WALKING AND STALKING
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SM,—Miss Janet Adam Smith writes with commendable moderation on the question of "Walkers and Stalkers" in the Highlands, but may 1, as, to a certain extent, being included in both, make a few remarks on her article? It is, as she says, no new difliculty—this conflict of interests ; but, doubtless, owing to the new "hiking," the increased facility of travel, and the fine weather of the last three years, it has become a more prominent one. It is evident that Miss Smith has little practical knowledge of either grouse-driving, or stalking the red deer—otherwise she could hardly have written as she has in regard to either branch of sport.
The plea for "artists, naturalists and geologists" is an old one, but who is to tell if intruders are really such ? If their claim is true, access can generally be obtained anywhere, provided the proper and necessary steps are taken. There are thousands of acres of hill and moor on which walking can be done with injury to no man. It is not fair to compare the Highlands with Switzerland or the Tyrol—conditions are entirely different, and the haunts of chamois and red deer have no resemblance, nor has the way in which they are hunted. There are other open spaces than foreign ones. Wales, the Lakes, and much of Scotland provide mountains and hills, and there arc roads and paths affording all the walking that can be required.
But it is one of the weaknesses of human nature to want to do what is forbidden, and to go where ground is closed. There is also a natural coveting of other men's goods, but surely to go out of one's way to gratify a desire, or supposed desire, and by such trespass to do .a serious injury to other people is sheer selfishness. For it is not a question of only making things a little more difficult, or of only spoiling the day's amusement of two or three persons. The forests and moors are let for high rents, simply because of. their sporting value. They are carefully looked after and preserved, much money is spent on them, the livelihood of many more than the actual owners depends on their being let, and the rates and taxes paid on the rentals are the main source of public revenue in the Highlands. The indiscriminate combination of walking and sport is simply impossible, and this Miss Smith apparently does not understand. It is not a matter of "keeping out of the way when signs of stalking are seen," or a grouse drive is found to be in progress. By then, in all probability, irretrievable mischief will have been done how- ever unwillingly, not only to the particular stalk or drive, but to the whole day, and, in the case of deer, very likely for days afterwards. One single person on the skyline, or up wind, will clear the ground completely for miles. In fact, if there is to be any sport at all the ground must be kept absolutely quiet and undistm bed, or no deer will remain on it. In grouse driving, too, a whole day's driving may be ruined, with all the necessary preparation and great expense involved, by two or three persons wandering across the front of the butts or showing on the flanks.
The Scottish law of trespass is the most indulgent in the world, but no country depends more on its sporting rights for its prosperity. Abolish these and it will mean far more than the extinction of the noblest of our fauna : it will mean loss and ruin for thousands. Let people walk far and wide. They can do so without making claims to which they have no title, and without doing infinite harm to the interests of others who are spending large sums of money in a perfectly legitimate and proper way.-I am, Sir, &c., Aspley Guise, Bletehlej.
F. W. BERRY.
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