BEATERS AND STOPS 231 



outside places, so that they may walk along a 

 ride instead of through the stuff. It is necessary, 

 as a rule, to have a beater or two on the ride, 

 between the nearest flank gun and the first beater 

 in the stuff, to prevent game from breaking out. 

 But such posts are important, and I always allotted 

 them as rewards of honour to men of proved 

 capacity. A keen lookout should be kept for slack- 

 ness among beaters ; nothing is more infectious, or 

 more difficult to cure when once it has spread 

 among the whole party. Do not be harsh and 

 unreasonable, but when you see any tendency 

 on the part of the men to follow one another, 

 check it at once. After lunch, especially, I have 

 seen a line of beaters consisting of groups of 

 half a dozen men who were strolling casually 

 through the thin parts of a beat in Indian file. 

 Keep your beaters well in hand with firm, decisive 

 orders, but do not be continually nagging at them. 

 Once lose your grip of them, and for the rest of 

 the day they will beat only as their inclination 

 prompts them. 



The beaters' supper is an excellent institution, 

 and, punctuated by judicious speeches, goes a long 

 way to weld together those bonds of sporting 

 sympathy which are so vital to the best interests 

 of shooting. Even if you cannot afford the menu 

 of a City company, you can run to rabbit-pie, 

 than which, washed down with British beer, there 

 is nothing more to the taste of the British beater. 



