46 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



egress to drive them back. The beaters are usually 

 men who have previously been employed in the woods 

 and possess local knowledge of the ground, and are 

 instructed in their duties long before : nothing must 

 be left to the spur of the moment. Something of the 

 skill of the general is wanted to organise a great bat- 

 tue : an instinctive insight into the best places to plant 

 the guns, while the whole body of sportsmen, beaters, 

 keepers with ammunition, should move in concert. 



The gamekeeper finds his work fall upon him 

 harder now than it used to do : first, sportsmen look 

 for a heavier return of killed and wounded ; next, 

 they are seldom willing to take much personal trouble 

 to find the game, but like it in a manner brought to 

 them ; and, lastly, he thinks the shooting season has 

 grown shorter. Gentlemen used to reside at home 

 the greater part of the winter and spread their shoot- 

 ing over many months. Now, the seaside season has 

 moved on, and numbers are by the beach at the time 

 when formerly they were in the woods. Then others 

 go abroad ; the country houses now advertised as ' to 

 let' are almost innumerable. Time was when the 

 local squire would have thought it derogatory to his 

 dignity to make a commodity of his ancient mansion ; 

 now there seems quite a competition to let, and ab- 

 senteeism is a reality of English as well as Irish coun- 



