256 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



any profit they could possibly hope to make. It is easy to 

 say these expenses ought to be met by the landlords ex 

 nihilo nihil fit ; and if all the value of Highland property 

 be taken from it, whence is the landlord to satisfy the claims 

 of the rate-collector ? Happily, there is an alternative where 

 sheep cannot live, and where no blade of corn could be 

 induced to grow is the favourite haunt and home of the 

 great red deer, the noblest quarry that ever taxed the skill 

 and endurance, of a sportsman in the British islands. Pro- 

 bably there is no possible means whereby a wealthy man 

 can secure a more abundant return, in health and enjoyment, 

 for the money spent on an autumn holiday, than by renting 

 a deer forest; in no other way can we account for the 

 enormous sums spent annually on this sport, apart altogether 

 from the sporting rent, which, as we have said, goes far to 

 relieve the peasantry from the burden of rates and taxes. 

 When we find that, in eighteen years, Mr. Fowler, of Brsemore, 

 has spent 105,000, Lord Tweedmouth 50,000, and Sir 

 John Ramsden 180,000, to take only three typical cases, 

 and consider the classes of people among whom this money 

 is spent and who benefit thereby, including masons, joiners, 

 plasterers, pi ambers, and slaters, with labourers for each 

 trade, wire fencers, road-makers, blacksmiths, carriers, besides 

 local shopkeepers, gillies, deer watchers, trappers, etc. ; it must 

 be evident that, so far from depopulating the Highlands, 

 the creation of deer forests in fitting districts enables them 

 to support a far larger population than under present con- 

 ditions would otherwise be possible. The condition of the 

 country under deer is widely different from that of moors 

 under sheep and grouse. The latter, as we have seen, live 

 amicably together. No special care is needed to avoid dis- 

 turbing the grouse. Even in the breeding season the shep- 

 herds come and go, and the hen grouse will sit placidly on 

 her nest and never heed them, when once she realizes that 

 no harm is meant, and every enemy that can hurt the game 

 is ruthlessly destroyed, whether it be weasel or polecat, wild 



