152 SUMMER-TIDE IN A HIGHLAND FOREST 



he has to pay several thousands in cash for stock which 

 has ceased to be saleable at a profit, and he has to decide 

 between carrying on the farm himself at a loss, or turning 

 the land to other account. Then it is that the sporting 

 value of ground suitable for deer comes into prominence. 

 I have listened to honourable gentlemen in the House of 

 Commons (some of them, I am certain, with their tongues 

 in their cheeks) holding up Highland proprietors to oblo- 

 quy, because, instead of persevering in losing money by 

 attempting to grow mutton for the million, , they had 

 adopted the more business-like course of letting their 

 mountains as playgrounds for millionaires. 



Of all the instances of misdirected energy by a good 

 man, there never was a clearer instance than Professor 

 Bryce's Access to Mountains Bill. Of all the countries on 

 the face of God's earth there was less occasion in Scotland 

 for such a law than in almost any other, because in no 

 other civilised country is there so little defence against 

 trespass. People in that land may go where they please 

 out of doors with impunity, provided they do not inflict 

 damage, and the only defence a landowner has is his 

 power of obtaining interdict. Why then object to Pro- 

 fessor Bryce's bill, if it only enables people to do what 

 they have a right to do without it? Nay, but the 

 boot is on the other leg: the right is not with the 

 intruder, but with the owner, if he chooses to exert it. It 

 is rarely exercised ; but it is becoming valuable in propor- 

 tion as the most solitary districts are being opened up by 

 railways. An excursion agent may, under the existing 

 law, be interdicted from dumping down a horde of 

 exuberant trippers in the heart, say, of Glenartney or 

 Braemar forest ; but pass Professor Bryce's bill, and the 



