Of grouse and men

Of the many press articles that one reads, on 13 August a particularly dotty piece, printed about five years ago in a national tabloid newspaper, sticks in the memory. The essence of it was as follows.

“I witnessed the opening of the grouse shooting season yesterday at The MacSporran’s moors at Auchtermuck in Inverness-shire. The birds, which had been released to covert a few weeks previously, provided excellent sport. Wading through breast-high purple bracken where the quarry lurked, gamekeeper Angus McOinish said they were going to have