78 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



stubbles are shorn, therefore dogs are useless nowadays, has 

 always seemed to us a weak argument. 



Four guns walking in line will cover about twice as much 

 country, and kill nearly treble the quantity of game, that 

 can be accounted for by two sportsmen shooting to dogs ; 

 so, we rather think, the pointers and the setters have been 

 sacrificed in some degree to the wish to make large bags, and of 

 being able to invite more friends to join in the sport. 



Walking in line is capital fun when properly carried out, 

 and if the shooters are at a pleasant distance apart, say not 

 nearer to each other than forty yards. The number of friends 

 asked should be strictly determined by the character of the 

 beat, for it will make poor sport if four are bidden to walk a 

 country of small fields which hold no great quantity of birds ; 

 albeit, the same ground would give a pleasant day to two, or at 

 the most three. In counties where the fields are large, and 

 vary in extent from thirty to even a hundred acres, as in Suffolk, 

 Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, then even six or eight guns can 

 be walked in line with pleasure to them all ; but, in our humble 

 opinion, a party of four is the pleasantest to be out with ; add 

 to this four beaters and two keepers, each with a good retriever, 

 and there are but few fields that cannot be taken in twice 

 or thrice ; but even if some of them are so large that it takes 

 half a dozen turns to cover them properly, this sized party 

 is easier to work and keep in line than any larger one. For 

 our own part, we prefer to walk turnips or other cover right out 

 from end to end, and then to shift the guns at right angles to 

 the beat, till the field is finished ; by this means " the wheel " is 

 done away with, a performance which is seldom well executed 

 by a party of ten. It is quite extraordinary the number of 

 shooters one meets who seem apparently wholly unable to 

 keep in line. Those who are for ever in advance of the line 

 are great sinners against the rest of the party, and they should 

 be told off to walk on one of the flanks, as in that position they 

 will do less harm than if in the middle of it, which they 



