Introduction. 
Xlll. 
& daggers, in the space of two hours four score fat deer were slain, which after arc 
disposed of some one way & some another, twenty & thirty miles, & more than enough 
left for us to make merry withall at our rendevous." These Scottish deerhounds were 
probably from the same source as the Irish wolfhound (the breed was in danger of 
extinction about the beginning of the nineteenth century, but it was successfully 
revived). They were originally kept for pulling down wounded deer and not as trackers. 
They have been entirely superseded at the present day by collies in those forests where 
dogs are used, though at Culachy the late Mr. Angelo used to course in the old style, 
and killed annually about thirty stags in this manner. 
Modern deer-stalking is of comparatively recent date. Sir Walter Scott, with his 
descriptions of the beauties of the Highlands, gave it a stimulus, and the Prince Consort 
and Sir Edwin Landseer did much to popularise it. The lessening of the difficulties of 
locomotion enabled those who had previously been debarred from so doing to travel 
northwards, and gradually the demand for deer forests as we know them arose. In 
1812 there were five ; in 1872, seventy ; in 1883, over a hundred ; in 1888, one 
hundred and eleven ; in 1907, one hundred and seventy ; whilst in the latest estimate, 
that given by the late Mr. George Malcolm, the total is given as one hundred and ninety- 
eight. 
A hundred years ago there were probably fewer deer in Scotland than at any 
previous time, then came a slump in sheep-farming, and the present rage for forests 
began. I quote from what I wrote ten years ago : " The reasons for this need not be 
here discussed ; suffice it to say that much of the ground was afforested, and although 
for a time there was a lull, the demand redoubled about 1875. Then it was that 
proprietors of big estates in the North, who, rightly or wrongly, thought that their land 
was well suited for deer, afforested the ground. The deer, protected from all their 
enemies save man, increased and multiplied. The area of land set apart for their entire 
use was very great, but it could not maintain the increasing stock at the same standard 
as heretofore." 
" The capability of any farm to maintain a permanent stock is limited to the shelter 
and food it can supply in early spring. The same rule applies to a forest." So wrote 
the late Lord Lovat, and that it was penned twenty years ago does not lessen its truth. 
At the time when much of the ground was afforested deer were its most valuable stock. 
Large areas which would have made good grouse moors were sacrificed because grouse 
were not wanted. Now signs are not wanting that this policy was a mistaken one. 
Sportsmen will not pay high rents to shoot inferior stags. Thirty years ago forty in- 
different stags were worth more to the owner of a forest than twenty good ones. 
Provided he could get his thirty pounds per stag he saw no reason why he should not 
double his limit. He did so. The forest stood it for a year or two, and then, all the 
good stags having been killed, there were only indifferent beasts left from which to 
breed. The tenant perhaps gave it up. A succession of yearly tenants followed or 
it was let on short leases, and, as a forest, was ruined. It is the old, old cry. Quality 
was sacrificed for quantity, and now, save in those forests which have been in the hands 
of their proprietors year after year, or let on long leases, we see the result. 
