158 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



young birds are bagged. Especially is this the case 

 with moors which are let from season to season, and 

 nowadays the new class of shooting tenant does not 

 much care about a lease. To give these moors a 

 chance they should either be let on lease for a limit 

 of birds, or else rested for a season, and then judi- 

 ciously shot over. Where the moor is in the owner's 

 hands or let on a long lease the case is different. If 

 a man is very fond of dogs, pointers and setters, by 

 all means let him use them; but if he wants to give 

 the greatest amount of pleasure to the largest number 

 of his friends, then let him harden his heart and make 

 his moor into a 'driving moor,' not shooting over 

 dogs at all, except perhaps in some odd corner or 

 two. He can really get far more pleasure, and profit 

 as well, if he sees his dogs broken himself before the 

 shooting season, and then sells them to the public or 

 to such of his friends as wish to shoot over dogs. 

 There can be no manner of doubt that, once dogs are 

 given up and regular and systematic driving taken 

 to, the stock of birds is doubled or trebled, and, better 

 still, the average healthiness of the birds is raised. 

 This can easily be seen if there is a ' driving moor ' 

 next to a moor which is ' dogged.' On the Moy Hall 

 moor there has been practically no disease since 



1873- 



