880 Mr. Hardy on the Wolf in Scotland. 



On the death of James V., one John Eldar, a clergyman, a 

 native of Caithness, retired to England, and presented to 

 Henry VIII., a project of a union between the two kingdoms. 

 In explaining the reason of the appellation Redshanks, given 

 to the Highlanders, he thus proceeds : " Moreover wherefore 

 they call us in Scotland Redshanks, please it your majesty 

 to understand, that we of all people can tolerate, suffer, and 

 away best with cold : for both summer and winter (except 

 when the frost is most vehement,) going always bare-legged 

 and bare-footed, our delight and pleasure is in hunting of 

 red-deer, loolves, foxes, and graies (badgers), whereof we 

 abound and have great plenty. Therefore in so much as we 

 use, and delight, so to go always, the tender delicate gentle- 

 men of Scotland call us Redshanks y* A lively account of 

 another of these great Highland gatherings for the chace, in 

 the reign of Queen Mary, is preserved in William Barclay's 

 De Regno et regali potestate, p. 279, 280. He was a native 

 of Aberdeenshire, and spent the early part of his life, and 

 much of his fortune, at the court of Queen Mary, and accom- 

 panied her on this excursion to the Highlands, at the age of 

 twenty-two. " I had a sight of a very extraordinary sport ; — 

 In the year 1563, the earl of Athol, a prince of the blood- 

 royal, had with much trouble and vast expense, provided a 

 hunting match for the entertainment of our most illustrious 

 and most gracious Queen. Our people call this a royal hunt- 

 ing. I was then a young man, and was present on that 

 occasion. Two thousand Highlanders were employed to 

 drive to the hunting ground all the deer from the woods and 

 hills of Athol, Badenoch, Marr, Murray, and the countries 

 about. As these Highlanders use a light dress, and are very 

 swift of foot, they went up and down so nimbly, that, in less 

 than two months' time, they brought together two thousand 

 red deer, besides roes and fallow-deer. The Queen, the great 

 men, and a number of others, were in the glen, or narrow 

 valley, when all these deer were brought before them : believe 

 me, the whole body moved forward in something like battle 

 order. This sight still strikes me, and ever will strike me ; 

 for they had a leader whom they followed close whenever he 

 moved. This leader was a very fine stag, with a very higli 

 head. The sight delighted the Queen very much, but she 

 soon had cause for fear, upon the earl's (who had been from 

 his early days accustomed to such sights,) addressing her 



* Cited in Pinkerton's Hist, of Scotland, ii. p 396, 397. 



