I know more instances than one, of conscientious proprietors returning to the shooting tenant 20 per cent. out of the rent paid, on the score of its being an outrageous extortion on the part of the factor, very far beyond the real value of the sport to be had on the ground. Two-thirds of the factors are little better than a set of Brigands, always on the look out to pluck some unwary migratory bird that may fly in their way. Hard terms these: no other words can express their character. There is a cannie sharpness about some of these people, I know no better spot on which to employ them, than across St. George's Channel to collect Irish rents.

I shall now proceed to remark on the probability of good or bad sport on the Scotch moors next season; in doing which I shall confine myself to past observation, the experience of ten years, and the general aspect of affairs in certain districts, without particularizing any one shooting ground.

Ross and Sutherlandshire are the two most natural game counties in Scotland: the former, at one period, showed a better stock of deer and grouse than any other; the latter still retains a good reputation, because it is not much sported on by tenant shooters. The Duke of Sutherland is less anxious to make money of his game than some other noble proprietors, and lets but few of his shootings. Ross-shire is heavily stocked with sheep: where they are, red-deer will rarely be found. By the driving and collecting of these animals by shepherds bawling and collie dogs barking, every thing in the game list on the ground is driven off to the adjoining property, where sportsmen or keepers are heard the next morning hammering it down wholesale. I recommend every gentleman in search of a Scotch moor to turn his back on the one stocked with white-faced sheep: they always feed on the best grouse-ground. On the approach of setters and pointers away they scamper right-a-head, leaving behind them a barren country useless to beat. Black-faced sheep herd not so much together, wander more over high ground, and have not the natural aptitude to race in a direct line before guns and dogs. Sheep are an abomination to the shooter; hundreds of eggs and young birds are destroyed by them. Shepherds burn a certain portion of heather every spring to produce new pasture. In this partial conflagration grouse are roasted, and collie dogs feed on them. No getting rid of sheep, shepherds, and collie dogs, except by renting the pasturage with the shooting-rendering Scotch sporting two-fold more expensive to English gentlemen than at present. The deer-stalker is, from necessity, bound to incur this additional expense. If sheep are continued on the ground, he gets no sport. Red-deer will not associate with them: roedeer are more generally found in cover and plantation, consequently not so much disturbed and driven about in their peaceable locality by sheep. Stalking is much on the advance to what it was ten years since. Lancaster, Pardy, and Laing's rifles are to be found in almost every shooting lodge north. Factors are recommending their masters (the proprietors) to convert barren districts into deer forests: no bad judges either, when a forest will find an English tenant willing to pay from £600 to £1000 per annum for ground that would yield not more than two-thirds of the amount if continued in sheep pasturage. The rent paid for good

soup,

your

stalking in Scotland is only within the compass of gentlemen of good fortune. £1,300 and £1,500 is paid exclusive of keepers' wages. Grouse shooting is less expensive. There is an old saying, "Before make hare you first kill hare." I say before you kill first rent your moor. This is a business that may appear to a grouse, young hand no difficult matter, when he reads in newspapers of 1000 brace killed on Glen-such-a-spot, 1,500 on Ben-such-a-place, 2000 on Strath-gab. All reads well; the course looks clear; sure to run home a winner; the only thing is, to make a start. The printed list now before me (sent last week by a gunmaker from Inverness) may be his guide; if so, the chances are he runs over bad ground, never reaches home to claim the prize of promised good sport in deer-stalking, grouse, black-game, and ptarmigan. No! it's quite impossible. The prize advertised is not, in more than one case out of a dozen, to be found on the ground. Game there may be, but in scanty quantity. These printed particulars of moors to let, are well got up to deceive the public. Year after year goes forth the same prospectus of 20,000 or 30,000 acres, abundantly stocked with all varieties of game; but not a word of deterioration or change of character, when perhaps the ground was butchered by six slaughtering guns the past season. It's always the same tone of description by the factors in 1848 as in 1847. "Extensive and valuable shootings to let, affording excellent sport for six guns, being well stocked with all varieties of game." Grouse or no grouse, rent must be had, and no abatement; although half the number of guns moderately worked would destroy every thing on the ground at the end of the first fortnight of the season. Never take a moor that has been shot over by a different lot of sportsmen each succeeding season. The chances are that each party on quitting leaves but a moderate stock of anything to breed for the next tenant. To follow an English tenant who has had a lease of years is the wisest plan; he is pretty certain to leave a good sprinkling of game on the ground, because he traps vermin, and his keepers have an interest in showing a good head of game to insure liberal wages. A Scotch proprietor pays a keeper £25 or £30, an English gentleman tenant £40 or £50, which is never a consideration when added to the annual expenses of a party of three or four guns.

