A GOOD BEGINNING 31 



herd were disappearing into the wood 150 yards 

 away, and offered a not very difficult chance of a 

 second, but I resisted the temptation. Our prize 

 was a very fine 11 -pointer, weighing 14 stone 

 8 pounds; his horns were not clean, but they were 

 quite hard underneath the velvet, and Macpherson 

 of Inverness had no difficulty in removing the 

 velvet, and a very fine trophy he makes in my 

 drawing-room opposite the " Emperor." It was 

 the first stag of the season, and duly chronicled in 

 the Inverness Courier thus : 



"Mr. John Macpherson, taxidermist, Church Street, has 

 received for preservation a very fine head of 11 points sent 

 in by Dr. Ashley Leggatt, Balblair House, Beauly. The stag 

 weighed 14 stone 8 pounds and was in very forward condition. 

 The horns had a span of 27 inches, the brows 9 inches, second 

 points 11 inches and third 10 inches, the beam being 6 in 

 circumference, length of horn 29 inches. This is the best 

 head that has been got in Farley Forest for some considerable 

 time." 



Needless to say, we had a bottle that night to 

 celebrate such an auspicious start; and though we 

 got no more deer for weeks, it was followed at 

 long last by a wonderful season. 



Not another beast did we see in the wood or 

 on Farley all August and the first half of September. 

 How different to the old days ! On the 15th of 

 September we got a small stag on the heights of 

 Erchless hardly a shootable beast, but any port 

 in a storm; and a small haunch is better than no 

 venison. Then several blank days both on 



