TRAITS OF HIGHLAND FORESTERS. 109 



the Mr. Velveteens of Norfolk or anywhere else are 

 in the habit of forgetting their places, or at all likely to 

 do so. For quite thirty years have I, in almost every 

 county in England, been good friends with English 

 game-keepers, and as a body, a more trustworthy, hard- 

 working, courageous, and civil set of men cannot be 

 found. The whole thing is so different across the 

 Border : for days together you and your stalker are 

 alone, and a good one will, in a variety of small ways 

 and good-natured little attentions to your comfort, 

 make you feel quite friendly towards him ; you cannot 

 help seeing that all his thoughts and energies are 

 directed to your sport and comfort. There is some- 

 thing about it all that you instinctively feel is rendered 

 as a pleasure, and into which enters no thought of the 

 tip which, whether ranging from a tenner to a sovereign, 

 according to the depth of your pocket, will be put into 

 his hand when with sorrow you turn from the lodge to 

 drive to the distant station, there to meet the train 

 which will once more take you to your usual and per- 

 haps sedentary avocations. 



I have no doubt the English gamekeeper would do 

 as much, and do it as willingly, but he does not get the 

 chance. The gentlemen on this side of the Border who 

 are crack shots, and know all about game preserving, 

 and who would be able, if the keeper was ill, to take 

 the management and beating of their preserves into 

 their own hands, are to be counted by hundreds; but 

 across the Border, in the deer-forests, the gentlemen 

 who know their own ground well enough to be their 

 own stalkers can easily be ticked off on one's fingers. 



