Scottish sports and pastimes

Chapter I

Prom tlie earliest periods of history, the inhabi¬ tants of Great Britain have been celebrated for their chivalry in arms, and not less so for them prowess in the chase.

As the love of liberty induced our forefathers to become warriors, in like manner necessity compelled them to pursue, for the means of subsistence, the antlered monarch of the mountain, and the feathered tribe of the woodland. Indeed, the fact scarcely needs comment, that the activity and physical energy acquired from the pursuit of game, com¬ prising every species of out-door amusement termed sport, has, even to the present day, greatly contri¬ buted to that success which, under God’s blessing,

B the armies of England have, and it is to be hoped ever will maintain, over those of foreign powers.

During the period termed the Golden Age, our ancestors looked on the chase not only as a means of diversion, as by peers and commoners of the present age implied, or as a means of unlawful gain by poachers and pot-hunters, but simply as that which nature had liberally provided them for the well stocking of their larders, and the consequent suste¬ nance of themselves or their followers. Never¬ theless, they sported, in every sense of the word ; and, by this active and manly pursuit — which caused them to be constantly under the canopy of heaven, in all weathers and during all seasons — they gained health, strength, and nerve, for the more serious bloodshed of the battle-field.

Dwelling during the summer months on the moorland or the mountain-top, when the rigours of winter approached, they sought the sheltered valley and the glen ; no millionaire, with boundless acres — no unnecessary preserver of pheasants, and conse¬ quently, in many cases, destroyer of foxes — no velveteen- clad forester presented himself in person, or by the ruinous arm of the law, to disturb their wandering footsteps o’er the land of liberty. Ramblers in pursuit of game, no circumscribed limit for their sport was marked; their footsteps were free and unmolested — killing all they could, and eating all they killed. Those were no days of entails or rent-rolls — no agents — no pilfering lawyers : unthinking, unshackled — free, wandering — merry lads were they. Industrious labour was, however, soon taught by nature to appreciate the gifts which she so bountifully supplied, and they, good men ! with equal bounty appropriated ; for, in those days, men hunted as they fought, and fought as they

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hunted— the best sportsman killed the most game and ate it ; the best fighter, having won the battle, selected the best land and kept it. Many centuries have, however, elapsed — having a bad memory, we forget how many— since that pleasant sporting and fighting era. It is, nevertheless, vastly agree¬ able to reflect, as we now write in an easy chair, that it was long, long ago. We refer more particu¬ larly to the fighting ; for, as regards the hunting and shooting, the love of rural sports then engen¬ dered in the hearts of Britons has, from age to age, been handed down from generation to generation, and the passion burns in the breasts of Englishmen with an ardour undiminished : and a very pleasant passion it is, without fear of contradiction ; but, like all other passions, it is sometimes sadly abused. In fact, the transports which excite the minds of all true lovers of field sports, at the relation of a glorious day's fox-hunting — a good run with harriers — a shooting excursion — a coursing meeting — indeed, any sporting details, to all a source of amusement; to most is a source of unmitigated delight.

“ The Golden Age'’ defunct, we come to the Middle Age. Then there were kings with their horses, and hounds, and henchmen ; and they sallied forth from their castles and palaces with a noble retinue of fair ladies and bold barons, and they brought a stag to bay ; and the king looked on, and the ladies looked pleased, and the barons blew their horns, and they all went home to dinner. And the next day, the weather being fair, and the sky clear, the palfreys stood caparisoned before the baronial hall, and a sprinkling of sporting neighbours and pages were in attendance, and they all went forth to a hawking expedition, selon la regie of sporting barons in baronial times.

