122 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



had to be reinforced by compulsion, and conditions were laid 

 down in many sixteenth century leases similar to those 

 imposed upon David Ogilvy, when in 1552 he received the 

 lands of Glenisla from the Abbot of Cupar, that he should 

 "nurice ane leiche of gud howndis, with ane cuppil of rachis 

 for wolf and tod," and he and other tenants were bound "to 

 be readdy at all tymes quhene we charge thame to pas with 

 ws or our bailyies to the hountis." Every farm of any size had 

 to keep its fox-hounds, and in many districts the fox-hunter 

 became a regular official paid partly by the landlord and 

 partly by the tenants. The latter supplied him with farm 

 produce and entertained him and his dogs during a specified 

 number of nights in the year, according to the extent of land 

 held. In addition, the huntsman received a special fee for 

 every Fox slain by his hounds. 



Hector Boece held all such endeavour in disdain and 

 commended a simple recipe learned of the good men of 



Glenmores, in quhillc the tame bestiall gettis litill dammage of wild bestiall, 

 speciallie of toddis; for ilk hous of this cuntre, nurisis ane young tod 

 certane dayis, and mengis [mixes] the flesche thairof, eftir that it be slane, 

 with sic meit as thay gif to thair fowlis, or uthir smal beistes. And sa mony 

 as etis of this meit ar preservit twa monethis eftir fra ony dammage of 

 toddis; for toddis will eit na flesche that gustis [tastes] of thair awin kind; 

 and, be thair bot ane beist or fowle that hes nocht gustit of this meit, the 

 tod will cheis it out amang ane thousand. 



But the practice of Glenmore apparently did not hold 

 good in other parts, since in the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries annual fox-hunts were the rule throughout the land. 

 To these all the neighbours gathered that in Strathmore 

 was opportunely convened by the church beadle as the 

 congregation retired from divine service and for several 

 days Foxes were hunted high and low. In many parts of the 

 country, Sutherlandshire, Aberdeenshire and Dumfriesshire 

 among others, societies for exterminating Foxes were formed, 

 and in the district around Golspie in the closing years of the 

 eighteenth century, according to the Old Statistical Account, 

 "upwards of ,100 sterling is yearly expended for the purpose 

 of extirpating that noxious animal'that kills young deer and 

 sheep and moorfowl." Such concerted efforts made serious 

 inroads upon the native stock. In five parishes of Aberdeen- 

 shire in the district of Braemar 634 were killed in the ten 

 years beginning with 1776; in Sutherlandshire, on the estates 



