The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-13 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY'S VISIT TO THE
HIGHLANDS.
LOCH LAGGAN, WEDNESDAY.
Court Circulars are very meagre documents; and
although one is published every day giving an outline
of the manner in which the royal party spend their
tide Ardverikie, it is probable that the curiosity
of the public on the subject remains unsatisfied—l
mean, of course, the reasonable and fair curiosity of
the public ; for, as the Court has withdrawn into the
wilds of Badenoch to escape observation, it would be
unbecoming and rude to act the Paul Pry upon its
movements. In these remote districts, where nature
reposes amidst a solitude as perfect as Zimmerman
ever pictured, it would be improper to chronicle the
circumstances which give their hue and character to
each day's amusements. Yet as these amusements
are peculiar,
,and capable of general description, it
appears only right that in this sense the public should
know how the royal party kill time in the High-
lands.
The Queen's present residence in the shooting
lodge at Ardverikie, surrounded by a great forest,
at once gives the clue to Prince Albert's principal
occupation. I propose, therefore, to give you a
short account of deer hunting in the Highlands,
and the different modes by which it is pursued.
A deer forest in this country i$ a very different thing
from a deer forest in the south, and has, as a field for
sport, far nobler and more commanding attributes. It
covers a vast territory, from the precincts of which
flocks of every kind, anil even
" the human face di-
vine," except the owner of it be a forester, are rigidly
excluded. Everywhere around lonely mountains
swell from the moorland below in endless and irre-
gular succession; some wit4rassy declivities, others
heathclad and sombre to their very tops, while not a
few present their bald and scathed summits to the
storm, all verdure disappearing from these Alpine
heights, which are gathered into broad and frowning
masses of rock, or sharpened by contending tempests
into peaks and savage ridges. In the hollows between
this labyrinth of hills is many a wild retiring corrie,
with the ceaseless play of silvery streamlets sounding
through its depths, with hillocks and ravines of
countless number and varying proportions, giving
shelter over its extent, and upon its surface spreading
a carpet of the richest grasses. Through such a
wilderness the eye in vain roves for any object
which can connect the scene with the humanities of
life—no house better than a deserted shieling, no yel-
low patches of corn land, no broad plantations, no sign
nor symptom of man, but in their stead straggling
birch trees along the rough watercourses ; old vener-
able pines standing in melancholy grandeur among
the crags and precipices of the stern rnountainiiides,
and, obtruding from the moss amidst vast boulders of
granite, the mouldering trunks of trees, which in
years long gone by covered the expanse with their
stately vegetation: Such are the general characteris-
tics of a deer forest in the Highlands. For the animals
themselves, to whose preservation these wastes arc
devoted, they are, as every one knows, except at
aw
overay the pros-
o certain seasons, gregarious in their habits. You will
see them at early dawn when morning mists
again,
when creeping
the
shadowsupthe
eveningand
lengthen melting
pect, browsing where a bright green spot high up in
some corrie marks where a spring well, copious and
cool, gushes out from the rocks. In the heat of day
hyouigh
he willa t
hfi
enrd,
orthemrak
bienn, enjoyingtheeover ofdeep woods, or
the luxuries of a
siesta; You may also catch a glimpse of a herd at
this time resting on the brow of some mountain, over
which the fresh air is creeping. Here, with their
heads turned down the wind, and with a watchful
hind in advance—her eye searching from the summit
wlitst her companions cannot guard by their keen ears
and nostrils—they occupy a position which it is
almost impossible to approach unobserved, And which
gives some idea of the acute instincts which protect
them against the hunter.
And how are they circumvented ? For that there
are at present in the Highlands three different ways
adopted, all legitimate and manly as sources of sport,'
but of which unquestionably the first is stalking. A
deer-stalker must have an iron frame, a keen eye,
fleet feet, a deadly aim; he must be able to track, to
calculate the shiftings of the wind, and the distances
and cover of remote positions ; he must be fitted to
bear cold and heat in rapid succession, to endure fa-
tigue and hunger, and to be patient, and silent, and
cool under all. le must look at scaling a brae face
with as much composure as a run upon a level;
and among the various exigencies of a mountain
life his invention must be ready, and his nerve firm.
