146 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 



CHAPTER IV 



WALKING UP 



UNDER this head we must include all that there is 

 to be said, and I fear that can be very little in these 

 days, about shooting partridges over dogs. The 

 almost complete abandonment of the pointer and 

 setter on the manors and fields of England was pri- 

 marily due to the disappearance of the old-fashioned 

 stubble. General cleaning of lands, clearing out of 

 ditches, and trimming down of the old hedgerows to 

 the level of the modern fence, which shelters neither 

 bird, beast, nor crop, have swept away the necessity 

 for them on large estates. In former days the par- 

 tridges had to l)e found, now you can see them in 

 most counties three fields off from the main road. It 

 is idle to say we are unsportsmanlike because we do 

 not employ dogs, whose vocation it is to detect with 

 their noses what we cannot see with our eyes, for 

 hunting game which exists in such large quantities 



