Posted by Mike Field on February 14, 2013 at 05:15:10 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Who owns all this anyway? posted by Peter Hyland on February 14, 2013 at 02:18:18:
The problem with deer (at least in Scotland) is that they were considered 'feral' -- they didn't belong to anyone in particular, just to the country. Because they traditionally went back to breed where they were born, deer that could be driven off their breeding ground in the breeding season could be forever lost to the countryside that bred them. Hence the owner of the land that they habituated could believe that a person driving away 'his' deer had not only ruined his personal deer forest, but also thereby reduced the value of his land. He would therefore naturally be keen to stop the practice's occurring if he could.
So we can see how the S&As' walking across McGinty land was seen by the natives as one thing, but their frightening 'McGinty' deer as quite another.
(John Buchan's John Macnab, as well as being a rousing good story about poaching Highland deer and salmon, makes this point pretty well.)