THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
in company declared that in all their travels they never had such brave 
divertisement; and if they should relate it in England it would be con- 
cluded mere rant and incredible. Another great hunting was held at 
Braemar in August, 1715. It was attended by the leaders of the Jacobite 
party in Scotland with more than a thousand followers: and there the 
Earl of Mar arranged his insurrection in favour of the Chevalier de St 
George.” 
John Taylor gives us an interesting account of the manner in which 
the actual hunting was conducted. He says: 
‘‘The manner of the hunting is this: five or six hundred men doe 
rise early in the morning, and they doe disperse themselves divers 
ways, and seven, eight, or ten miles compasse, they doe bring or 
chase in the deer in many heards (two, three, or four hundred in a 
heard), to such or such a place as the noblemen shall appoint them; 
then when day is come the lords and gentlemen of their companies 
doe ride or goe to the said places, sometimes wading up to the middles 
through bournes and rivers; and then they being come to the place 
doe lie down on the ground till those foresaide scouts, which are called 
the TaincheU doe bring down the deer; but as the proverb says of 
a bad cooke, so these Tainchel men doe lick their own fingers; for 
besides their bowes and arrows which they carry with them, wee 
can heare now and then a harquebuse or a musquet goe off, which 
doe seldom discharge in vaine; then after we had stayed about three 
hours or thereabouts, we might perceive the deer appeare on the 
hills round about us (their heads making a shew like a wood), which 
being followed close by the TaincheU are chased down into the valley 
where we lay; then all the valley on each side being way -laid with a 
hundred couple of strong Irish grey-hounds, they are let loose as 
occasion serves upon the heard of deere, that with dogs, gunnes, 
arrows, durks, and daggers, in the space of two hours, fourscore 
fat deere were slaine, which after we disposed of some one way and 
some another, twenty or thirty miles, and more than enough left 
for us to make merry withall at our rendevouze. Being come to our 
lodgings, there was such a baking, boyling, resting and stewing, as if 
Cook Ruffian had been there to have scalded the Devil in his feathers.” 
The early Scottish nobles, more especially the ‘‘ Border Ruffians,” 
dearly loved to poach another man’s deer, an instinct which is not yet 
completely eradicated from our dispositions. In the days of Queen 
16 
