THECLOSING OF THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS.
THE stress and strain of modern life have grown to a great intensity. Men live in restless anxiety, under constant pressure, with quickened brains and fevered pulses, until life has become a burden almost beyond endurance. Thus modern society has felt, as people of a more leisurely time never felt, the necessity of change and of relaxation. The need of change is not confined to any one class of society. It is general. Our wearied legislators are scattered wide over sea and land, are pursuing grouse or deer in the Scottish Highlands, or are further afield after other sorts of game. Clergymen, doctors, lawyers, men of literature and of science, seek to breathe the keen air of the mountains, and strengthen themselves for a new campaign. Working.men, too, seek to get a day among the hills, or at the sea.side. For all sorts and conditions of men, an opportunity of a holiday is highly desirable, and it is for the good of all that the opportunity should be easily found. As the years pass on, the difficulties in the way of relaxation constantly increase. We do not here speak of the growing pressure of business, and the increased value of time. We refer specially to the sad fact that the great bulk of the population are being more and more shut out from visiting those places of our land which, from their very nature, are peculiarly fitted to strengthen and reinvigorate man's 'decaying energies.
No doubt, the competition is keen with regard to such places. We should be the last to deny to our wearied men of wealth the needful quiet and seclusion. They also need the quiet of the hills, and the keenness of the mountain air. But they most certainly do not require, what they at present demand and take, many square miles of country for this purpose. In the High- lands of Scotland, a few moneyed families have possession of vast districts of country, from the use of which all their fellow-men are rigorously excluded. Tracts of heath and mountain, health- giving and bracing to wearied mortals, are visible in the dis- tance ; but the health-seeking traveller has to keep the beaten track, lest his rash foot should disturb the repose of grouse or deer. No fence or boundary meets the eye, and the unaccustomed tourist, thinking no wrong, joyfully starts to climb a hill and enjoy a larger prospect, when suddenly, like the followers of Rhoderick Dhu, a gamekeeper starts up, with the unwelcome information, "No road this way : this hill is preserved." Formerly, the unenclosed hill-sides were open to every comer, and no damage was done; in fact, it was not possible to do any damage to mere stone or heather. But of late years, the mania for the preservation of grouse and deer has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. It is true, no doubt, that the number of those who seek the hill- sides in summer and in autumn has multiplied to an extra- ordinary degree. Hundreds are now to be found where a short while ago no human foot strayed. It is also true that the number of "shooting tenants" has vastly increased. The increase in both cases is due to the pressure of city and of business life. The causes which induce those who have the power, to pay some hundreds or thousands of pounds for the right of shooting over some few miles of moor and mountain, are identical with those which urge a poorer man to explore our High- land glens or climb the Highland mountains. And the question becomes urgent, more urgent every year, whether the few can continue to exclude the many from those vast, uneuclosed, and un- cultivated regions of the country. It is one aspect of a great and manifold problem, the solution of which will tax the wisdom of our statesmen to the uttermost. In speaking of national parks, we lately suggested that no additional right should be allowed to accrue to the present owners and occupiers of the Lake country. We are afraid that the suggestion comes too late with regard to the Highlands of Scotland. The public are already shut out from the greater part of the Highlands. In the uplands of Perthshire, scientific botanists are sternly shut out from the mountains,—" A wooden hut has been erected, on the track to Speyside, to contain a watcher, to see that no one leaves the track to trespass on Cairntoul or Ben Macdhui." Visitors at Braemarone of the most celebrated of the health resorts of Scotland—cannot obtain leave to cross the Dee during the shooting season, and only grudgingly at any time. These are only samples of the kind of thing which is being done all over the Highlands of Scotland, at the present hour.
The disgust and anger of many people at this state of things are very manifest. They are finding vent in speech and in print, and they will grow from more to more. Already the growl has become terrible in its intensity. If the holders of privilege do not make timely concessions, the result will be far from agreeable. At present, they may buy the Sybilline leaves at a low price. Liberty to stroll through the forests, to climb the mountains, freedom to roam over barren moors, without being checked and bullied by the underlings of the shooting tenant, will give contentment. But let the encroachment go on for a little more, and the right of exclusive solitude on the part of the few will be ruthlessly taken away. No one grudges them a reasonable amount of seclusion. Let them, however, be reasonable, and only take what they need.
In this connection we cannot but think of the effects of the present system on the underlings themselves. The permanent gamekeeper or forester may be a decent member of society. But the development of the demand for shooting moors has led to the evolution of a kind of character which is fatal and disastrous. A good many men and lads find employment for a few months during the shooting season. They are over- worked, over-fed, and over-paid for about two 'moths of the year. They idle and loaf about for the rest of the sear, and become utterly useless for any honourable industry. It is curious to reflect on the degenerating effect of work and toil which ends only in the pleasure of others. A lad hired to carry the clubs of a golfer seldom learns a trade, or gives him- self to steady work of any kind. And a young man who is hired to carry a game bag scarcely ever turns out well. Billiard- markers are usually among the offscourings of society. In all cases in which the pursuit of pleasure is turned to a business, and in which men are hired for no profitable work, but only for the promoting of the pleasure of others, with rare exceptions the
men so hired are utterly ruined. In them there is no serious aim in life, no weighty responsibility, nor any hope of progress. It is with grief, therefore, that we witness the development of a system which is large'y based on selfishness and disregard of the interest of other people, and which haws in the de- moralisation and ruin of a large number of human beings.
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