DRIVING 143 



while so long as each claim is made honestly, the 

 collective amount is what should be found in the bag. 

 I remember once persuading my host, a man generous 

 and easy-going to a fault, to let me do this, though it 

 had never been the custom at his place. The tally 

 was kept we were all well used to driving and scoring 

 and the claims were undoubtedly genuine. At 

 luncheon-time the bag returned was eighteen brace 

 of partridges short of our claim. The keeper, a very 

 good man, was sent for and told to look closely to the 

 matter. At the end of the day eleven brace out of 

 the missing eighteen had been recovered, and the bag 

 for the afternoon tallied exactly with our claim. Little 

 heaps of birds, forgotten or missed over by the collector 

 with the cart, will sometimes be left to rot on the 

 ground, unless some sort of score is kept. Everything 

 possible should be done to pick up or kill wounded 

 birds after the drive, provided always that in hunting 

 you do not go far enough to disturb the ground of 

 the next drive. This is an unpardonable crime. By 

 shooting birds which rise as you walk from drive to 

 drive, I think you do more good than harm, for they 

 are of no use where they are, and in most cases are 

 slightly pricked ; but there should be no firing 

 or noise of any kind as you get close to the fence 

 where you are to drive. If the fence be scanty, 



