GENERAL AND OVER DOGS 141 



carefully measured with a ball of string by myself. 

 There should be some sort of screen between all 

 batteries. 



Now, it has been settled any time this 

 last thirty years that butts should never 

 be much more than sixty yards apart, and 

 that gentlemen who fire down the line 

 either do not come out grouse-driving at 

 all, or are requested to abstain from taking 

 any further part in the proceedings should 

 they offend in this respect. Grouse butts 

 are now put up on " offensive " and not 

 " defensive " lines, that is to say, with a 

 view to killing the birds, and not to being 

 out of range of each other, and it seems 

 a little dictatorial to lay down, just 

 because the noble seventh earl appears 

 to have been a somewhat careless shot, 

 armed with a weapon of surprising range 

 and penetration, that every one in a 

 grouse drive must have a physical obstacle 

 erected between him and his neighbour. 



Other writers wander even farther 

 astray : from The Dead Shot, by " Marks- 

 man," a work which attained great popu- 



