ENGLISH DRIVING 183 



the butt it should be just high enough to shoot over 

 in comfort when you are standing upright make it 

 up with the spare sods lying about, and especially on 

 the left-hand side, as from that side you will show to 

 the birds against the sky, and you must keep low as 

 they come up hill. Now lean both of your guns 

 against the front of the butt, being careful in so doing 

 that no little pieces of peat fall down the muzzle. 

 See that the barrels of both are clear, and that both 

 are loaded, and now let us take a good survey of the 

 exact position of our next-door neighbours, and of the 

 ground in front of us. Ours is the first butt under 

 the ridge to our right, No. 5 being on the point of 

 the ridge, and No. 6 beyond it out of sight. The 

 three butts on our left stretching down the hill, No. r 

 being the bottom one, all look at first sight to be 

 belter places than ours, but I think we shall find on 

 examination of the favourable slack in front of us 

 under the ridge that we shall get as much shooting 

 as anybody. The sun is now quite hot. The grasses 

 and heather buds on the ridge are waving and shiver- 

 ing gently in the bree/.e against the bright sky. In 

 I lie valley I can just hear the splash of the beck over 

 tlie stones, and clearly as we can see every detail on 

 the opposite slope, and the flat above it, and even that 

 rocky ridge, crowned by the delicate blue of a far-off 



