It culminated as Dunbar had foreshadowed, and at the latter end of
October I went straight from Glenmarkie to Dalnawillan.
The railway was then open to Helmsdale, and from there I travelled by
mail coach as far as Dunbeath, a lovely drive past Berriedale, the
property of the Duke of Portland, but being night I could see but
little of it on that occasion.
I slept at Dunbeath, and posted over next morning, 16 miles, the whole
distance across the moorland, to Dalnawillan.
Angus Mackay, the Colonel's gillie, met me at the march with a dog,
and, getting the gun out of the case, I shot up to the lodge.
The day was warm and sunny, and I was amazed and puzzled; I saw no
birds. At Glenmarkie they would have rolled up over the sky line; but
birds sat to the dog, and I killed three and a half brace. Three days
before, at Glenmarkie, being the last day that I should shoot, I tried
to get a few grouse, my endeavours resulting in one bird, but plenty of
packs rising before me.
The next day was showery and gusty, and the birds did not sit well, but
at Glenmarkie they would have rolled up in packs.
I spent two nights at the lodge with the Colonel's brother, who came
over to meet me, and next morning was away to Thurso to meet the
Colonel and Dunbar.
It was agreed that the lease should be assigned. I suggested a new
lease from Dunbar, and that he should make it the full ten years.
"Take it to the end of my lease, seventeen years, if you like," says
Dunbar, to which I assented; so it was settled that I should take the
24,000 acres of Dalnawillan, and Chullacan, and Backlas, at the rent of
£560, proprietor paying all rates and taxes, and I paying my keeper and
all other expenses.
This included a joint right of trout fishing on Dalnawillan,
Strathmore, and Glutt, and salmon fishing, after June 1.
When I returned to England my shooting friends told me that I was crazy
to take shooting in such an out-of-the-way, wild country, and tie
myself up for such a term of years. I felt I had done right; I meant
grouse shooting and fishing, and that, as railways had crept up, and
were creeping up, that shootings were more likely to improve than get
worse, in case of some unforeseen event occurring that should cause me
to cease to shoot.
Black had made every inquiry as to disease. Dunbar told me plump that
five years before they had had disease, but it was a mild attack, and
did not stop shooting. As, however, the moor had not carried a good
head of grouse until the year I took it, I expect that the tenants shot
away, killing down the breeding stock that should have been nursed. It
was admitted that the moors on the south and east had been badly hit
with disease.
I took the place with my eyes open, and was prepared to take the fat
with the lean, but I candidly confess that I had more lean than I
expected or liked.