126 HINTS ON GROUSE DRIVING. 



useless to deny, an extraordinary attraction for the 

 present customers of Messrs. Purdey and Atkins. 

 Rents, in Yorkshire especially, which used to be 

 moderate for grouse moors, have gone up with leaps 

 and bounds ; and, whereas, only a very few years 

 ago a man, if he were a tidy shot, and could boast 

 a galaxy of friends of somewhat equal calibre, could 

 pretty well with certainty count on killing sufficient 

 grouse during the season to pay all his expenses, and 

 the better part also of his rent nowadays these 

 rents, owing to the unprecedented demand for any 

 decently flat moor in the northern counties of 

 England, have sprung up to such an extent, that it 

 is only the fortunate proprietor, who is not depen- 

 dent upon his land for an income, or the more or 

 less millionairish outsider, that can afford to take his 

 ease in his Yorkshire moorland arbour. Nous avons 

 change tout cela ; and the six feet of earth which, 

 by a time-honoured axiom, was supposed to be the 

 final desire of human existence, is now changed 

 into six feet of earth, certainly but six feet square 

 surrounded by a semicircular bulwark of heathery 

 slabs, and furnished with a couple of comfortable 

 seats for the whilom proprietor and his servant, a 

 table for his cartridges, nicely-fitted wooden rests 

 for his guns, a peg to tie his dog up to, and in many 

 instances a level-laid larch floor to stand upon and 

 keep the damp out of his toes ; together with one or 

 two more loaders, a man to score his kills, and 



