172 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



CHAPTER IV 



ENGLISH DRIVING 



SOME twenty years ago Messrs. Blackwood did me 

 the honour to publish in their well-known magazine 

 an article I had written on grouse driving ; a subject 

 of which I had considerable experience during the 

 remarkable seasons of 1870-1871, and above all 

 1872. 



In it I tried to portray grouse driving as it was, 

 and is still, on English moors, and to defend and 

 recommend it as a system alike the most attractive to 

 the sportsman and profitable to the stock of grouse. 

 Many letters followed my little effort, and one gentle- 

 man, who disguised his identity of which I am still 

 ignorant under the signature of ' W. C.,' fell foul of 

 the advocates of driving, and of myself in particular, 

 in the columns of the ' Field/ with all the artillery of 

 envy, malice and uncharitableness, supplemented by 

 an ignorance of the subject that was remarkable even 

 among journalistic contributions to sporting literature. 



