THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
stags’ heads killed in our islands since the Pleistocene Age; and are such 
that even a good continental forest would be proud of them to-day. How 
such deer happened to exist at Glenfiddich and Gordon Castle at the be- 
ginning of the last century is certainly somewhat remarkable since no other 
heads quite of the same class are to be found in the old Scottish houses. 
Of their history little is known beyond what is contained in the following 
letter which the Duke of Richmond and Gordon has kindly sent to me: 
“The Glenfiddich head was shot by the head forester in the Blackwater 
Forest, which is part of Glenfiddich. He killed it in the burn at the back 
of the lodge, and there is a cairn to mark the spot. The Duke of Gordon 
of that time (1831) sent word to his head forester to kill a stag, as he 
wished to send a haunch to his sister, the Duchess of Bedford, who at 
that time was staying at Kinrara. The forester, in spying the ground, 
found what he thought was a dead birch tree, and as he knew there were 
no birches in that part of the forest, he made further investigation. The 
result was that he found the seventeen -point stag and shot it. 
“ With regard to the other seventeen -pointer, killed in 1826, near Gordon 
Castle, by Alexander, Fourth Duke of Gordon, and then in his eighty - 
fourth year, I know nothing more about it than is recorded on the shield. 
But I may mention that some reason for the size of these animals may 
be found in their free range. At that time the deer had a free passage from 
the high ground of Glenfiddich to the dense woods about Gordon Castle.” 
SCOTTISH WILD STAGS’ HEADS OBTAINED PRIOR TO 1850 
Length. 
Circ. 
Spread 
over all. 
Inside 
span. 
Points. 
Locality. 
Owner. 
Remarks and by whom measured. 
41 
7 
- 
35 
7x7 
Inverness-shire 
Col. W. H. 
Walker 
Killed in 1794. (R. W.) 
38 
6i 
9x8 
Glenfiddich 
Duke of 
Richmond 
Killed in 1831, September 24 ; 37 st. 
7 lb. as it fell. Figured in The Mam- 
mals of Great Britain and Ireland, 
p. 102. (Owner.) 
36 
7i 
42 
36 
6x7 
Monymusk 
Sir A. Grant, 
Bt. 
Killed in 1795. (J. G. M.) 
36 
— 
— 
— 
8x8 
Glen Moriston 
J. Grant 
Killed in 1796. (Owner.) 
351 
4| 
381 
27 
5X5 
8x9 
Kinlochewe 
Gordon Castle, 
Sir K. Mac- 
kenzie, Bt. 
Duke of 
The last two are figured in British 
Deer and their Horns. A head of 
remarkable beauty. Killed in 1814. 
(F. Wallace.) 
Killed in 1826. Figured in The Mammals 
33 
Si 
N.B. 
Richmond 
of Great Britain and Ireland, p. 102. 
(Owner.) 
It is the opinion of those best qualified to judge that between 1830 and 
1870 the heads of Scottish stags were little, if at all, superior to those 
52 
