54 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



The life of a Highland poacher is a far different one from 

 that of an Englishman following the same profession. Instead 

 of a sneaking night-walking ruffian, a mixture of cowardice and 

 ferocity, as most English poachers are, and ready to commit 

 any crime that he hopes to perpetrate with impunity, the High- 

 lander is a bold fearless fellow, shooting openly by daylight, 

 taking his sport in the same manner as the Laird, or the 

 Sassenach who rents the ground. He never snares or wires 

 game, but depends on his dog and gun. Hardy and active as 

 the deer of the mountain, in ^company with two or three com- 

 rades of the same stamp as himself, he sleeps in the heather 

 wrapped in his plaid, regardless of frost or snow, and com- 

 mences his work at daybreak.^ When a party of them sleep 

 out on the hill side, their manner of arranging their couch is as 

 follows : — If snow is on the ground, they first scrape it off a 

 small space ; they then all collect a quantity of the driest 

 heather they can find. The next step is for all the party 

 excepting one to lie down close to each other, with room 

 between one couple for the remaining man to get into the rank 

 when his duty is done ; which is, to lay all the plaids on the 

 top of his companions, and on the plaids a quantity of long 

 heather ; when he has sufficiently thatched them in, he creeps 

 into the vacant place, and they are made up for the night. 

 The coldest frost has no effect on them when bivouacking in 

 this manner. Their guns are laid dry between them, and their 

 dogs share their masters' couch. 



With the earliest grouse-crow they rise and commence 

 operations. Their breakfast consists of meal and water. They 

 generally take a small bag of meal with them ; but it is seldom 

 that there is not some good-natured shepherd living near their 

 day's beat, who, notwithstanding that he receives pay for keep- 

 ing off or informing against all poachers, is ready to give them 

 milk and anything else his bothy affords. If the shepherd has 

 a peculiarly tender conscience, he vacates the hut himself on 



^ Times have changed since Mr. St. John's day, and the romantic sporting poacher 

 of the type of Ronald is a thing of the past. The organisation of an efficient police force 

 and more careful watching have rendered his life an impossible one. But of poaclilng 

 generally there is no decrease, especially in the neighbourhood of manufacturing towns 

 and by operatives out of work. With increase of game preserving, and of facilities of 

 locomotion and transport, has come an increase of the more unsportsmanlike class of 

 poachers. The Ground Game Act, moreover, and the large number of itinerant sur- 

 reptitious game dealers, have led to an increased amount of illicit destlruction oi game by 

 farmers and farm servants. 



