xvi. GROUSE S HOOTING (P 'ART /),' INTRODUCTORY' 271 



Whatever rent you are asked, you may usually 

 calculate on about one-third being deducted from the 

 original sum demanded, if you do not allow yourself 

 to be hurried into the contract by the old dodge of 

 ' another gentleman most anxious to take the shooting, 

 so we [the agents] must know at once.' Depend upon 

 it, the ' other party ' would have had first chance had 

 he offered a few guineas above your bid. 



Should your offer be accepted (if you have not 

 done so previously, as you should), sign agreements 

 only after you have, as arranged in writing with the 

 agents, visited and inspected the shooting, wherever 

 it be, and after you have obtained from its previous 

 tenant or tenants the list of the game killed on 

 it in the past three seasons, and their opinions of the 

 ground (you will, at all events, then hear the worst 

 side of affairs, which is always useful). 



ON HIRING A MOOR IN REGARD TO ITS IMMUNITY 

 FROM ' GROUSE DISEASE ' 



It is of vital consequence you should know the full 

 history of any moor you propose to hire, relative to 

 the last appearance of disease on it. 



If on making inquiries you are told that the moor 

 has been for years noted as an excellent one in every 

 respect, but that in the past season it was not quite 

 (not nearly, if the truth were known) so profitable of 

 birds as usual, or they did not nest quite as well as 



