WALKING UP 167 



or walk the same ground in line with the guns, they 

 must be taught to beat every fence before getting 

 through it, and after getting through to spread at once 

 right and left, so as to cover the whole field before 

 advancing in line. 



On days when there is a stiff breeze, perhaps from 

 the east, with a warm sun, half the birds on a beat 

 will be enjoying the shelter and warmth close under 

 the fences, and unless the ground is carefully beaten, as 

 indicated above, only half the stock will be shown and 

 brought to the guns. I remember Lord Walsingham 

 and myself killing seventy-three brace one day, before 

 five o'clock, on an estate in Yorkshire where thirty to 

 thirty-five brace to three or four guns was the highest 

 previous record. We had to leave off at that hour, 

 with a quantity of broken birds and good cover in 

 front of us, and often have I regretted we were not 

 able to go on till dusk, for we should certainly have 

 made 100 brace of it, which I think would have been 

 a remarkable record for that part of the West Riding. 



But on the commonplace lines of beating the 

 ground we should never have done anything like this. 

 I knew every inch of the ground, and had besides 

 the man of all others as a partner who was capable 

 of taking part in breaking a record. The country 

 consisted largely of grass fields and bare stubbles, 



