Show grouse bird of importance to scots according to an authority in london how in the course of a century and a halt half the grouse has become a bird of national importance in britain is related by henry douglas home in the field of london it is a fine morning in august 1773 boswell turns to johnson whose eyes are still weak from the firewater drunk by barbarians beyond the solway do you suppose these hills will become valuable on account of these excellent moorfowl please dont be stupid at this early hour these barren mountains will never produce anything of value to a civilized people no one can stomach their melancholy emptiness the disgruntled doctor would have been astonished to learn that the moorfowl moor fowl would prove more mor e valuable to the scots than the host of quails which saved the israelites from an awkward predicament perhaps in some tar far distant sphere boswell turns to johnson each twelfth of august 1 I told you so the doctors reply would be banned in the field A century later the grouse had become a bird of national importance in the internal economy of scotland some idea of its value e at the beginning of the century may be gathered from the fact that the committee of enquiry into grouse disease estimated the annual income from grouse rents in scotland to be over pounds the grouse has introduced pros prosperity perit y into many poor districts it has been a cause of railway and trade expansion it has supplied the necessary funds for the increasing demands of education roads and other public services |