SCOTCH DRIVING 169 



of them. Now, since this source of income to keepers, 

 though not over honest in its source, has been, so to 

 speak, legalised by the custom of two or three genera- 

 tions, it seems to me both wise and right to com- 

 pensate them to some extent if for your own pleasure 

 or profit you do away with it. The obvious and best 

 solution, unless you are prepared to raise their rate 

 of wages, is to encourage them to breed and train re- 

 trievers, with a few spaniels or setters. Good retrievers 

 are very scarce and fetch high values ; most grouse 

 driving is deficient in interest as well as in result, to 

 those who are fond of hunting dogs, for lack of them. 

 The same keeper who has for years maintained a 

 high-class kennel of pointers will soon take an equal 

 pride in his retrievers ; and a couple or two of setters 

 should still be kept for wild days on outside beats, or 

 to assist in finding birds after the big drives. 



The dog-man, whom I have urgently recommended 

 as a necessary ally in partridge shooting, is equally if 

 not more necessary to well-conducted grouse driving. 

 To him should be confided the task of finding all the 

 dead or ' pricked ' birds which fall wide of the line of 

 butts or far behind, and it should be his business to 

 remove all excuse for the apparently innocent, but 

 usually crafty, marauding to which some of our friends 

 resort to supplement their bag. 



