ECHOES OF THE CHASE 53 



wilds of Braemar and Glen Dee had been the resoit 

 of the Scottish sovereigns for purposes of sport, and 

 the great gatherings of the Earl of Mar were on quite 

 a regal scale. John Taylor, the Water Poet, was 

 present at one of these great huntings, in the year 

 1618. From him we learn that the Lonquhards, 

 which the vassals of the Earl were bound to erect at 

 huntings, were temporary cottages (no doubt made of 

 branches of trees or turf), intended to accommodate 

 those engaged in the sport. The company numbered 

 from fourteen to fifteen hundred men and horses. 



'The manner of the hunting,' says Taylor, 'is 

 this : five or six hundred men doe rise early in the 

 morning, and they doe disperse themselves divers 

 wayes, and seven, eight, or ten miles compasse, they 

 doe bring or chase in the deer in many heards (two, 

 three, or four hundred in a heard) to such or such a 

 place as the noblemen shall appoint them : then when 

 day is come, the lords and gentlemen of their 

 companies doe ride or goe to the said places, some- 

 times wading up to the middles through bournes and 

 rivers ; and then they being come to the place doe 

 lie down on the ground till those foresaide scouts, 

 which are called the Tinckhell, doe bring down the 

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

 these Tinckhell men doe lick their own fingers ; 



