240 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



frequently intersecting stone walls and marked in- 

 closures, from the moor itself. In the other, some- 

 times with an imposing but casual array of beaters, 

 suggesting somewhat the levies of a pretender or 

 an outlaw, but more often with the unaided skill 

 of a half-dozen of keepers and gillies, the woods are 

 ranged towards you as you stand in carefully selected 

 spots, 'passes' where the blackcocks are sure to 

 cross, and where you are equally on the look-out for 

 a woodcock or a roebuck. 



The former style of black-game driving has been 

 undoubtedly carried to the greatest perfection, and 

 with the best results, on the Duke of Buccleuch's 

 Dumfriesshire estates. Here, at Sanquhar or Wan- 

 lock Head, lie the great stretches of rough pasture 

 part grass, part rushes, part heather which favour a 

 great stock of these birds, and which, lying between 

 the oat stubbles and the luxuriant heather, afford 

 them the variety of food that this specie seem in 

 particular to affect. Here, ensconced behind a high 

 wall, after, perhaps, removing the topmost course 

 of stones to clear your view in front, having reached 

 your places in strictly enforced silence, and weighed 

 the consequences of any mistake, such as killing a 

 greyhen or showing yourself unduly, which may ex- 

 pose you to a fire of time-honoured chaff, you may 