Then came the Age of Squires, real bond fide squires — not squires in their present undefined title, but real solid squires, with their packs of hounds, and well filled stables of hunters, and their equally well filled cellars and larders ; and we are told they rose before day-break, and started to hunt the fox ; and that they rode some twenty miles to covert on a strong, half-bred, dock-tailed horse, which identical animal also carried them through a long and hard day’s chase, and home again. After which, they hospitably and bountifully entertained their friends as well as themselves, with barons and sirloins of beef, and sundry bottles of good old port. These gentlemen had robust limbs, fat faces, and red noses ; and their sporting costume was generally a very thick pair of yellowish ancestral buckskins, with brown tops to their boots. They invariably attended the parish church on the Sab¬ bath, whatever might be the weather; and after¬ wards, in the society of the parson, who was always a Sunday guest at the squire’s table, they drank two bottles of port — to the prosperity of the chase, in the first instance, and then to the king’s health ; and were termed, perhaps justly so, by their neigh¬ bours, good and honest men, who injured none but themselves ; and, as this injury was, of course, the fault of the port, they were sinless.

Swearing and tippling, in those days, were con¬ sidered simply as sporting accomplishments ; to be d— d by a master of fox-hounds was merely to be addressed in sporting language — as our legislators, in these days of refinement, sometimes courteously address one another in parliamentary language, which is easily learnt, with a little attention to the duties of your constituency, during one session. And as for coming drunk into the presence of ladies after

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dinner, it was supposed to be simply the natural consequences which followed the excitement of the hunting field : and a sound nap in an easy chair, from which issued a chorus of snores, was, doubtless, highly pleasing to the fair sex.

The age of Melton, however, was not far distant ; and it came with the rapid strides of a race-horse, as did those of battues, grouse-shooting, and latterly deer- stalking. The hour for meeting hounds was later, the horses better bred, with more natural tails ; till at length we find thorough-bred horses and first-rate riders, and tails in the fulness of nature's beauty, unadorned by docking— thus decidedly, as regards the horse, adorned the most— assembled at the covert-side at a reasonable hour in the morning.

French and English male artistes have taken the place of female roasters of sirloins, who nevertheless serve eatables more agreeable to the palate, and more conducive to keep the frame lighter for the saddle — though no offence to roast-beef and Yorkshire pudding, excellent both in their way. Good claret in modera¬ tion is now drunk instead of bad port in abundance ; and very white and well-made leathers have banished the yellow buckskin ; whereas well cleaned tops adorn the legs of peers and commoners, instead of dirty ones. The provincial counties have followed in the wake of Melton — foxes are killed in one hour instead of four; and more pheasants are found on one estate, and more partridges in one turnip-field, than heretofore lived and flew in a county.

Young England has made rapid strides in the character of sportsman, and, as regards ourselves, we feel perfectly satisfied with the system of the present age, without entering into any discussion with refer¬ ence to the merits or demerits of the Game Laws. As in all other matters of life’s career, there are un-

b 3 questionably many objections to be found in the selfish bigotry and illiberal monopoly of game, and the no less objectionable manner of its undue pre¬ servation by some extensive landholders ; happily, however, they are in the minority ; and where you will find one man of this nature,* you will find twenty open-hearted and real sportsmen, who preserve simply as a means of sport and recreation to themselves, but far more so for their friends ; liberally compen¬ sating their tenants for injury done, allowing them also in many cases to participate in their pleasures, and in fact doing far more good than harm to their neighbours and their farmers.

Melton may be a trifle “ too fast,” to use a sporting term, for those who have not good breeding and long purses. There is, however, sufficient breadth of land and a sufficient number of packs in Old England for all parties ; therefore let those who cannot, or ought not to go there, find their proper position, and go elsewhere ; sport is to be had, and first-rate sport, all over the kingdom, alike in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Good horses, good hounds, and better riders than heretofore were ever known, notwith¬ standing their apparent dandyism in dress and ap¬ pointments, are to be met with in every hunting field ; and hunting has become a source of unequalled delight and excitement, instead of a comparative toil mixed somewhat too copiously with the source of your enjoyment. You may now have a splendid day’s hunting, ride home afterwards, make yourself agreeable to the fair sex, play a game of billiards, and then dress for dinner — drink a glass or two of sherry and a pint of claret, and be fit society for women, as well as for those men who do not exactly participate in your sporting propensities. Cigars, disagreeable as their aromatic effluvia may be to

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some, even in a hunting field, nevertheless close the lips of many heretofore given to damn a little. Then, as regards shooting, in these days of sixty miles an horn by express — oh ! ‘tis a pleasant pastime to see your dogs range with a certainty of finding game, instead of walking o'er hill and dale for twenty miles in search of a brace of birds for your next day's dinner. Now, you have sport and pleasure without toil and disgust — excitement without fatigue — pas¬ sion without weariness. Which do you prefer — the Golden Age, the Baronial Age, the Squires’ Age, or the age in which we live and sport ?

