ON GROUSE-DRIVING 169 



own experience prevent him from finding 

 out for himself how things ought to be 

 done. Had some interest been shown in 

 his work by his masters, some counsel 

 offered, some of the principles which 

 govern the sport discussed and elucidated 

 in the light of a wider experience, he would 

 probably have been only too ready to learn 

 once he was started in the right path. 

 With his dormant faculties once roused, 

 and his ignorance turned to knowledge, he 

 would have found a new interest in his 

 work, and become as keen as any one to 

 bring the moor to a better state. But, 

 left unaided to his own devices, his work 

 has become a dull routine ; his mind only 

 moves in a narrow groove, and he has 

 made a sad muddle of the whole business. 

 Never having been in a butt himself when 

 birds were coming, he has not the vaguest 

 idea of the requirements butts should 

 fulfil, and he has fixed their positions in 

 the most improbable situations, where 

 they probably form the most prominent 

 objects in the landscape. 



