THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
many of the fat and panting stags as they desired before they moved 
on into Larig Dochart. It was after one of these drives that Landseer 
made his sketches. Larig Dochart and Altahourn are great stag 
grounds, perhaps as good as any in Scotland. On the former, one day 
in September, I saw no fewer than 400 stags in one great herd, and after 
waiting all day was rewarded by killing an 11 -pointer, which was the 
best of the lot. 
Scrope and Landseer having revealed the passion and excitement of 
hill-stalking, it soon became in a small way the fashion of the hour. But 
modes of transit, accommodation, and many other considerations still 
deterred it from being the sport of the many. As yet the big forests were 
all occupied by the owners and their friends, whilst the outlying places 
where there were a few deer were generally somewhat inaccessible though 
cheap in price. The late Lord David Kennedy told me that, as a young man, 
he drove all the way from his home in Wigtonshire to Suisgill in Suther- 
land, where he had the whole of the fishing of the Helmsdale and the right 
to go wherever he liked for deer for £100. 
As the practice of stalking deer on the open hills came into vogue it 
introduced the professional deer -stalker who, knowing his ground as 
an open book, became an established institution. It is true that all novices 
must learn, and can only do so at the feet of the expert. Whilst it is equally 
desirable that the tyro should not spoil the limited extent of ground for 
the enjoyment of others, wherefore the Highlander, trained in all local 
knowledge, well acquainted with the local habits of deer and of tried endu- 
rance and honesty, came into general use for guidance in the sport. On 
the other hand the thrilling sense of personal achievement as a result 
of long and careful strategy which was the very core of the “ old ” deer- 
stalking in a sense vanished, and the newcomer had meekly to follow at the 
heels of his mentor. Even to-day, when many tenants could with ease 
and certainty stalk and kill their own deer, the fashion of following the 
professional stalker and childishly obeying all his orders has become 
so much an institution that few men, however skilled, in the world’s 
larger training -ground, care to break away from established custom. 
Certainly it is not right that any casual guest in a deer forest should be 
allowed to conduct the stalk, but where a man has had experience and 
knows his ground well, he will derive far greater pleasure in getting the 
“ stalker ” to follow him than always being “ led.” In the first instance suc- 
cess means that he has achieved little to be proud of, for modern rifles 
64 