Our ci-devant “kilted" neighbours beyond the Border, where kilts are now at a discount, and “breeks” at a premium, have also made some wonderful and pleasing advances in reference to sporting matters — though in most others they follow but slowly in the steps of reformation, inasmuch as “ siller" is required to open the floodgates in all matters of civilization : and this — and perhaps they are right — is not just the substance they are over fond of parting with. Never¬ theless, they, like we humble Englishers, or foreigners, as we are generally termed anent the Border, have had their ages ; but, like wise and canny men as they are, they have managed to terminate precisely where we began — namely, with the Golden Age — in all matters of sporting. First came their age of bar¬ barism, then of clanship, then chieftainism ; and now lairdism is the law and will of the land. But even in this humility, a spark of ancient pride still lingers in the Highlands ; for there, amid those vast and magnificent hills, no man possessing an acre of land but is designated, not by the name given him by his godfather and godmother, if he had any, but they assume, by what law or right we have hitherto been unable to learn, the cognomen of the clay from which they draw their means of existence. Thus we find the Laird of Cockpen, and the Laird of Glengarry ; and if a man gloried in the proprietorship of some dozen acres of swampy marsh land, doubtless he might, should it so please him, be called the “ Laird of Mud Marsh.” These, however, are insignificant trifles ; as harmless, in fact, as theory. Beware, nevertheless, should chance or pleasure lead you to the land of the mountain and the flood, not to call any gentleman by his right name — such as Mr. McPherson, or Mr. Ross, or Mr. M‘Donald, and so forth— but, on the contrary, let your courtesy induce you at once to address your friends as, “ How are you, Cockpen?” “Hope you ’re better, Mud Marsh?”

But to resume. The barbarous sportsmen shot all game which came within range, and not unfrequently shot one another, by way of diversifying the sport : on the one hand, to supply the 66 pot au feu;” and, on the other, to secure their revenge, or possess themselves of some snug retreat and a few broad acres which their neighbours had appropriated, and for which they had had a longing, like ladies in the family way, when it is unwise to refuse them.

With regard to the chieftains, they hunted, like our kings of yore, with much rude magnificence — at least as regards the number of their retainers ; whose duties were twofold— the one to drive the deer and game into the toils, or towards the stations where their leaders were prepared, with deadly aim, to briug down the venison with which they supplied their larders ; the other to assist in any little marauding party against their neighbours’ beef and mutton, which, in preparation for the butcher’s knife, still grazed upon the heathered hills. In fact, the chase, with them, was only a prelude for collect¬ ing their vassals for a more serious pastime in the

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pursuit of bipeds. And thus they amused them¬ selves till an Act was passed, prohibiting such warlike demonstrations for a morning's deer-stalk-

ing-

Then came the days of Scotch breakfasts and Scotch hospitality — kippered salmon, porridge, mar¬ malade, and whisky ad libitum, like our own days of squirearchy port wine and sirloins. Then was the wanderer from the South welcomed in the North, whether in search of pleasure or of sport, from Tay to Pentland Frith ; riimporte, if he could swear he had a grandfather, or knew his own mother — suffice it he was a stranger, and every house was open to receive him. These pleasant times have somewhat changed, however, since the introduction of steam throughout the land ; and King Hudson, were he to visit John o’ Groat's House — which, by the bye, exists only in name — would find the best welcome obtained for a consideration. Foreign importations — for we have already stated that Englishmen are termed foreigners in the Flighlands — being some¬ what more numerous, and consequently less select, bring, then, a letter of introduction from your aunt, Lady Banknote, or your uncle, Lord Millionaire, which will be the surest means of seeming you a seat above the salt ; and this precaution can scarcely be condemned, when polished boots from the neigh¬ bourhood of Whitechapel glitter in the sun-rays on the top of Ben Lomond, and Moses, or one of his firm, is met with in half the glens of Argyleshire. The sporting generation of Scotchmen, however, and Highland sports, are making rapid advances towards perfection in the craft. Like our own young Eng¬ lish sportsmen, whom some wise malcontents are ever declaring as totally unfit to cope with those of days long since— in which opinion we must beg