The youngster who contemplates a first visit to the moors next season will find it no easy matter to obtain footing on good ground, unless he has some interest or connexion with the parties concerned in letting. Applicants for the few good shootings now in the market are numerous, and rents demanded shamefully excessive beyond that which was paid by English gentlemen, only three or four years since, for the same moors. To say they are good-they ought to be so, for the money; but the contrary will be found about the truth. The last two seasons grouse have bred badly. On the last 12th of August it was a rare circumstance to find a pack of six or seven young birds. In addition to which, disease had swept them off wholesale, in the spring; and it is now at work amongst the old birds, in Ross-shire and along the western coast, from Lochcarron to Assynt. I can vouch for the truth of this disease, by letters from two of my own keepers, and confirmed by information conveyed to several of my sporting friends, who annually go north, Gentlemen will do well to look

ground over before they take it, and not be duped by the printed advertisements of factors, holding out the prospect of excellent sport, when old birds daily cease to exist, from disease.

I am quite sure of one thing; if better breeding seasons do not arrive, grouse in the north of Scotland will not be more abundant than they are in some districts in England and Wales. I hear less of disease in Perth and Aberdeenshire than in Inverness and Ross-shire; and see no reason for travelling north, when good sport is to be had south. The factors south are generally professional, wealthy gentlemen-very unlike some of the northern men of business. The proprietors are more steady in their demand of rent. No creeping on from £150 for the season to £300 at the end of a few years, which I know to be the case in Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, and without any good reason for such an advance. The northern moors, with few exceptions, have been bad the last three seasons; and many of them not worth walking over, with gun and dogs, free of rent-charge by proprietors. I see no prospect of improvement, so long as the factor consults the interest of the sheep-farmer only, and neglects that of the shooting tenant. Active keepers, with a plentiful supply of vermin traps at work, through the spring and summer, are absolutely necessary on a Scotch moor, to insure good sport on the 12th of August. This part of the business, in nine cases out of ten, is neglected by the factor, and left to be done by the sporting tenant, who enters on a lease of three or five years. I defy any lessee of a neglected Scotch moor to get up a head of game under three years; and then it is only to be done by moderate shooting and attention to the destruction of winged vermin.

It is no uncommon case to find a shooting tenant paying £50 or £100 more for sporting than the sheep-farmer pays for the pasturage. The latter has all the sympathies of the factor; and the former, who pays the larger rent, is looked upon not much better than a head keeper, under stringent conditions to preserve the ground, kill vermin, leave a good stock of game at the end of the season, and not to worry the sheep with pointers and setters. The latter condition I read in a lease: how it was to be observed, with 6,000 sheep on the ground, I leave to the wit and ingenuity of a Scotch factor to determine. Sporting dogs, in their wide range, are bound to worry sheep, and no helping it. The most offensive condition of all is the payment of rent on the 1st of August, under a penalty of £50-sounding very like dealing with men of bad faith. I never heard of gentlemen from England, Ireland, or Wales walking off out of the Highlands without paying for their sport. Perthshire factors are less suspicious of their customers; they rest satisfied of dealing with honourable men, and seldom name any one period for payment of rent; taking it for granted that a party of gentlemen, with double guns and a team of dogs, assume no other character than honest men.

Now for a word or two of advice to the young débutant on Scotch moors, with regard to money matters. It is always as well to know the cost of a little amusement, and then there is no surprise or dissatisfaction. If he takes a northerly direction, and is one of a party of four guns, on a £250 or £300 moor, let him make up his mind to an expense of about £200, including travelling to and fro, servants'

wages, and mess account at shooting-lodge. I recommend the banks of the Dee and Don to those who contemplate a first trip to Scotland for grouse shooting or deer stalking. A little experience, bought south, will be useful to combat the extortion and imposition of the "cannie" people north. I have always found it the wisest plan to employ some respectable hotel-keeper, or tradesman, to make all bargains, buy and pay for every thing required. Much trouble is saved, and the obligation to such a man of business is cancelled by a few handsome presents of game.

Keepers and gillies are difficult people to deal with: they are generally found on the ground. Wages vary from 10s. to 14s. per week. The first-named sum is my price; on it they fatten and do well. For a man, his horse and cart, 20s. per week is quite enough. To do without such a conveyance is not easy. Goods are always wanted from the market, when housekeeping is going on. Game-boxes are sent by cart to steamers, for England.

