CHAPTER II 



GROUSING 



There are five different ways of shooting grouse : finding them 

 by dogs, walking in line, driving, kiteing, and stook-shooting, 

 so let us suppose August has come. 



Those having moors of their own will do well, if they 

 can spare the time, to take up their abode in the North 

 some time during the first week of the month, for thus they 

 will avoid the crowded, late trains of the few days prior to 

 the twelfth, and also get the chance of some good walks 

 to condition them for the opening day. Long strolls over 

 the heather with the keeper and the dogs, or a trip to a hill 

 loch for a dish of trout and a flapper or two, all help to 

 make the first dash at the grouse ten times more enjoyable 

 than if quite out of condition. 



Should the shooter incline to be actually " tubby," then 

 a short course of Banting will do him good, and for ten days 

 let him be a stranger to milk, sugar, potatoes, bread, butter, 

 and beer, when, if taking strong exercise, he will lose about 

 a pound a day ; but as soon as ten or a dozen pounds have 

 vanished, he should relax his abstinence, and as long as he 

 is in hard work he will not get fat again. 



During the first fortnight of the season the weather is 

 often very hot and close, and there will be plenty of shooters 

 quite out of condition. Judges, solicitors, bankers, brewers, 

 merchants, and Stock Exchange men are almost sure to be 

 so if in a large way of business and of a certain age ; for 

 from these lucky ones come numbers of moor-renters and 

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