SCOTTISH SPOKTS leave entirely to differ with them — there are many first-rate sportsmen to be found in Scotland.

Those who annually cross the Border to hunt at Melton, or take up their abode at Leamington or elsewhere, wre do not include ; inasmuch as the majority of them merely return to the Highlands, as do the visitors from England, during the season of grouse-shooting, deer-stalking, salmon-fishing, &c. But herein has been the downfall of many a noble estate, and not less so the misery of many a noble Scotch family. Not many years have elapsed since Highland lairds, who possessed some twenty thou¬ sand acres of wild heather and mountain land, on which stood a castle wTith barely the accommodation of an English villa, and a proportionate rental of two thousand per annum— riches in the land of their ancestors,— doffed their kilt and bonnet, and bidding farewell to their adoring clansmen, sought the plea¬ sures of a London season— looked in at Tattersalls’, visited Epsom, Ascot, Doncaster, and Newmarket ; entered their names at White’s and Brooks’s, and even ventured to send a stud to Melton. Good fellows, pleasant companions, good riders, and first-rate shots doubtless were they, but the southern atmosphere of England banished from their minds their usual national prudence. They totally forgot that although the number of their quarterings, and the unquestioned antiquity of their ancestry, might admit them within the narrow limits of first-rate society, that they could never cope with men who had ten times their means, or follow, without speedy ruin, in the same career. What to the one was a matter of course, to the other was a rapid advance to beggary, and tended solely to ‘enrich the W. S.’s of Edinburgh and elsewhere. As, however, some may not clearly understand the meaning of these letters,

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we will give them precisely the explanation that was given to us on our arrival in Scotland. On requesting to be informed as to what might be understood by the distinction of W. S. to the names of so many northern lawyers, the reply was, Sir W. Scott was a Writer to the Signet ; and being learned in the law, all were doubtless desirous to follow in his footsteps ; therefore, by the payment of a douceur — to whom deponent sayeth not — numerous attorneys were permitted to add W.S. to their names, anxious, no doubt, to be thought writers to the signet also, or “Wise Solicitors, “ or “Wealthy Solicitors, “ or W. anything else you like to call them, commencing with an S. We cannot presume to say what may be the particular duties of a Writer to the Signet, but they are certainly important, as it requires some thousands to perform them.

To conclude this chapter, however, the Wizards of the North remained at home, shot their own grouse, killed their own venison, caught their own salmon, and ate their own mutton— and very good mutton it is, we can answer for : whereas, the lairds who fled to England for recreation, returned back to sorrow, and half the fine estates in Scotland are now in trust of the W.S.'s ; and we believe we may refer to one instance without fear of contradiction, namely, that of “ Culloden" — a name never to be forgotten while the heather yearly flowers o'er his moors — a name whose present possessor is every way worthy to inherit. And yet this laird has known even the want of a daily meal, while those who held his land in trust or agency, were revelling in luxury at his expense. The Scotch sportsmen who came to Eng¬ land, however, made, justly, many Mends, and con¬ sequently induced those friends to cross the Border, and share in the sports, then little known or appreciated, of grouse-shooting, salmon fishing, and lastly, —save fox hunting, the most noble of all sports — deer- stalking, which has become the passion of all Englishmen who can afford it; a passion which vents itself most pleasingly and sensibly into the pockets of those lairds who are wise enough still to kill only their own mutton from the hills which supply such abundant sport to their neighbours from the south. To them, it is unquestionably the Golden Age.

