THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Scotland, refusing to go out on a day when it was raining ‘ cats and 
dogs ’ and blowing half a gale. There was a young relative of my 
host staying in the house, a very keen sportsman, whom I knew would 
be sent out if I declined, so I let him have the chance. He accordingly 
started, and came home, having killed in fair stalking six stags, one 
of them with a magnificent head, and fired off seventeen cartridges. 
The next day was even worse. I again declined. My young friend took 
my place, and got two more.” 
The reader may not be interested in the cost of deer -stalking, but it is 
necessary to touch upon it so that we may consider the sport in all its as- 
pects. Deer forests may be rented from £4,000 to £150, whilst the general 
expenses largely depend on the extent of the ground, house and degree of en- 
tertaining. An old friend who has rented sixteen different Scottish forests, 
and who has given me many happy days after deer, recently paid £2,000 
a year for a good forest in Ross -shire, carrying three rifles daily. He 
kept his books carefully, and discovered that all expenses included from 
August 16 to October 15 amounted to £6,600. In spite of the fact that 
the house was seventeen miles away from a small town, or the railway, 
and that he entertained very generously this seems to be an enormous 
sum — £100 a day for sixty -five days, in which fifty -two stags were killed; 
but I am sure that it is in no way an exaggeration. A man therefore must 
be indeed rich to undertake such responsibilities. On the other hand, it 
must be remembered that the greater part of this outlay went in the enter- 
tainment of his friends, for many good forests are run on half this sum, 
whilst I know of another case of a friend who rented a Perthshire forest 
for £750, where he and a comrade lived simply at the lodge with two 
servants, and killed forty -five stags, at an expenditure of a hundred or two 
beyond the amount of the rent. Under any circumstances a man pays more 
for the sport of deer -stalking, especially if he entertains, than for any 
other British sport, although I know of three cases of tenants who have 
each paid £600 for the doubtful joy of catching one salmon. Sport, how- 
ever, must not be reckoned by the price paid, for the best is sometimes 
cheap and the worse expensive, but rather on its own merits. If a 
man likes to pay a colossal rent for some place that from his point 
of view may enjoy special amenities that is his own matter, for 
wealth being a purely comparative item it scarcely enters into the 
bargain. So there are plenty of forests of moderate rent where the 
sport is even better than that which can be obtained at the expensive 
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