BEATERS AND STOPS 215 



as is the servant question in other departments of 

 modern households. Still, the subject of beaters has 

 needed consideration of late years. In some kinds 

 of shooting the employment of dogs instead of 

 human beaters is all very well ; indeed, dogs are 

 infinitely superior to men in certain conditions. But 

 in the usual circumstances of modern shooting, men, 

 and plenty of them, too, are indispensable. Time 

 was when people either shot over their own land or 

 that of their friends and acquaintance, on which an 

 annual crop of young beaters appeared with more 

 regularity than game. And so, when a day was 

 fixed for shooting, all that was necessary was to 

 name the number of beaters required, and the whole 

 army was forthcoming from the estate, supplemented 

 by men out of work, and, on the more important 

 days, by hands gladly lent by tenant-farmers. The 

 majority of these beaters knew their work : each 

 ride and track through the woods ; each field by 

 name and its current crop ; each hedgerow and dell ; 

 the fences, ponds, trees, and many other very useful 

 landmarks, familiarity with which saves time, and 

 tends to avoid annoying mistakes on shooting-days. 

 But the beaters a keeper must nowadays rely on 

 and often be thankful to secure at all are mostly 

 mere mercenary outsiders, men who possess little 

 interest in the estate, its shooting, or the bag 

 beyond lunch and wages. Lucky is the keeper who 

 can command a few trusty, experienced men to 