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CHAPTER II. “ It’s up Glenharchan’s braes I gaed

And o’er the brent of Killiebraid,

And many weary cast I made To cuttle the moor fowl’s tail.

“ If up a bonny blackcock should spring.

To whistle him down wi’ a slug in his wing,

To strap him on to my lunzie string.

Eight seldom would I fail.”

Come with us to the Highlands, and take a walk o‘er the rugged mountain top, and flowery heathered hill, through many a wild and silent glen, in the rocky centre of which rushes the clear and rapid trout stream o*er many a rugged fall, to join its waters with the calm and beauteous lake. Come with us to Scotland,

“ For there on every wild and wondrous scene.

The Wizard’s many-coloured touch hath been.”

We are off for the land of the mountain and the flood ! our heart beats with excitement, from antici¬ pation of sport and pleasure ! we go to visit the beauties of nature in reality, to see pictures in fact, not in theory ; for Art, glorious as it is, can but faintly imitate Nature. Come with us, then, knee deep in flowery heather, and tread the mountain side in search of game. The sun is up, the sky is bright and clear : fancy its exhilarating effects on

c the Highland hills, as, with a light heart and firm foot, you start on your first expedition to the moors. Come to

“ The moors ! the moors ! the bonny brown moors, Shining and fresh with April showers !

When the wild birds sing The return of Spring,

And the gorse and the broom Shed the rich perfume Of their golden bloom,

’Tis a joy to revisit the bonny brown moors ! ”

Liddell.

The Castle of Meggernie, which is situated in Glen Lyon, Perthshire, a small, narrow, and secluded valley, which reaches almost to the confines of Argyleshire, is in truth one of the most romantic and beautiful to be found throughout the Scottish dominions. The house, or, more properly speaking, the castle, for it bears in parts much the resemblance of an ancient French chateau, is placed almost in the centre of the above-named valley or glen, in a singularly sequestered part of the country, being actually some fourteen or fifteen miles from the residence of any but one other laird or proprietor, and about the same distance from a medical man or post-office— two most essential neighbours in so remote a locality. A noble avenue, principally of lime-trees, running parallel with the river Lyon for the best part of a mile — and which avenue, were it within twenty miles of the metropolis, from its natural beauties would attract thousands — forms the approach of Meggernie from the east. The castle itself stands clear on a beautiful lawn (which it might be), and grassy park (which it really is) ; on wffiich are scattered some of the finest trees to be found in the Highlands. The place, in fact, is one of peculiar beauty and interest, not only from its

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natural position, which appears as if isolated from the rest of the world, but also from its great an¬ tiquity, and neighbourhood to the scenes of many a bloody Highland conflict.

The house is one of those ancient piles, constructed in times of danger, where strength was the first and greatest object; the walls are accordingly of immense thickness, and the doors defended by iron gratings of prodigious size and weight. A donjon, excavated from the foundations, is even to the present day adorned with hooks, on which the finishing stroke of the law, or rather the will of barbarous and despotic chiefs, has, we are told, been frequently executed. Alas ! would the ghosts of some of these departed victims but deign to make their appearance in this said donjon during the shooting season, we question whether they would not be somewhat “mazed." as the Scotch term it, and instead of resuming their places as 44 damp, moist bodies," on the hooks, they would probably hang a cauldron thereon, in which to make a stew of the abimdant game they there would find, or mull a few bottles of good port or claret, with which the bins that now adorn its sides are well filled. In all other respects it remains as in the time of Robert the Second.

