218 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



wont to congratulate him. The curious thing 

 about men who are so erratic is that they are 

 much more mclined than others to be indignant if 

 you offer a timely hint with the view of preventing 

 them from ruining your best beat. 



There is a simple rule for beaters which is the 

 whole secret of success under a competent director : 

 To do as they are told. Often have I heard a man 

 say, ' Oh, I thought so-and-so.' Just imagine the 

 result of from half a dozen to a hundred beaters 

 each doing only what he thought. A few might 

 think usefully, but the thoughts of the crew, collec- 

 tively, would be well, a little too divergent. It 

 is most unwise for a host and his keeper continually 

 to be shouting contradictory orders to beaters. 

 Nothing is more likely to upset them. Neither 

 is it well that sportsmen should address beaters 

 in any but simple phraseology. Once a beater 

 came to me saying, ' The guv'nor wants we to 

 bring a "da'meter" to 'im but I never heerd tell 

 o' sich a thing.' Another beater complained to 

 me that a shooter had reprimanded him, not for 

 shouting ' Mark !' when game rose, but for not 

 giving detailed information as to where. * When,' 

 said the shooter, 'a bird rises, you should first 

 draw my attention to it by the exclamation 

 "Mark!" and then proceed to describe its direc- 

 tion by adding "to the extreme left," as the case 

 may be ; it is no good for you to say " Mark !" 



