CHAPTER XII 



GROUSE 



WHY is it that there is something in the word 

 " grouse " which raises a thrill in the heart of every 

 sportsman, and of a good many others with little 

 claim to the title? It is certainly not any par- 

 ticular merit the grouse has as a test of the high 

 qualities of the marksman, for I doubt whether 

 any bird even the hedgerow pheasant beloved by 

 our ancestors is quite so easy to shoot as a grouse 

 rising to dogs after a steady point on the Twelfth 

 of August. But your grouse has the advantage 

 of the first start. The guns are brought out of 

 " dock," whether they have been resting on the 

 shelves of a dry cupboard or warehoused with a 

 competent and trustworthy gunmaker for my 

 part I prefer to shift the responsibility for their 

 condition to another, now that it can be so readily 

 done at a small cost and leaving the counting- 

 house, the Courts, or the House of Commons, you 

 find yourself, after a night in the train which 

 every year approximates more nearly to the com- 

 forts of an hotel either on board a West Coast 

 steamer enjoying the sea-breezes and the fairyland 



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