There is much accommodation, and all required comfort, to be foimd in the interior of Meggemie Castle, both as regards the more modern portion of the building, and also in the fine old tower which forms one of its extremities, and is divided into many good sleeping apartments, to which the turrets form admirable dressing-rooms ; none of them are, how¬ ever, large, which is not surprising when we con¬ sider the remote age in which they were built, and the great object of safety which the founders must have kept in Hew. Some old portraits, both of the

Menzies branch, and also of the Stewarts of Cardnay, adorn the walls ; likewise those of the late Mr. and Mrs. Menzies. The proprietor is descended in the male line from Sir John Stewart of Cardnay, son of King Robert the Second, from whose eldest son he is the fifteenth in descent. From the second son of Sir John, the family of Stewart of Dalgarne, in Athol, is descended. By the female line, Mr. Menzies possesses the estates of Meggernie and Culdares, and is a branch of the family of Menzies, of Castle Menzies, chief of the same. The present owner of Meggernie has very recently attained his majority, and he wisely prefers following the example of numerous other Highland lairds, of letting his ancient chateau, and its glorious shooting manors to a noble and generous English sportsman, (who keeps the one from falling to decay, and preserves the other with the greatest care,) to residing in a place which notwithstanding its many beauties, save in the sunny months of summer or autumn, would be a sort of living grave. But we must dwell as briefly as possible on family history or historical facts, and lead on, as quickly as may be, to those details more congenial to our sporting readers ; or say, doubtless in the feelings, if not in the words, of many a Highland chieftain who formerly lived on his own domain, consisting of some leagues of heathered hills, watered by many a trout- stream and salmonriver, killing his own game, and eating his own venison, surrounded and beloved by his clansmen—

“ My hawk is tired of perch and hood,

My idle greyhound loathes his food,

My horse is weary of his stall.

And I am sick of captive thrall.

I wish I were as I have been.

Hunting the hart in forest green,

With bended bow, and bloodhound free.

For that ’s the life is meet for me,”

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Indeed, scarcely a quarter of a century has elapsed since the possession of a Highland shooting quarter — a source of such great autumnal enjoyment —was heard of, and frequently spoken of with delight and longing, by the genuine sportsman. At that period however, it was a gratification only practically known to, and participated in by, the affluent or aristocratic members of society ; in fact, the posses¬ sion of a Highland shooting quarter inferred also a place in the highest ranks of society, with the frequent addition of a stud at Melton, and a house in the lordly west of the metropolis. The question, “ Do you go to the Moors this season was uttered by the same voice which remarked your attendance at A knack’ s or the Opera. And few, even of these high-born cavaliers, of England at least, could prac¬ tically speak in truth of the blackcock and ptarmigan ; and then, among those, how few had pulled a trigger af the noble red deer, the fleet and bounding roe ! Whilst, for those of a humbler class, or more humble means, although their sporting qualities might be of the highest order, and their aim unerring, let them talk of thirty brace of par¬ tridges, twenty brace of pheasants, five couple of woodcocks, nineteen hares, eleven rabbits, kc., as having fallen to their redoubtable Mantons between an early breakfast and late dinner, yet grouse, ptar¬ migan, and blackcock were never entered on their game-books. They heard of such birds in Leadenhall Market, and might, perchance, have seen them on the table of a friend, or read of them on heathered mountains afar off. They imagined the delight of shooting them ; and they might occasionally, per¬ chance, fall on a paragraph in the daily journals

which informed them that the Eight Honourable - -

had, since the close of the session, enjoyed sixteen

c 3 days of splendid sport in tlie Highlands, having bagged, with his own gun, two hundred and fortythree brace of grouse, eighty-four blackcocks, seventythree white mountain hares, a roe deer, seven brace of ptarmigan, and three golden plovers ; that his health and appetite had been greatly renovated thereby ; and that he had proceeded southwards to Doncaster previous to returning to Castle Arden for the pheasant shooting, where he proposed receiving a select party of sportsmen, and thence to Melton for the hunting season ; and if such were true, though it be a vice, “ we envy him.” They heard, also, that the Duke of Blair had killed nine stags, and missed five on account of the dreadful state of the weather* — no fault of his, surely ; and that the chief of Glenselfishstream, Sir Murray McPherson, McGregor, Clan Alpine Macthousand — we trust he may pardon us — had surpassed all his prowess in shooting of former years, at his splendid moors near CreifF, in the county of Perth.