercise, each in its season, as inviting an influence 

 over them as the corn-stubbles do in the month of October. 



Across a portion of this choice circle of sporting ground, 

 Christopher North and party, when at Thirlstane, enjoyed per- 

 mission from the proprietor, his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, 

 to carry the gun ; and I frequently, under sanction of this privi- 

 lege, accompanied my friend in his excursions in that direction. 



