BEATERS AND STOPS 221 



and produced one of his cartridges, suggesting that 

 I should try it. I saw at once that it was of a 

 special make that had been used by one shooter 

 only during the previous season, and I remembered 

 who had carried his bag. 



Once, while we were having lunch, I heard one 

 beater giving another a most graphic description of 

 the recent history of a rabbit, which, it seemed, had 

 remained seated almost till the narrator had trodden 

 on it ; perhaps since the question, ' Why hasn't thee 

 knock'd un down, then ?' cast aspersion on his 

 personal dexterity, he replied warmly, * Why, I 

 never sid un afore 'e was out o' sight.' One of my 

 beaters, who neither could read nor write, might 

 have made a cautious lawyer. He had seen three 

 pheasants fall, and as the gun who had shot them 

 seemed very anxious to let everyone know that they 

 were dead as rags, I told the man to go and fetch 

 them. Upon my reminding him that he knew 

 exactly where they were, he said : ' I knows where 

 they ought to be.' And my old dog eventually had 

 the satisfaction of justifying this cautious admission 

 by fetching one of the birds from the far end of the 

 wood. 



Beaters are great and good critics of shooting. 

 I have known beaters to be so confident in the 

 ability of their favourite shooting hero as to wager 

 beer by the quart, and even by the gallon, on his 

 superiority over some admittedly useful rival. 



