150 HINTS ON GROUSE DRIVING. 



they will generally come forward. I do not pretend 

 to be able to explain this phenomenon, but so it is,, 

 and many shots are often wasted by attempting to 

 kill two grouse with one barrel. The pack may, and 

 do, appear to be flying pretty close together, and you 

 imagine that it is impossible for a charge of shot at 

 twenty yards to miss them all ; but a very ex- 

 perienced keeper informed me only lately that 

 nothing is more deceiving than the distance between 

 grouse on the wing ; there is always at least a yard 

 between the birds, and the man who makes sure of 

 his first barrel, by singling out and keeping his eye 

 upon the bird which he has decided will first come 

 within killing range, and making sure of him, will do 

 the best in the long run. I for one should like very 

 much to know whether, in the famous drive to the 

 "Obelisk" butt at Wemmergill in 1872, when Sir 

 Frederick Milbank killed 194 grouse in twenty-five 

 minutes, he succeeded in killing more than one bird 

 per barrel, and, if so, how often ? This famous drive 

 still preserves its reputation, although No. 3 battery 

 from within which Sir Frederick performed this re- 

 markable feat has, for some reason or other, to a 

 certain extent lost its charm possibly reminiscences 

 of his prowess have been handed down in grouse 

 parlance by intervening generations unto the present 

 occupants of that particular slope of Yorkshire 

 heather and the granite and marble obelisk erected 

 by Lady Milbank as a memento of that morning, close 



