CHAPTER XIV 



BEATERS AND STOPS 



The shooter a beater appreciates Bad guns, bad beating The 

 beater question Beaters ancient and modern A beater's 

 business Host, keeper, and beaters Complaints of beaters 

 Poachers as beaters Stops Beaters' strikes The beaters' lunch 

 How to manage beaters The beaters' supper. 



' I LIKES to see a man a-shootin' as if 'e know'd what 

 J e was got at not lookin' as if 'e thought 'e was 

 huntin' or playin' at golfs/ said one of my beaters. 

 And I always like to see a man beating as if he 

 were thinking of what he is doing not strolling 

 about, apparently for the benefit of his health. I 

 do not say that the best of guns would make some 

 men into good beaters, but bad guns always make 

 good beaters beat badly. Bad shooting has a 

 terribly disheartening effect upon beaters, who 

 scarcely can be blamed for feeling that their labour 

 is in vain. They can see no point in blazing away 

 all day without some sort of proportionate result. 

 Neither can I. 



The problem of beaters, I hope, is not ever likely 

 to become, in the smoking-room, a topic so absorbing 



214 