When he issues in the grey Niko of the morning
from the bothie where he has parsed the night, dressed
from top to toe in shepherd's plaid, a telescope slung
behind his back, and his rifle in his hand, he studies
the direction of the wind, and from the weather con-
jectures where the deer may be found. Then taking
to the hill and traversing with swift but cautious
steps the high grounds of the forest, he proceeds
to some particular corrie or glen where he believes
the game will be
_found. Slipping silently along well
under the edges ef the horizon, and sweeping with eye
and glass the ground which each new bend in his
progress, opens up to him, at last, after many a pause
and lengthened survey, the deer are detected, their
dun hidei faintly discernible from the surrounding
objects, and seen at that great distance like specks.
Then the work of stalking begins. Slowly and si-
lently, and in a recumbent position, from behind the
nearest shelter, the game are examined, their number
counted, their position accurately marked, with the
direction of the wind upon it, and what the deer are
about. Upon this state of things the hunter takes
counsel with himself, and having arranged his plan of
action away he starts, keeping in such a direction as
to prevent their getting wind of him, and, holding as
far as possible the high ground, he circumvents his
prey, and after a circuit of several miles, perhaps, ar-
rives at last within reach. His path has been through
soft morasses, in the bed of rugged watercourses, over
gray cairns, and among sharp shingle, the debris of
mountain torrents, until at last, dragging himself
silently and stealthily up to the edge of some shelving
rock, or on the shoulders of some projecting steep, he
sees the antlered heads of the quarry moving before
him. Not a moment is then to be lost; the rifle is at
his shoulder, and levelling his eye along its barrel,he aims
t
loyi'down'under the fbre shoulder of the largest stag.
At
lthe flash of the discharge the noble anima drops, and one moment of exulting' trihmph re-
pays the long-doubtful and arduous pursuit. staggers
and
Deer-driving and passes also form an agreeable
and exciting mode of hunting in a forest. The stag
has his accustomed track in the wilds, which he fre•
quents, just as men have their pathways.
who are acquainted with the habits of the animal of
course know where it is likely to pass,
there the sportsman. In his ambush, whichand place
is gene-
rally on the brow of some mountain, or overlooking
some hollow or ravine, he watches the approach of
the game, while beaters are scattered over the space
thus commanded, and with many a shrill whistle and
prolonged halloah, try to drive the deer towards him.
Sometimes, however, they are not within the ',beat ;
sometimes they suspect danger, and burst back
through those who urge them from behind ; some-
times they make for themselves new paths and escape
from the threatened evil. In the meantime the
sportsman crouches upon his pass, the cold mountain
winds rushing past him, mist, rain, or snow—the
concomitants of his solitary post, and, reaching his
ear and eye
,from the valley stretched beneath his
feet, the unwonted sights and sounds of these remote
and stormy regions. He listens and watches during
minutes that seem hours, and hours that seem days,
and at last his patience is rewarded ; the clatter of
hoofs is herd among the rocks, ascending to where
he lies in breathless expectation, and in his lurking-
place he sees the herd pass by at a swinging trot.
Steadily he surveys them, until the rough mane,
rounded flanks, and spreading antlers of the heaviest
stag appear in sight, and then, collecting himself for
a moment, he brings the proud animal down.
The third and last kind of deer-hunting still used
in the Highlands is that with deer hounds, and a noble
sight it is, though belonging more to the sports of
remote and barbarous times. The dogs themselves
are splendid animals familiarised to the public by the
writings of Sir Wailer Scott and the paintings of
Landseer.
.There can be few finer sights than to see
a large deer ;hound of the true old breed, his long
wiry hair bristling with excitement, bounding after a
stag, and at last, after many a struggle, closing on
him and bringing him down. No one who has ever
seen a spectacle of the kind can ever forget the thril-
ling interest with which it must have inspired him—
the desperate terror of the deer as he fled, or the
pitiable expression of the poor animal when hunted to
death and gasping.his last breath. With the peculiar
fascination which these wild sports have about them,
it is not to be wondered at that deer forests are rapidly
on the increase, and threaten to' overspread the land.
Thirty
_years ago there were comparatively few forests
in the Highlands,' the principal 'being those of the
Monie, Leah, Glenartney, Gaick, Braemar, and
Athol. At a subsequent period those of Dalness,
Gallovie, and Benaulder, were revived, and others
created in Glengarry, Lochiel, Glenmoriston, and
the Black Mount. And now, in addition
to these, there are in existence the forests of Glen
Strathfarar and Dalcataig, belonging to Lord Lovat.
The, land thus covered with deer, and preserved for
their, sole use, is of immense extent, and would, at a
rough guess, if under sheep, yield a rental of about