30 GAME CLUBS, PARKS, AND PRESERVES 



setters are seldom used. The sportsmen are driven to 

 the grounds, each attended by a servant to load his 

 guns. A line is formed. A company of beaters, under 

 the head-keeper, armed with flags on poles to prevent 

 the birds from turning back, '' moves " the partridges 

 and drives them to the guns. The shooting is quite 

 rapid. The bag is large. Since the birds are under 

 full headway when they reach the line of guns, much 

 skill is required to bring them down. Two guns are 

 used, the attendant loading one while the other is dis- 

 charged. When the shooting is over the sportsmen 

 are driven to the house of the owner of the estate 

 whose guests they are. 



Mr. A. J. Stuart-Wortley, a talented English sports- 

 man and writer, says: " The pointers and setters have 

 been abandoned, almost, in England, on account of the 

 disappearance of the old-fashioned stubble." It seems 

 strange, however, when so much is expended on the 

 game, that sufficient cover is not provided for it. In 

 shooting grouse upon the moors, the birds have long 

 been driven to the guns. Retrieving dogs are used 

 exclusively. 



Are the ramble in the fields and woods, the obser- 

 vation of the well-trained dogs, the chief charms of 

 sportsmanship, to be exchanged in America for a 

 stand beside a fence, with a servant to load the guns ? 

 Such results may follow the coming of the private 

 game-preserves. Pheasants will, no doubt, be shot at 

 an American battue, since they often run before the 

 dogs. Our Western grouse may be driven to the am- 

 bushed guns. This, indeed, is not so bad, since they 

 are far too easy '' over dogs." Long be the day, how- 



