Concentration of Sport. 47 



try life. At least, such is the gamekeeper's idea, and 

 he finds a confirmation of it in the sudden rush, as it 

 were, made upon his preserves. Gentlemen who once 

 spent weeks at the great house, and were out with him 

 every day till he grew to understand the special kind 

 of sport which pleased them most, and could conse- 

 quently give them satisfaction, are now hardly arrived 

 before they are gone again. With all his desire to 

 find them game he is often puzzled, for game has its 

 whims and fancies and will not accommodate itself to 

 their convenience. 



Then the keeper thinks that shooting does not be- 

 gin so early as it once did. Partridges may be found 

 in the market on the morning of the glorious First of 

 September ; but if you ask him how they get there, 

 your reply is a nod and a wink. Nobody gets up 

 early enough in the morning for that now : very often 

 the first day passes by without a single shot being fired. 

 The eagerness for the stubble and its joys is not so 

 marked. This last season the late harvest interfered 

 very much with shooting ; you cannot walk through 

 wheat or barley, and while the crops are standing the 

 partridges have too much cover. 



Many gentlemen again keep their pheasants till 

 nearly Christmas : October goes by frequently with- 

 out a bird being brought down in some preserves. 



