INTROD UCTION 7 



esque description that any criticism of his constant 

 disregard of the moor and stock improvement was 

 disarmed. The net result of this keeper's inequalities 

 has been a sad deterioration of the shooting capacities 

 of the moor which was under his control a deteriora- 

 tion, which it will take many years for a new, and pro- 

 bably more reticent, keeper to correct. The particular 

 moor in question is loaded with vermin, the heather is 

 long and rank, the springs are clogged with under- 

 growth, and a thousand-acred shooting now realises 

 about ten brace of grouse a year. In our younger days, 

 before we began to understand the science of maintain- 

 ing a moor as breeding ground for grouse, we considered 

 this old keeper infallible. He could cast a better line 

 than any man we met : he seemed to know the actual 

 capacity of every fly. We can vouch to the brilliance 

 of his shooting, to his knowledge of the habits and 

 haunts of birds, and to his skill in leading his master 

 through the intricacies of the most difficult stalk, and 

 it is sad that we have now to dethrone him from the 

 pedestal on which we had placed him, when we view 

 in cold blood the inefficiencies of his character as a 

 responsible keeper. 



Let it be frankly admitted that the responsibility 

 for the prevalence of inefficiency lies, to a great extent, 

 at the door of the owners or occupiers of the shootings. 

 There has been and there is too little recognition of the 

 services of good keepers. There is not sufficient sliding 

 in the scale of wages to urge on the keeper in general 



