1 8 THE KEEPER'S BOOK 



dain the suggestions of the man who has learned his 

 business by mere patient plodding. Let even the man 

 who is a sportsman by instinct and a keeper by nature 

 not hesitate to learn of men who are his inferiors, per- 

 haps, in everything except a little knowledge. 



Enthusiasm, although it is not everything, is an 

 invaluable quality in the good keeper. It inspires en- 

 thusiasm not only in his underlings, but in the sportsmen 

 themselves. Nothing is more depressing to a day's 

 shooting than to have a keeper who seems bored by his 

 work. Such a day is bound to be a failure, or, at best, 

 an imperfect success. The joy of sport ; the keenness 

 for a good bag ; the evident and just pride in knowledge 

 which the keeper is only too willing to impart ; the calm, 

 firm, and deliberate manner in carrying out a plan, 

 skilfully and patiently constructed these are the con- 

 ditions that inspire confidence in and respect from the 

 sportsman. But seeming indifference ; evident ignor- 

 ance ; a noisy, changeful, aimless plan of campaign 

 these are the conditions that make for the irritation of 

 " the guns " and for a general feeling of dissatisfaction. 

 When the latter conditions exist, it will in all likelihood 

 be found that the courtesy of the keeper is in propor- 

 tion to the size of his tips and his geniality to the 

 number of his " nips." Such a man is a disgrace to an 

 historical and responsible profession. He can be of no 

 satisfaction to himself, and is a nuisance to everybody 

 else. He quarrels with the farm servants ; he indis- 

 criminately shoots every suspicious dog that he meets ; 



