DRIVING 281 



in time realize the danger zone and avoid 

 it. 



Having once started regular driving 

 on a shooting, any one who would im- 

 prove his methods from year to year 

 must be prepared to admit himself in 

 the wrong, and never rest till he has 

 worried out for himself where the mis- 

 take lay. Nothing is more hopeless for 

 future prospects than to find and the 

 case is common that the man who has 

 just committed errors, palpable to any 

 one with the most superficial knowledge 

 of the subject, is wrapped in an im- 

 penetrable fog of self-deception. The 

 wind, the birds, the weather, or the ground 

 must all, in varying degree, bear the 

 blame for want of success ; when all else 

 fails, ' bad luck ' will be called upon, like 

 charity, to cover the multitude of sins. 

 Only the true causes, lack of method and 

 disregard of the few and simple rules, 

 will never be given a second's considera- 

 tion in this complacent mind. *Gie us 

 a guid conceit o' oorsels ' is not the spirit 



