GROUSE SHOOTING. 411 



undergo the labour comfortably, and the labour 

 required is excessive, he will by no means feel at 

 home on the moors, and the pleasure to be derived 

 from the sport will but ill compensate for the 

 fatigue. It is much more difficult to walk over 

 heather than they who have not tried it imagine. 

 There is an elasticity and spring in it that is ex- 

 tremely harassing and wearisome to the feet, being- 

 somewhat like walking on sand or snow. Shooters 

 who boast of their acquaintance with London gun 

 makers, and who talk of their feats in the shooting 

 galleries, and of having slain pigeons at Battersea, 

 and pheasants in my Lord Battue^s preserves, are 

 often wofully disappointed on their arrival in the 

 North. It may not be out of place to enumerate 

 some of the causes of their disappointment, all of 

 which cannot be provided against, but the mention 

 of them may put the stranger on his guard, and 

 he will do well to provide against such of them as 

 he may think will else inconvenience himself. 

 He is out of training and cannot walk. His equip- 

 ment is incomplete. His pivots are choked up. 

 His caps will not fit. His wadding and cartridges 

 are cut for a gun of very different guage. His dogs, 

 never having seen any other winged game than par- 

 tridges and pheasants, will not point grouse ; they 

 are wild, not being any longer under the eye of 

 the keeper ; one of them scours the country half 

 a mile in advance, and the other will not suffer a 

 bird that can be put up to remain on the ground ; 

 on being thrashed, one of them turns sulky, and 

 the other dashes away full cry after sheep. Birds 



