n6 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



and hardly any shot you get is any satisfaction to kill, 

 while it is a disgrace to miss, is not to my thinking 

 worthy of a keen sportsman or accomplished gunner, 

 unless he be well past the prime of life and merely 

 takes it by short spells as an agreeable pastime. On 

 the other hand this is a pleasanter time for your driving 

 parties, and the waiting in the butts, always a trying 

 operation, is at least not made worse by showers of 

 sleet and snow or biting winds. 



After your driving days are over, in bright and 

 cooler weather, when it is easier to walk and your con- 

 dition is better, you will enjoy your day's point shoot- 

 ing more than you have ever done on the Twelfth, for 

 every point will test your dogs, every shot will try your 

 skill, and every bird will be worth killing. I cannot 

 believe, judging from experience, that driving will 

 make the birds so wild as to preclude all shooting 

 over dogs. I have seen many a good day over dogs 

 after the ground had been driven several times, and 

 the birds lying as well, on a favourable day, as any 

 one need wish; and I am convinced that driving them 

 does not make them any wilder, nor so wild, as con- 

 stant walking after them with dogs. 



I am against walking the moor in line. This 

 seems to be neither one thing nor the other ; it 

 disturbs a large extent of ground and terrifies the 