About a shooting-lodge, I have but one opinion: pleasant enough, a good one, and expensive enough. A good road-side hotel-such as Freeburn Inn, Carr Bridge; or even Grant's, or Mrs. Macdonald's, at Inverness will be found less expensive than a shooting-lodge, situated in the middle of a wild moor. I state this for the information of the inexperienced, who know little of the waste and extravagance of a lot of servants, turned loose about northern shooting quar ters. At an hotel, half-a-dozen servants are charged so much per day, or week-some fixture of expense: at a shooting-lodge there is none. Once admit gillies and under-strappers into the servants'-hallgood-bye, then, to all order and economy; the evil of which will not be visible, to its fullest extent, until the party are about to separate. and return home.

With a hope that these few home facts and remarks may be useful to the uninitiated, who have, up to this time, only laboured for sport in stubble and turnip fields, to kill partridges, I shall conclude for the preseut. When next I receive conclusive information from my keepers north, on the probability of good or bad sport at deer and grouse next 12th of August, you shall hear from me again, Mr. Editor. OLD BRAN.

March 13th, 1848.

THE RIVER TA Y.

SALMON FISHING IN THE TAY, PERTHSHIRE.

BY

HAWTHORN.

The Tay is esteemed the largest and most beautiful of all our rivers, and flowing through an extensive district of country, exhibiting all the varying phases of Highland and Lowland scenery, is believed to pour into the ocean a greater quantity of fresh water than any other river in Bri

tain.

The Tay has its remote sources in the western extremity of

Perthshire, and is easy of access for the noble lord of the river (salmon) to its very source. At first its waters are entitled the "Fillan," and descend in a winding course of eight or nine miles through a valley having the name of Strathfillan; the little river Fillan afterwards expands, and assumes the form of a lake, called "Loch Dochart," extending for about three miles, and famed for the beautiful yellow trout that inhabit its waters; issuing from its eastern extremity the river retains the name of Dochart, and, under that appellation, flows in an easterly direction through the vale of Glendochart, a distance of eight miles, and in this part of the river some good fishing is to be found; then again spreading out, but on a much more magnificent scale, it forms the splendid sheet of water called "Loch Tay," and this noble lake abounds with salmon and good yellow trout, pike, char, and some other fish, and is some 16 or 18 miles in length by two miles or so in breadth. On this beautiful lake we have many a time filled our pannier, and the scenery around in the merry month of May is of the most lovely description. On the northern side of the lake is a wooded island, containing the remains of a priory, and worthy of some little attention from any stranger. This was an establishment dependant on the palace of Scone, founded in 1122 by Alexander I., whose queen, Sybilla, the daughter of Henry I., and grand-daughter of William the Conqueror, is interred in it. The island possesses another kind of celebrity from having afforded a retreat to the Campbells in Montrose's wars; it was taken by General Monk in 1654. Being a picturesque object, it adds much to the beauty of this part of the lake. The river issuing from Loch Tay at the sweet little village of Kenmore assumes the name of the Lake, which it retains till it mingles with the waters of the ocean. After passing this pretty village, where a most comfortable inn is situated, the river passes the beautiful and princely seat of the Marquis of Breadalbane, called Taymouth; and about a mile below this the Tay receives the waters of the river Lyon, which descends from Glenlyon, and runs a course not a great deal shorter than the Tay itself. The Lyon is also a famous river for salmon, grilse, and yellow trout. The next river of any note which falls into this noble stream is the Tummel; the Tummel brings down the whole of the waters drawn from a most extensive district-a series of vales in the north and north-west part of the country-from the confines of Mar, in Aberdeenshire, round to the borders of Appin, in Argyleshire. Thus increased, the Tay becomes a river of uncommon size and beauty, and it now takes a direction more towards the south; its waters frequently separate and unite again, forming many beautiful islands, and its banks are in general nobly wooded. Near Dunkeld, one of the prettiest situated towns in the north of Scotland, the woods around it are deep and majestic, and at this place the Tay receives the beautiful and picturesque river Bran. On leaving Dunkeld the Tay flows through a territory more lowland in its character, but not less worthy of the salmon fisher, and passes through the beautiful grounds of Sir W. D. Stewart, of Murthly Castle, and receives the Isla on its left bank.

But before proceeding further down this noble river, let us here record a day's sport enjoyed by Lord Charles Kerr and Mr. George Condie on the Murthly part of the river, on the 21st of last month: his lordship killed two clean fish and landed five kelts, Mr. Condie killed