JULY 151 



dants of the clansmen in many a glen and beside many a 

 loch. Deeds were done then on behalf of proprietors who 

 thought it no crime to turn their lands to the best account 

 — nay, whose action helped to raise Scottish agriculture to 

 its present honourable eminence — which the public con- 

 science would not tolerate now. Such deeds it is no 

 concern or purpose of mine to justify at this day: all 

 that I wish to bring to mind is that they were not, as has 

 been too commonly believed, wrought with the slightest 

 reference to field-sports. The forests described sixty years 

 ago in William Scrope's glowing pages did not extend to 

 half the area now to be reckoned as deer ground, neither 

 did they equal in extent the ancient royal and baronial 

 forests which had been reserved as chase from time im- 

 memorial. Much of this ancient forest had been given 

 over to sheep before Scrope's day ; the Black Mount itself, 

 which his pen rendered perhaps the most famous of all, is 

 shown by the venerable Black Book of Taymouth to have 

 been reserved for deer from very early times, was put 

 under sheep when that wonderful source of profit was 

 first tapped, and was not cleared again for deer till 

 1820. 



The recent increase, therefore, in the extent of deer 

 ground is directly owing to the failure of sheep-farming 

 as a profitable industry in the Highlands. Large sheep- 

 farms are usually let on terms peculiarly hazardous to the 

 proprietor's pocket in the event of unprosperous times. 

 He is held bound to purchase at valuation the entire stock 

 of his tenant at the close of the lease. When sheep-farm- 

 ing is profitable, of course the tenant is willing to renew, 

 or another tenant is easily found ; but when the industry 

 ceases to pay, the land is thrown on the owner's hands; 



