12 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



most ridiculous statements put forward by the critics 

 who condemn the driving of grouse is that this form 

 of sport entails no exercise. How often have I heard 

 a shooter exclaim, after walking for a long autumn 

 day uphill and downdale from one line of butts to 

 another, * If only the people who write in the papers 

 felt as tired as 1 do now, we should hear no more 

 nonsense about the laziness and luxury of grouse 

 driving ! ' 



Scotland is the place for the shooter who loves his 

 pointers and setters. There the country is made for 

 him. The heather is high and thick, and the covert 

 excellent ; the grouse are late in hatching and tame, 

 and the land is not often flat or smooth, as is usually 

 the case on an English moor. The birds do not 

 habitually rise in packs, as, from the rougher nature 

 of the ground, they cannot so freely run and collect 

 together when disturbed as they can in England, but 

 may be shot over dogs till the middle of September. 

 And very enjoyable sport and healthy exercise 

 shooting them is too, and the wilder and more broken 

 and, I may add, picturesque the country, the prettier 

 and more sporting the shots obtained (always provided 

 the birds axe full grown). 



Yet the enthusiast who successfully kills his 

 grouse over dogs in Scotland will try to persuade us 

 that we can do the same anywhere in England * if we 

 knew how,' and expatiates on the superior sport we 



