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back on a concrete argument to most minds of more importance, and that must go far to govern the whole question. A pays £1000 for certain sporting rights, and spends £1000 more on the country in the pursuit and enjoyment of those rights.[1] In addition to the money which he spends in wages, he reduces the burden of rates by one half. B pays nothing for his tourist rights, and spends £20 on the country in the pursuit of them. Which is it expedient to encourage, so far as can be done, without unfairness to other persons?
Fortunately the alternative does not arise in a practical form. Broad Scotland has room for both. Every sporting tenant is not a Winans, and the great bulk of proprietors respect public opinion where no attack is made upon the proper and legitimate exercise of their rights.
But there is one point where Parliament can interfere with definiteness and advantage. While the passing of Mr Bryce’s bill would only serve to set all parties in the Highlands by the ears, and to loose all the waters of strife, yet in certain cases the public have definite rights, to the assertion and maintenance of which they are entitled. There exist through many of the glens and over many of the passes public rights-of-way which are in danger of being lost sight of. In some cases these are dropping out of use, in others they are being actively interfered with; and all kinds of artifices are used to disguise the old paths, and conceal the fact of their existence. There is danger that many of these rights will be passively let slip for lack of any one to champion them. It is of the first consequence for the public enjoyment of the Highlands that they should be kept alive. They are of great value to the inhabitants, who, however, cannot, and often dare not, enforce them against a rich sporting tenant. They open much of the finest scenery in Scotland, and would go far to satisfy the wants of the active-bodied tourist.
Moreover, even in a deer-forest they do not interfere with sport so much as might be supposed. Deer learn to disregard what happens on a road they know. They watch with calmness a man or a coach passing on the highroad below them. A friend tells me he has shot a stag undisturbed by a train which at the critical moment of the stalk passed within a few hundred yards. Even on a bridle-path through a glen, they often do not concern themselves with men walking along; while if the same men should stop and begin to spy, they would at once become uneasy.
At present what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business, and rights of way take their chance. Gallant efforts at defending them arc made by the Scottish Rights of Way Society and others; but the questions are too complicated, and the burden of fighting them too heavy, for any voluntary association or private person. The duty of superintending rights-of-way should be put in the hands of public responsible bodies. It is a task for which the county councils are eminently fitted. We can predict with certainty that they will not squander the money of the rate-
- ↑ In many parishes the sporting rental exceceds 50 per cent of the total rental. Taking twenty-five of the poorest mainland parishes, I find that the proportion averages 46 per cent.