CORRICHIBAH. 307 



beards (two, three, or four hundred in a heard) to such or 

 such a place as the nobleman shall appoint them ; then 

 when the day is come, the lords and gentlemen of their com- 

 panies do ride or goe to the said places, sometimes wading 

 up to the middles through bournes and rivers; and then 

 they, being come to the place, doe lye down on the ground 

 till those f oresaid scouts, which are called the tinckell, doe 

 bring down the deer; but as the proverb says of a bad cooke, 

 so these tinckell men doe lick their own fingers ; for besides 

 their bows and arrows, which they carry with them, wee 

 can heare now and then a harquebuse or musket goe off, 

 which they doe seldom discharge in vaine : then after we 

 had stayed three houres, or thereabouts, we might perceive 

 the deere appeare on the hills round about us (their heads 

 making a shew like a wood), which being followed close 

 by the tinckell, are chased down into the valley where wee 

 lay ; then all the valley on each side being waylaid with a 

 hundred couple of strong Irish greyhounds, they are let 

 loose as occasion serves upon the heard of deere, that with 

 dogs, gunnes, arrows, durks, and daggers, in the space of 

 two houres, fourscore fat deere were slaine, which after are 

 disposed of some one way, and some another, twenty or 

 thirty miles ; and more than enough left for us to make 

 merrey withall at our rendevouse. Being come to our 

 lodgings, there was such baking, boy ling, resting, and stew- 

 ing as if cook Ruffian had been there to have scalded the 

 devill in his feathers." 



THE FOREST OF CORRICHIBAH. 



THE forest of Corrichibah, or the Black Mount, is situated 

 in the district of Glenorchy, in Argyllshire. 



It appears from the " Black Book " (an old manuscript at 

 Taymouth), and from other documents, to have been kept 

 as a deer forest from a very early period, till about the 

 time when, by the introduction of sheep on the Highland 

 hills, the value of mountain pasture became considerably 

 increased. At that period it ceased to be used as a forest, 



