240 PARTRIDGES 



his initial efforts. To drive partridges 

 as they should be driven is a high art, 

 of which there are in all probability not 

 more than a score of masters in this 

 country who join to natural aptitude 

 and long experience that infinite capacity 

 for taking pains which alone can bring 

 performance within measurable distance 

 of perfection. 



To drive partridges well enough for 

 all practical purposes is within the reach 

 of any man of average intelligence and 

 energy if he be willing to take it up in 

 a business-like manner. 



Partridge-driving seems to have begun 

 in a very small way about the middle of 

 last century on Suffolk manors. Here 

 certain sportsmen, no longer on the sunny 

 side of fifty, found toiling all day after the 

 evasive Frenchman a doubtful pleasure, 

 and tried resting their weary limbs under 

 a fence while the keepers walked round 

 and brought the birds up to them. The 

 idea once started soon spread through 

 Suffolk, the great stronghold of the red- 



