BEATERS AND STOPS 225 



able. You have at least a counter-claim for more 

 than equivalent damages, especially if they spring a 

 strike on you immediately after a good lunch. I do 

 not know of any decided cases for settling difficulties 

 which may arise from wet, snow, and other causes 

 necessitating shooting being put off. Take, for 

 instance, the case in which beaters do their work 

 till it is decided, say, at lunch-time or after, that the 

 weather is too bad to continue shooting. I should 

 think him a very mean man, and no sportsman at 

 all, who suggested anything short of a full day's 



pay- 

 But suppose beaters are booked for a shoot which 



is put off not later than the day before, so that their 

 usual occupation, if any, is not interfered with, I 

 should say there is no obligation on the part of 

 those by whom they were engaged ; but it is usual 

 to give all so put off the refusal of beating when the 

 shoot does come off. When the morning is con- 

 sidered too wet to make a start, and you keep the 

 men waiting on the chance till lunch-time, then it 

 would be fair to give them their lunch and a half- 

 day's pay, even though they did no beating. If the 

 weather about the usual time for starting is so 

 hopeless that any prospect of shooting is out of the 

 question for the day, then beaters who have turned 

 up should be given their lunch. Without throwing 

 money about carelessly, all such questions should be 

 dealt with on lines of liberality not only in the 



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