352 BROADLAND SPORT 



possessor. To deal with them at all comprehensively would 

 fill a big volume, but perhaps the following paragraph will 

 imply far more than could otherwise be expressed in a 

 long-detailed argument. 



A " shooter " is one thing, a "sportsman" another , who have 

 nothing in common beyond the handling of a gun. 



It is overdone battues for shooters which work the 

 mischief and thoughtlessly unpopularise the Game Laws. 



For sport the birds are reared, and in a fair and sports- 

 manlike manner they should be killed, not giving our 

 neighbours on the Continent the opportunity of saying, with 

 a shrug of the shoulders, " Ah, ze Engelsk fesant battue is 

 no sport, it is von grand representation of skill vitt de gun." 



On extensive grounds, where the beats are large and numer- 

 ous, real business rarely commences before 1st November, nor, 

 indeed, is a bird killed except an occasional brace for pre- 

 sents and the table, or extra wilful birds which persist in 

 fancying a neighbour's acres in preference to their own 

 comfortable and well-preserved home ; and that aforesaid 

 neighbour is known to be one of those objectionable gentle- 

 men who sneak about at all hours of the day, or gloaming, 

 gathering as his own " all that may come to his net." 



But when this business does commence, when these large 

 tracts of wood, pasture and moorland, dell and dale, wherein 

 the echoing report of the death-dealing fire-iron has sounded 

 only to knell the decease of some arch enemy, when those 

 sacred precincts are at last invaded by that small and mirth- 

 ful army of guns, loaders, keepers and beaters, yea, even the 

 all-inspiring petticoat at luncheon, then indeed 'tis a day to 

 be ever remembered and looked back to with pleasurable 

 sensations. Tis for ever deeply written on the happy pages 

 of our retrospective past, never to be eradicated until 



" Death surprises us in the midst of our hopes." 



There are many who consider woods and coverts a sine 

 qud non to pheasant shooting and that one cannot have 

 pheasants without them. It is not only possible but very 



