VERBUM SAP. 245 



he had drained a horn of ale, ' Eh, sir, but that went 

 doon ma throat laike a band o' music.' Truly a ' nice 

 derangement of epitaphs ' after which we all set to 

 work again with a will, and made a good bag. 



An all-round liberality in the matter of game I 

 look upon as absolutely essential. It is not enough to 

 present a farmer once a year with-a-hare and a brace of 

 birds, especially when he has loyally supported and 

 protected the game on his farm. The old-fashioned 

 tenant-farmer on a generously conducted estate used 

 to take a pride in the head of game killed on his land, 

 loved to walk with the landlord and his friends to see 

 the shooting, and was allowed to take away practically 

 as much as he could carry home, after shaking hands 

 with the party all round. This condition of things 

 happily exists still in some places, and where it does 

 exist the shooting is usually good. Close-fisted 

 people cannot, however, be prevented from owning 

 or renting land, though they live to learn that mean 

 or avaricious treatment of men on whom their sport 

 greatly depends is never rewarded by a plentiful stock 

 of game. 



I think I hear some captious readers say, ' Is 

 shooting, then, to be confined entirely to the very 

 wealthy ? ' My answer would be, on large estates 

 and where big bags are desired, undoubtedly^ and it 



