THE SPORTING GENTLEMAN'S GENTLEMAN. By Bruce Sandison.

1986 1st edition. 8vo (150 x 240mm). Ppxii,190. B/w photographs, illustrations, pictorial end-papers. Black boards, gilt titles to spine.

"Armed with a tape recorder and two cases of whisky Bruce Sandison set out to track down one of Scotland's most colourful yet elusive characters: the highland gillie. The result is a marvellous record of a group of men whose traditional lifestyle is fast changing. For centuries, the gillie has performed the function of outdoor servant to the laird in pursuit of highland sport. Full of country wisdom and local knowledge the expert gillie must steer his master through a good day's sport. It is his lot to steady the harling boat on a salmon river, crawl on all fours through the wet heather in pursuit of a stag and shoulder the heavy grouse bag at the end of a day on the moor." Chapters include: Jimmy Wallace and the frontier lands of Twizel, Tweed and Till; Hebridean charm and the Heather Isles; Of 'Wild' Jock McAskill and stags and salmon in the Great Glen; Tales from Tweedmill Cottage and Frank Binnie; Ratheanach and the children of the mist; Chess and chestwaders on Spey and Dee; High jinks and history at Tillmouth on Tweed; Three Sutherlands, Helmsdale and Caithness; One that got away on Tay; The debatable lands, Hopetoun and Willie Drysdale; Forfarshire, Ned Coats, David Hanton and the South Esk.