1 64 LETTERS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



either yourself or your loader. If the latter is slow, the 

 cause is either want of practice or flurry ; rather, tell him 

 how well he is doing, and not to hurry. It is thus that certain 

 men of exceptional disposition can improve a bad loader 

 by 50 per cent, in the course of a drive or two. One of 

 these, than whom not very many better shots exist, his 

 friends — and he has plenty — will recognise behind the 

 initials " W. F. F." If you could meet him and persuade 

 him to give you a lesson, you could dispense with any 

 further perusal of my letters. 



Your possibilities as a welcome guest will be assessable, 

 to a certain degree, from your conduct in your butt ; but 

 it is the " pick-up " which will reveal to your neighbours the 

 innermost recesses of your soul. You have been already 

 warned against the direct and open misdemeanours ; let your 

 courtesy and self-restraint regulate the actions of your 

 loader when he assists in the search, and of any ladies accom- 

 panying you ; remember that your neighbours are precluded 

 from argument with either. And, above all, be careful 

 with your dog. I conclude you will possess one ; to be without 

 one robs a day's grouse-driving of half its pleasure. You 

 cannot accurately mark down more than a very few birds, 

 nor can your loader both mark and load. Try to carry in 

 your head the number of birds you have down in front and 

 behind respectively. You may even use a card, divided 

 into four quarters, and mark each fall with a dot ; this is 

 all right up to a certain point, but scarcely practicable when 

 dealing with a lot of birds, or even with a few in a high wind, 

 when the fall is often impossible to locate save at the risk 

 of losing other shots. The clearer, however, your recollections 

 of what you have killed, and where, the less subsequent 

 trouble you will cause to yourself and to others. 



When embarking on a dog of your own, on no account 

 aim at one of the galloping, wide-ranging, uncontrollable 

 nuisances which (perhaps because he is even more useless 

 for other forms of shooting) is recommended to you as a 

 " good grouse-driving dog." He is probably the product of 

 a system, and a very bad one, i.e., enlargement of the dog 

 at the conclusion of a drive, suffering him to pick up birds 

 lying in the open in full view, tolerating his trespassing 



