84 PHEASANTS 



marksman the supreme test of his skill, 

 places where all that science and money 

 can give had gone to make the shooting 

 perfect of its kind, taking all in all, the 

 days of less preparation and more en- 

 deavour — when a stretch of rough country, 

 a brace of good working spaniels, a lad to 

 carry the game, a score of wild and wary 

 cock pheasants to pursue were all the 

 material of sport — are perhaps as pleasant 

 as any to remember. 



Yet it would be absurd to disparage 

 the more formal methods of modern 

 covert shooting, just because one has a 

 leaning to less orthodox ways and a 

 liking for seeing dogs work. You must 

 have youth and leisure on your side to 

 conduct your own sport from start to 

 finish ; the trim hedgerows, carefully 

 cultivated fields, and tidy woods of modern 

 Britain leave little scope for the charms 

 of wilder sport ; nor indeed could those 

 whose life is cast in towns for ten months 

 of the year be reasonably expected to take 

 to the country pursuits of a ruder age. 



