PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 211 



multitude of sportsmen whose expenditure 

 must be limited, yet who would not rest 

 content with competitions at clay pigeons. 

 Naturally, if big days are wanted, they 

 must be paid for both in rent and heavy 

 expenses of management ; but while 

 thousands may be profitably expended 

 in turning a wide stretch of country to 

 its best sporting uses, at the same time 

 it is quite possible in humbler fashion to 

 enjoy very good sport at surprisingly 

 small cost. 



A man who knows what he is doing 

 can sometimes pick up 500 acres of 

 good partridge land at a rent as low as 

 sixpence an acre. If he then takes care 

 to make friends with the people living on 

 the ground, most of his keepering will be 

 done for him gratis, and his expenses for 

 management may well be covered by a 

 ten pound note in the year. Off this 

 land he might quite easily kill 100 brace 

 in the season, the market value of which 

 would be about 10 ; he would probably 

 kill other game odd pheasants, hares, 



