Glorious Twelfth

To many a sporting Briton, a sufficient reason for keeping dank Scotland in the Empire is its excellence as a breeding ground for grouse. This year there were the usual troubling reports that heavy February and March snows had scattered the grouse far afield, that coveys had been thinned by starvation and disease. But with the approach of the "Glorious Twelfth," traditional August opening of the shooting season, grouse were reported rising as thickly as ever. Last week on the moors thousands of beaters got into action with white flags, forming semicircles to drive the grouse over the concealed "butts" where shotguns waited to bring them plummeting into the purple heather.

George VI rolled out of Balmoral Castle to startle Aberdeenshire gillies with his new "shooting brake," a luxurious caterpillar-wheeled contraption with sliding win dows, special gun racks, facilities for serving lunch to ten guests. John Pierpont Morgan was under doctor's orders not to shoot, but opened his Gannochy Moor for guests. Active U. S. shooters included William Woodward, who leased one of the best moors at Clova, and Edmund P. Rogers, who paid $15,000 for the season rights to the moors of both Stobo Castle and Leithen Castle.

Since it is hard to shoot grouse without encroaching on one of the 800 private highland moors, renting them to individuals and syndicates is a big business. Rent is usually computed on the estimated yield at $5 a brace. A moor will cost from $1,000 to $35,000 for the six-week season.

From that point money is spent with great rapidity by hosts and guests on dogs (which cost up to $40 apiece to rent), dozens of beaters ($2 each a day), a loader for each gun ($2.50 a day), shells, servants, tips, food. To bring down one grouse costs between $5 and $10. This year's Glorious Twelfth, however, dawned unpromisingly with rentals expected to total only about $1,500,000, as compared to the $7,500,000 of a peak year like 1929. That indicated that Scotsmen would be shooting a great many of their own birds this year.

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