DRIVING 



' having pitcht your nets below ' to 'go above and, 

 taking advantage of the Wind, drive downward.' 

 Substitute guns for nets, and the sentence may stand 

 as it is for instruction to-day. Right he is indeed to 

 spell Wind with a capital W, for is it not a most im- 

 portant factor in driving or any other form of sport ? 

 In the days of Nicholas Cox every fowler, hawker, or 

 keeper was brought up to study the direction of the 

 wind as his first guide to securing game ; and it is 

 lamentable to see how little this fundamental con- 

 dition is attended to by the modern keeper or 

 sportsman. It seems in our day (with a few notable 

 exceptions) to be the monopoly of Scotch stalkers and 

 ghillies. I have heard a Scotch beater describe the 

 locality of a dead bird which was difficult to find, as 

 lying . ' a wee thing wast of the dog's nose ' that was 

 pointing it. They reckon by wind. What English 

 keeper, excepting always a very few whose knowledge 

 of this subject has helped them largely in acquiring 

 their well-deserved'reputations, would talk of anything 

 as being ' west of a dog's nose,' or, for the matter of 

 that, would know whether the wind was blowing from 

 east or west ? He and his master arrange the order 

 of the drives days beforehand ; and whether it blows 

 lightly from the south-east, or heavily from south- 

 west, the programme is carried out, the order is main- 



