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factory proof led before the sheriff that the purposes of the would-be climber were as stated; but such a contingency would be somewhat remote, and in any case too late for the day’s expedition.

Hitherto we have spoken of the country at large, but there are two cases which must be dealt with separately—land near large towns, and deer-forests.

In the neighbourhood of large towns, if the excuse of recreation gave a positive right to traverse uncultivated lands, very serious damage might be done by gangs of lads to cattle and sheep, as well as to young trees and to game. The right of action which the bill leaves in such a case is poor consolation. It would be very difficult to prove the definite injury caused by leaving a gate open, or chasing sheep, or frightening a cow near calving. It would be almost impossible to bring home to any individual and to recover damages for injury caused in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred by carelessness or ignorance and not by malice. In the great majority of such cases it would be throwing good money after bad to attack a lad not worth the powder and shot.

If farmers and tenants were acting unreasonably and with undue severity, and were, in fact, seeking to confine her Majesty's subjects to her Majesty’'s highways (the only places, perhaps, outside their own houses, where in strictness they are of right), then it might be necessary to force these inconveniences upon them. But, in fact, there is no serious allegation that they do not act with due discretion. In the neighbourhood of Glasgow, for example, I can testify from personal experience to the freedom of cross-country walks.

Cross-country running clubs, too, are numerous. The Clydesdale Harriers, for example, numbers about 700 members, mainly resident in Glasgow, and do not find difficulty in the pursuit of their sport. Occasionally such clubs cause annoyance. It is not pleasing to a man to find that a pack of fifty young men have run through his covers two days before the big shoot of the season. It is irritating to him to find a trail of thickly scattered handfuls of paper running through his shrubberies and for half a mile along the verge of his avenue. But these are instances of individual carelessness subsequently fully apologised for; the clubs are most anxious to avoid any annoyance to proprietors and farmers, and even in enclosed country find proprietors and farmers fully disposed to give facilities for their sport. On the other hand, cases occur where proprietors are over-greedy. All along the Clyde the strip down to the sea is feued for villas and villages, and brings an income to the proprietor a hundred times larger than its moorland value. In some cases the proprietor is not satisfied with this, but seeks with high stone walls and rough-tongued keepers to close the hill against the inhabitants of the shore. There is an old proverb that a man cannot have his barley both in meal and in malt; neither should he attempt to have his land both in grouse and feuars. Such proprietors contrast badly with the Duke of Hamilton, whose conduct has made Arran the treasured playground of the West of Scotland. On that island, deer-forest though it is, the stranger has absolute freedom of range during the whole year, and access to some of the most beautiful scenery and