PREFACE. 



WITH the single exception of Mr. Scrope's Deer- 

 stalking in the Scottish Highlands, the writer is not 

 aware of any book devoted entirely to the subject 

 certainly of none written with a view of initiating the 

 beginner into the minutiae of this most fascinating of 

 sports. I have met those who ridicule it, and have 

 protested they would derive as much pleasure in 

 shooting a donkey on Hampstead Heath as in pursuing 

 the wild red deer across the Border. On further inquiry 

 it usually turns out that these scoffers have never even 

 seen a wild deer, and are rashly condemning a sport 

 they have no knowledge of. Others there are who, 

 possessed with no love of sport of any kind, talk in a 

 similar strain ; but these are those who hunt not, shoot 

 not, and neither do they fish, and mock at all sports 

 alike. Of other writers on the subject, Mr. Colquhoun 

 in his charming book, The Moor and the Loch ; Mr. St. 

 John in his Wild Sports of the Highlands, both devote 

 chapters to deerstalking, and give much useful and 

 valuable information. Mr. McDonald, in his Cattle, 

 Sheep, and Deer, also renders a short account of the 

 pleasures to be enjoyed and the hardships to be endured 



