78 CONVERSATIONAL HINTS 



CHAPTEE XIII 



THE KEEPER 

 (With an Excursus on Beaters) 



OF the many varieties of keeper, I propose, at 

 present, to consider only the average sort of keeper, 

 who looks after a shooting, comprising partridges, 

 pheasants, hares, and rabbits, in an English county. 

 Now it is to be observed that your ordinary keeper 

 is not a conversational animal. He has, as a rule, 

 too much to do to waste time in unnecessary talk. 

 To begin with, he has to control his staff, the men 

 and boys who walk in line with you through the 

 root-fields, or beat the coverts for pheasants. That 

 might seem at first sight to be an easy business, 

 but it is actually one of the most difficult in the 

 world. For thorough perverse stupidity, you will 

 not easily match the autochthonous beater. Watch 

 him as he trudges along, slow, expressionless, clod- 

 resembling, lethargic, and say how you would like 



