SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



CHAPTER II 



' OVER DOGS ' 



To the average owner or tenant of a Scotch moor, 

 grouse shooting means ' over dogs ' and nothing else. 

 A few years ago such was the onslaught made upon 

 driving and its partisans, that it became necessary to 

 take up the cudgels in its defence. But now that all 

 Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Durham have adopted it 

 exclusively, and that many persons in Scotland have 

 followed the example of these counties, the press and 

 the public recognise that it is useless to abuse a system 

 which those interested almost universally employ. 



In treating this subject I have been obliged to re- 

 cord my honest conviction of the superiority of driving 

 as an art, as well as of its advantages to the general 

 stock of birds. But in a work of this kind one must 

 endeavour to be just all round, and recognise the fact 

 that there are many persons, some of them excellent 

 shots and sportsmen, who would not on any account 

 abandon the ancient and beautiful sport of shooting 



