POACHING PARTRIDGES 67 



destructive measures, such as those that have sur 

 vived into our own times, and may be perpetuated 

 for many a long day. 



Our own views of game-preserving are too strongly 

 coloured with inherited prejudice to admit of our 

 viewing the netting of the birds as a trifling mis- 

 demeanour ; but while we make the most of our 

 rights as game-preservers, truth compels us to admit 

 that our rights to game were at one time allowed 

 to remain pretty much in abeyance. Before the 

 commons were so generally enclosed, country folk 

 roamed pretty much where they chose in the more 

 remote districts. The fact is that few men possessed 

 serviceable guns, and still fewer of the number could 

 shoot a bird in flight. Any one who made shooting 

 his chief pastime could find plenty of scope for the 

 indulgence of his tastes, as well as for supplying some 

 items of variety to his neighbour's larder. The best 

 shot in a district came to be looked on as one whose 

 skill entitled him to respect, and if he was hail-fellow- 

 well-met, he seldom came across a repulse. Strangers 

 were always regarded with more or less suspicion, 

 especially among the reserved ' statesmen ' of the north 

 of England, but they often fared well, even without 

 introductions. 



A few years before the death of that good 



F 2 



