Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-10
HIGHLAND SPORT COSTLY.
Scottish Moor Season May Run to
$4,000 for Six Weeks.

Scottish Moor Season May Hun TO
$4,000 for Six Weeks.
One of the most expensive varieties
of sport nowadays in the British Isles
is saooting at a Highland lodge. 1t
is long since the grouse and deer sea-
son III the Highlands meant n period
of camping out and tramping over the
moors and through the forests In
fact. sport nowadays has become about
as luxurious an affair as a ball in town
at which royalty is among the guests,
and it would not be much more expen-
sive to arrange a six months big
game hunting expedition in East ARR
ca than to plan for a two months
hunting season in the Highlands. Con-
siderahly less than $4,000 ought to COW
er all the costs of an African big game
expedition, but considerably mere than
that sum can easily be spent in six
weeks in Scotland.
To begin with, there is the rent OF
the place, which, for a moderate-sized
preserve including, say, a 5oo-braee
moor and a forest with q limit of forty
stays, will be about $1,000. This scale
OF rent, however. is for the more re-
mote districts. The price is good
deal higher if the property is near the
main railroad line or within easy
reach of such q centre as Perth, In
yerness or Aberdeen. In that event
$500 or $1,000 must be added for ac-
feasibility, particularly ii the land lies
between Stirling and Blair Atholl.
which is known as the Park Lane of
the North, and often the rent has to
be paid in advance.
Transportation Is Expensive.
One must consider, too, the item or
transportation, which for family OF
four with seven servants will amount
to another $500 each way. If. in addi-
ton to railroad and wagon transports,
there should be necessary voyage by
boat down a loch, with twenty miles
or so by motor to finish up With, ada
another $500, and. of course, the stea-
mer and motor transportation will add
also TO the cost of household sup
plies.
For these supplies must be brought
from London. Your true sportsman
nowadays would not think Ct living
on the produce OF the country, though
the kitchen garden is always one OF
the perauisitcs of the tenant. II you
are having a house party In the High
lands you will find that your guests
expect to sit down to meals such as
they have in London. with butchers
meat, all kinds of fish and every Va
riety of seasonable dainties. from
sweetbreads to stuffed quails. The
hostess of the Highland shooting must
he in constant communication with the
big London stores, and the host is con-.
stantly dispensing large sums for rail-
way and postage charges in addition
to the initial cost of the luxurics Them
selves.
And after this comes the shooting.
Dogs must be supplied for the grouse
shooting at the rate Of $50 a head. and
as the dogs must be fresh for every
days shooting, and this means time
to rest and new ones to take the place
of those who have become exhausted
by ranging over the heather. from
eight to a dozen pointers and settlers
will be required. Cartridges Will
amount to another $125 and there will
be $3.50 more for the beater, who must
be conveyed to and fire. almost daily
by motor. so much has the spirit OF
luxury become inculcated in Rob Roy's
wild clansmen.
Preparing the Scenery.
But the house party is going to
shoot deer as well as grouse, and. of
course. it would be a very silly thing
to expect modern sportsman to
tramp through the forest and hunt out
the deer for himself. Not at all. He
Is supplied with a hammock, book,
camp fire and couple of ponies to
carry his luncheon, man to carry MS
rifle and two other men to ma the
deer snd one is inclined TO imagine, tie
him by hind leg to convenient tree,
while the rife bearer trains the Maxim
gun and prepares the scenery for the
eminent sportsman to pull the trigger.
/ This is modern sport, just as slaugh-
: terins milk fed grouse, which are al
most brought up by hand, fed on
bottle and trained to sit up and chir-
rup when their names are called. is
modern sport. And, like shooting
grouse and quail which have been fed
on morphine with their breakfast, kill
ing Highland stag trained to watch
the flight of the bullet and place a vul-
nerable spot in the path of the shell
is an expensive business.
i Then $1,000 may easily be added for
gillies and heaters for the stag for
ests during season in the Highlands
and after all other expenses have beer
paid one must figure on the tips at ths
end of the season. A head keeper who
has supervised the training OF 40 stags
could not well receive less than $50
while the chief stalker, who has no
only driven the deer In front of thu
sportsman's rifle. but by his own agil
? ity III lodging bullets has saved tn
costs OF dozen or more inquests an,
granddaughter trials. must receive II
fairness at least 500. and his subordi
mates must be paid in proportion. Thei
tips ere sometimes computed according
: to the number Of shot wounds the,
: can show Ia the after part Of thei
+ legs.-New York Tribune london Cor
e respondence}