Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-15
land OF SCOTLAND
GIVEN Up TO GAME
TiIIers of the Soil Driven Out
to Make Room for Sports
of Wealthy.
ANCIENT CLAN SYSTEM
IS MOURNED BY TENANTS
Few of the Present-Day Proprietors
Are Natives Of the
Highlands.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

LONDON. October 4, 1913.
Lloyd George is about to attack the
land problem in this country. and an
effort will be made to settle this vexed
question by making small allotments and
encouraging small farmers. Also to in
duce those who have left the land for
artisan labor to go back to the land.
The great bulk of the land in this coun-
try Is in the hands of a few great own
ers. and nowhere is this more the case
than in Scotland.
A casual glance at any list of the deer
forests of Scotland indicates the change
in the social type into whose hands these
vast expanses Of territory have fallen.
For veal or woe. the Highlands have
been converted from treasure house
(often a poor one, I dare say) of the till
or of the soil into the Fairgrounds Of
wealth. 1900 acres In Ross-shire
are owned by a scion Of the Shoolbred
family A famous sauce family has pro-
vided the capital for the purchase Of
1900 acres in the same county.
A forty-mile stretch OF the Inverness
shire coast is In the possession Of two
London stockholders, a Glasgow ship
builder and the son of Yorkshire col
liery proprietor. Watney, Phipps, Conbe
Bowlby, Birkbeck, Coats, Schroeder, Nixey
and Angelo are but a few names which
have taken the place Of those of the great
Highland chieftains who formerly owned
the land. and even where 1t Is still I'm the
possession Of the original territorial fam
clear that these great wastes are pre-
served mainly for the sport OF many
whose association with Scotland is mere
ly of a holiday kind.
Find Leer More Profitable.
In a glen close to Inverness an Ameri-
can millionaire has set up his mansion,
and over the hills at the back stretches
the deer forest that he rents. Strathglass.
the home Of the Chisholms, Is silent. be-
cause its owners saw more profit In pro-
viding deer than in encouraging tenancy.
One of the few chisholms left In 8 ma
clearances He could remember seven
pairs OF horses employed on farm.
where there are none now. A farm that
employed three pairs Is given over to
deer and rabbits. Twenty antilles had
gone from closely in the last thirty
employ q few men, that was ali. Farm
ers used to run stock all the year round
on land given to deer. Farmsteads were
now tenanted by men employed to look
Strath was the best In the north of Scot
land for making a living and rearing
fine men.
AS with the Chisholms. SO with the
Maclennans. In the Black Isle, at the
mouth of Strathconan, one can see crofts
perched away up on the bleak hillside
like pictures ON wall. There went some
OF those driven from the fertile Strath
to reclaim the barren. heathery waste
and the very soil now cultivated was
carried up In baskets from the ground te-
low to cover the bare rocks. There today
dwell the descendants of those men to
heep alive the memory Of the tragedy of
the glen, and to see a brewer and his
deer in possession of the homes Of their
ancestors. What wonder is II that these
people still look back with longing to the
old clan system. with its sentiment Of CO.
partnership in the soil.
Prosperity Not Real.
Those who argue in favor of the deer
forests believe that the presence of these
wea thy owners and tenants is the main
stay of Highland prosperity. Mr.. Nal
colin. who recently wrote a pamphlet on
deer forests, points to farmers. trades
men shopkeepers and professional men II
the districts surrounding the deer forests
as participating In the advantages of the
annual influx Of the wealthy Sportsmen.
maintain 600 people in comfort. which
are now absolutely deserted but for
single gamekeeper. paid at the rate of 81
per week, is the best answer to those who
talk of Highland prosperity. AS for the
biz farmers, there is hardly one who
benefited from shooting tenant to a
GREATER Axf0nt than a brace of grouse or