

COMMON PARTRIDGE. 425 



especially since the chief enjoyment at that time con- 

 sisted in watching and profiting by the sagacity of the 

 dogs, should regard the present system with but little 

 favour is natural enough; but why sneer at the taste 

 of younger men who have adopted from necessity, and 

 not from choice, the shooting en battue of the last 

 twenty years? What sport, I would ask, with even 

 the best trained dogs, would be afforded now on our 

 closely mown stubbles ; or beyond a few " points" here 

 and there in a large field of turnips, what chance of a 

 bag when the birds, once alarmed, commence running 

 in all directions along the open drills ? There is but 

 little harbour in our highly cultivated lands, and the 

 trimmed fences, in many places, afford scarcely shelter 

 enough for a wounded bird. The " four-course" system 

 also, though a fine institution for farming purposes, 

 often puts the sportman to much difficulty, his success 

 depending greatly on the position of the crops ; a very 

 common answer to enquiries on any partridge farm, at 

 the commencement of the season, being ' ( we have plenty 

 of birds but the turnips lie so awkward this year." 

 Under these circumstances, then, the gunners have but 

 little chance of sport except by walking in line with 

 the beaters, and unquestionably there is no comparison 

 between the difficulty of such shooting and that under 

 the old system, as the birds rise unexpectedly and at 

 uncertain distances. By this method, now universally 

 adopted both in the enclosed and more exposed portions 

 of the county, very fine shooting is obtained on the wide 

 open heath-lands in the western and south-western 

 districts, when the birds, bred on the adjacent corn 

 lands, are either found basking on the outskirts, or are 

 driven on from the neighbouring stubbles. The guns 

 and beaters, advancing in line, drive the game forward 

 into the nearest coverts, and here and there, though 

 often at long intervals, thick belts of gorse and broom 

 3i 



