266 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



at least, of smart appearance, and smart in every 

 way. This the ordinary wage does not allow. 

 Tips must make up the deficiency. A keeper seek- 

 ing a fresh berth is awkwardly fixed. He cannot 

 very well ask his prospective employer about the 

 tipping propensities of his friends. I think it would 

 be an excellent plan if keepers, on leaving a berth, 

 confessed to their late employer the average annual 

 total of their tips ; then, when the new man is being 

 engaged, he could be given a precise idea of the 

 combined value of his emoluments. 



At first I think I felt more sheepish over the 

 reception of a tip than anything else connected with 

 the craft of game-keeping. Hitherto I had been 

 accustomed to regard the handling of coin at 

 shooting-parties solely from the point of view of 

 the giver. To receive cash was so absolutely 

 strange to me, it seemed a putting of the cart 

 before the horse with a vengeance. But where 

 there's a will there's a way, and, as I had not 

 become a keeper merely for fun, I always found 

 a way for what cash came to hand. After a little 

 experience, I was able to receive a tip in as graceful 

 a style as any man. I never could bring myself to 

 be obsequious in the matter of tips ; rather would 

 I have foregone them all. I made it a rule to say, 

 'Thank you, sir,' in the same tone intended to 

 convey courteous gratitude whether the gift were 

 a sovereign or half-crown, or the giver a lord or 



