Stags’ Heads 131 
4. The remarkable stag killed at Eskadale in August 1892 I look upon as an old friend, 
for I was within 40 yards of him twice—first in 1890, and again in 1891. Mr. Heath was 
then the tenant at Eskadale, and most kindly used to let me go each year to stalk a roebuck 
on his ground. On the second occasion Hugh Ross (the Eskadale stalker) and I were 
creeping along the hill-side soon after dawn. I was in front for the moment, and saw a 
small birch, some 40 yards below me, agitating violently. We of course immediately 
collapsed on the ground, and had no sooner done so than out walked the big Eskadale stag. 
Mr. Heath was most anxious to shoot him, I knew, and I had no leave to do so, so there 
was nothing for it but to put up my rifle and see where one would like to hit him and then 
—take it down again. This stag, as soon as his horns were clean, moved into Beaufort 
for the autumn, and Mr. Heath, whose last year it was, never obtained a shot. From one’s 
own selfish point of view the cruel part of the affair was that, when Ross told his master 
how near we had been and what a chance we had had on the second occasion, the latter said, 
ct What a thousand pities he didn’t shoot him ! ” And they say there is no such thing as luck ! 
s 2 
A HEAD OF GREAT BEAM AND ROUGHNESS 
Shot at Eskadale, 1892. 
