24 ERCHLESS AND FARLEY, 1916 



Dollie, Susan and I went to Erchless, Merton 

 Barker to Farley. The latter ought to have got 

 a stag, but Matheson's ill-luck stuck to him, and 

 Merton missed. So did Herbert in Glengowrie 

 with Ross, a nephew of Davie's, as stalker. 

 I was with Fraser, and was the lucky one. We 

 all went together as far as the high ridge which 

 divides the near part of Erchless from Glengowrie, 

 the distant part. We parted shortly before 

 reaching the top, as we had seen some stags lying 

 down on a green slope about a mile to our left, 

 not far from the top ; however, for once Fraser was 

 at fault, just to show he was mortal, and over- 

 looked an old hind, who gave the alarm, and our 

 friends gave us the slip, and a rather glum lunch 

 was our portion instead of a goodish stag. After 

 lunch we climbed to our topmost parts, and could 

 find nothing our side, though, of course, we could 

 see plenty of deer in Glengowrie, where Herbert 

 and Dollie had gone; but about 4 o'clock Fraser 

 found some deer just outside Erchless Wood, about 

 three to four miles off, and he thought there was 

 a decent stag amongst them, but could not tell at 

 that distance. So we descended and found on 

 closer inspection that there was one quite good 

 beast amongst them, but difficult to get at, as his 

 hinds were very scattered. However, after endless 

 casts and recasts and creeps and crawls, and one 

 or two encroachings over the march on to Struy, 

 Fraser got me up to a little over 100 yards from 



