70 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



that one gun did not get a shot I am quite sure 

 this made no difference to his killing nothing and 

 that these long drives were not liked, and would be 

 tolerated no more. The next drive I wanted to 

 take was about five hundred yards in length, across 

 the wind at right angles to the previous one, and 

 consisted of one big field dotted with charlock plants 

 about one to every five square yards. On two 

 sides of the field were boundaries. However, this 

 would not do at all though to my way of thinking 

 there was no question of two opinions as to its being 

 the right move. 



I had intended a return drive (the third), to be 

 followed by an up-wind drive (the fourth), which 

 obviously would have included its own birds and 

 those from the three preceding drives. I was 

 ordered to take the beaters round as for my idea of 

 the second drive of the day, but to bring them along 

 half at a time that is, to make two parallel drives 

 of the charlock-pimpled field. I even was asked 

 what I thought of the plan. I said that I thought 

 it admirably devised to insure two blank drives 

 instead of one good one, and to send many birds off 

 the place. Still, I was ordered to carry it out, which 

 1 did, thinking that if anyone knew more than I did 

 about my partridges and the driving of them, the 

 fact ought to be advertised. And I was always 

 willing to learn. We all learnt what it was like to 

 have two blank drives in succession, save that a rook 



