Pretty much a repetition of the previous season; grouse were increasing
fast, but none to spare for the gun.
I worked away at the cock birds, and let the boys get their hands in on
the outside beats, where the birds would not be missed, breaking them
in work as well as the dogs.
In the spring of this year, carrying out the idea propounded by
Dunbar, utilising my experience of American house building in wood,
of which I had taken careful particulars when in that country a year
or two previously, I built a small lodge near to Altnabreac station,
containing kitchen, parlour, and five bedrooms, and let it, with 12,000
acres of moorland, for three years--first year £200, second and third
year at £300 a year, including keeper, with a proviso that if my keeper
was of opinion that the birds could not be spared the bag should be
limited to 100 brace in the first year, and in that event I was to
return £100 of the rent.