SnOOTIXG AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 7 



friend and a head keeper, during all wliicli time 

 on one occasion eleven coveys of partridges were 

 seen collectively to rise at the further end of that 

 turnip field, and to fly from the dreaded, and, hij 

 noise, hnoivn danger. 



To me there is this disagreeable contingency 

 api^ertaining to the ^^ tramp" for partridges, un- 

 aided by the curiously graceful accompaniment of 

 pointers or setters. 



You are forced into line, and forced to keep 

 step with your right and left-hand man. You are 

 scolded if you get a trifle in advance, and the 

 same if a trifle in the rear. Your heavy gun (mine 

 are heavy) and of the eleven gauge, whichever I 

 shoot with,— old John Manton, of Dover Street, 

 Pope, of Newcastle, or that now unrivalled gun 

 producer. Grant, of St. James's Street, London, 

 ^-held in readiness across the chest for an unex- 

 pected or a long shot. • For there is in this fashion 

 of tramping up game no indication of the proximity 

 of birds, and nothing to draw your attention till 

 the rushing of wings is heard, drowned in a 

 roar of '^niark" from every open mouth in your 

 vicinity. 



At whatever distance a partridge may rise, he 



