270 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



and walled inclosure, if you do not visit it beforehand, 

 you may be unpleasantly surprised at what a dreary, 

 barren, inhospitable, bleak-looking abode it can be 

 often more like a small ' lazaretto ' than anything else. 



Find out the position of the lodge in regard to the 

 best parts of the moor, whether it is within a walk, 

 or if the hire of ponies will be necessary. Nothing is 

 more agreeable than shooting home to the door of a 

 lodge, and nothing less so after a hard day than 

 leaving off several miles distant, particularly in wet 

 weather. The rent of a moor may seem moderate 

 enough at the agent's office, but its actual cost in 

 extras (not suspected at the time of hiring) may bring 

 it up to what a better shooting in a more favourable 

 position could have been taken for. Eight or ten 

 miles does not appear very far to hear you have to 

 send for provisions ; but when you find, on arrival at 

 your quarters, you are obliged to do this two or three 

 times a week, and keep a man and horse and cart on 

 purpose, and, when the river is in flood at the ford, 

 to send twenty miles round by the bridge, it is long 

 enough. All such matters are of importance, and 

 should be taken account of in good time, and not 

 found out when too late, with their attendant in- 

 conveniences and additional expense. 



However, if you do not mind roughing it a little, 

 you may count on enjoying better shooting, for the 

 rent you pay, in an out-of-the-way district than in 

 one accessible to railway or steamboat. 



