DRIVING 247 



they will be certain to seek shelter when- 

 ever they are disturbed, the element of 

 uncertainty is practically eliminated. 

 But the narrow margin on which most 

 estates are managed in these hard times 

 necessitates the application of strict 

 economic principles, and rarely admits of 

 any consideration of shooting require- 

 ments. So most of us have to make the 

 best of things as we find them, and we 

 must lay our plans all the more carefully, 

 and leave as little as possible to chance. 

 Unfortunately it is exactly in those parts 

 of the country where natural dis- 

 advantages and comparative scarcity of 

 birds make the closest attention to every 

 detail essential to any measure of success, 

 that careless and haphazard ways of 

 going about the business seem most to 

 prevail. For walking in line has quite 

 gone out of fashion in the last ten years ; 

 driving is almost universal, and though 

 in all great partridge centres long practice 

 has made of it a finished art, there remain 

 hundreds of estates in remoter districts 



