INTRODUCTION VII 



and their ways and habits were of small importance 

 compared with those of salmon, grouse, snipe, and the 

 red deej. But he tells us what he saw, and a good deal 

 of what he heard ; his narrative, so far as is possible 

 for a writer of the period, is a straightforward one, and 

 has the intrinsic value of every document which sets 

 forth a piece of life that a man has actually experienced. 



The author describes a community in course of trans- 

 ition. The days of the hard riding, hard drinking, 

 duelling, lavishly hospitable landed gentry, ruling over 

 contented tenants and a whole host of dependents 

 and hangers-on, in a country where the King's writ 

 did not run, had not passed away. The clan system 

 still existed, though in a degenerate form. The land- 

 lord, " the master," was chief, and held tenaciously 

 to illegal rights frankly recognised by the clan. When, 

 for instance, a portmanteau, the property of a visitor 

 to the Lodge, was abstracted en route, there was no 

 question of appealing to the law and of setting the 

 police in motion. An outrage to the authority of the 

 chief had been committed and the clan took it up. An 

 armed emissary was dispatched, and presently returned 

 with the portmanteau and an apology. 



Fosterage was still deemed a tie as strong or stronger 

 than one of blood. Hennessey " my foster brother," 

 was loved and protected. One abduction and three 

 homicides were chargeable against him " He had been 

 unfortunate," poor man. In fact the law the written 

 law and the legal executive were ignored or derided. 



