Bag. Dalnawillan. Rumsdale.
Grouse 112 brace. 100 brace.
Sundries 54-1/2 " ----
The railway was open and a station stuck down in the middle of the
moorland four miles from Dalnawillan Lodge and seven from Glutt, no
road, or footpath even, in any direction from the station.
It was stuck down in the centre of the moorland to take its chance.
For the use of Dalnawillan and Glutt Dunbar and I did our best to
induce the proprietor to make the four miles of road that was needed.
We offered during the tenancy of our leases to pay the proprietor six
per cent. on the £600, which was the estimated cost of the road, and
do the repairs ourselves, but of no avail. At last it was settled that
I should make the road and find the money, the cost, with interest at
five per cent., to be repaid to me by twelve equal yearly instalments,
of which the proprietor contributed half, Dunbar a quarter, and myself
a quarter. The road was made and open ready for use for the shooting
season of 1876.
* * * * *
After about a fortnight at Dalnawillan I took a trip into Shetland with
my boy Charlie, to verify the wondrous tales of sea trout that were to
be had in every tidal stream and loch.
It was a miserable disappointment, every fish that could be had was
poached on the spawning beds and by any other means at any other time;
but on some of the outer islands, I believe, matters were better.
What there were were very fine fish; we had nine in all, four of which
weighed 6-1/2lb.
What a small world it is! Charley was fishing away in Brouster Loch in
waders up to his middle, when someone calls out: "Holloa, Charley,
what are you doing here?" And there was his class master at Clifton
College also up to his middle.
On our return to Caithness we had a horribly stormy passage from
Lerwick to Wick, putting in for the night at Kirkwall in Orkney, to
shelter from stress of weather.
Lerwick is a very pretty little town, the most northerly in Great
Britain, doing a good and lively trade in fishing matters, and having
a great many visitors in the season. For those cockneys who have
the blessed faculty of defying _mal de mer_, and enjoying bottled
porter and a pipe with the ocean in commotion--and my experience, so
far as it goes, is that in those northern latitudes it always is in
commotion--what can be a pleasanter or a cheaper sea trip than to go by
the Aberdeen boat from London Bridge to Aberdeen, and thence to Lerwick
_viâ_ Wick, and round the islands in the trading steamer, and home by
the West Coast.
Shetland from the outside looks very nice. It is indented in every
direction with fiords, or voes they call them there, with very fine
cliff scenery.
But the inside is dismal, the crofters and fishermen pare the turf and
heather for winter bedding for their cattle, and, what with that and
peat cutting for fuel, they leave the surface of the hills very black
looking and hideous.
* * * * *
There is some good heather, perhaps about seven thousand acres, in the
main island, and it would, no doubt, carry some grouse, if any means
could be devised for destroying the swarms of greyback gulls, hoodie
crows, and hawks.
Not a living thing can show, without being pounced upon and devoured.
The only game of any description that I saw was two snipe; not even a
rabbit.
Before I went it had struck me as an anomaly that there should not be
grouse, and I looked well into the question of whether grouse could be
profitably introduced, but, looking at the small amount of moorland,
and the large cost, if not impossibility of destroying the vermin, I
gave up the notion. I notice from letters in the _Field_ and elsewhere
that others are agitating the question, and they will do well to
thoroughly bottom the question before incurring heavy responsibilities.
One thing that strikes a visitor is the incessant knitting on the part
of every woman and girl; no matter when or where, the knitting needles
incessantly ply. Carrying baskets of peats from the hills in creels on
their backs, still the needles ply in front.
Some of their knitting is very beautiful. The common goods are knitted
from imported yarn, but the beautiful shawls are knitted from yarn spun
from the fully-grown wool of the indigenous native sheep.
The wool is not clipped, but pulled when fully ripe.
The native sheep are of all colours, white, brown, yellow, &c., and
many piebald.
With these colours the varied colours of the best quality Shetland
shawls are derived from the natural colour of the wool, without dyeing.
Some of the shawls are exquisitely fine, and fetch large prices. For
one, many yards square, I gave £5. Of course it was a unique specimen,
and afterwards, in England, I was assured that it was a cheap purchase.
It could be doubled up not much larger than a pocket handkerchief.