202 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



be. And you, T'other Gent, take off and get along- 

 side o' the beaters/ Then, having walked down 

 the line of guns, giving each in passing some final 

 admonition, more often than not of an irrelevant 

 nature, he would take up his stand at a convenient 

 spot in the rear. If the beaters were some time 

 coming on, he would postpone his soliloquy for 

 a while ; otherwise he began at once after giving 

 his dog an appreciable ' reminder.' Though he 

 chiefly chose for his subject generalities concerning 

 the beat, if a fox showed up he dealt with it 

 promptly, somewhat after this fashion : ' Cunning 

 old beggar that ! T'others wouldn't be 'arf so bad 

 if 'twarn't for 'is learnin' on 'em. Shan't be sorry 

 when 'e's gone where the good niggers goes/ 



A volley of ineffective shots at a pheasant of the 

 * corker ' type would be sure to bring forth a torrent 

 of his sympathetic comment, much as follows : 

 ' Now, 'e were a good un ! Us can't allus kill. 

 Didn't much think the likes o' they would stop 

 'im. Don't know as I could 'er done it myself. 

 Wants Mister So-and-so for sich ones.' As a 

 beat proceeded, and shooting became more frequent, 

 you could hear in the lulls of firing his comments 

 always made in trumpet tones of a vividly topical 

 nature. When I have been loading I have suffered 

 terrible torture in wrestling with desire to laugh 

 at his quaint, boldly expressed remarks. Once I 

 collapsed utterly, and had to retire to the seclusion 



