236 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



take every precaution against casual fires being lighted, 

 and request your guests to be careful with matches, 

 and also to watch that sparks from the gun do not 

 start a conflagration. I set my butt on fire three 

 times in one day at Studley, and only extinguished it 

 with considerable difficulty. 



On these very moors, in 1872, the most disastrous 

 moorland fire ever known took place. The fire de- 

 stroyed 1,300 acres of the best of the ground, going 

 eight or ten feet deep into the peat, and the smoke of 

 it was perceptible for thirty or forty miles. I have 

 not been on this ground lately, but can vouch for the 

 fact that, ten years after the fire, the vast expanse of 

 the ' burnt ground ' on Studley moor remained black 

 and barren, a warning of what the careless lighting of 

 a match may do in hot weather. 



