[A] See note at the end of Preface.

[B] Even while we revise this Preface more news comes from the Island of Lewis. On Lady Matheson's estates rents have been reduced 42 and 53 per cent., and arrears cancelled 84 and 91 per cent. This is from the Times of December 20th:

"Crofters' Rents.—The Crofter Commission yesterday issued their first decisions in relation to Lady Matheson's property in the Island of Lewis, the centre of the land agitation last winter. They have granted an average reduction of 42 per cent. on the rental of 150 crofter tenants in the parish of Barvas, on the west side of Lewis. The arrears of rent due, which was a striking feature in Lewis, have been cancelled to the extent of 84 per cent. Of a total of £2422, the Commissioners have cancelled £2043."

If there had not been injustice before, is it probable that there would now be such wholesale reductions and cancellings? We suppose it is sentimentalism to record these facts.

Christmas-day, 1888.

[C] Not William, but the guide-book Black.

[D] It is for this supposition we have already been taken so severely to task and laughed at for our imagined ignorance of the difference between roe deer and red deer. We are glad to have afforded the critics amusement; but we have since looked into the matter, and a friend, a Highlander who knows the Highlands as well as if not better than any of our critics, assures us there are red deer in these woods. So much for that wild burst of criticism! But if this were not the case, our supposition would not have been unnatural when certain aspects of British sport are considered—the hunting in Epping Forest, the performances of her Majesty's stag-hounds, for example!

[E] I have left this sentence as it is, though Mr. William Black was good enough to attack us for making such a statement. If he has any knowledge whatever on the subject, he must know that it was not until after the trial in Edinburgh—a trial held a little less than a year ago, when these pages had been already set up in type for the Magazine—that it was discovered that deer are not protected by law in the Highlands. Men, as I have shown further on, cannot now be chased without reason from their homes, fixity of tenure being the chief good accomplished by the Crofter's Act of 1886.

[F] This also has been questioned. All we can say is that we both saw and heard men in Ulva shooting with rifles. What they were shooting at we did not go to see.

[G] I have just heard that Americans are about to send fishing-vessels over to these waters.

[H] I have explained elsewhere the result of this trial.

[I] A Truck Act has been passed which has somewhat modified the system in the Hebrides, but, as we have learned from a reliable source, it has not proved effectual.