TIPS AND TIPPERS 275 



A tipping incident which tickled me greatly came 

 about in this way. The day before a shoot, an 

 article by me (under a pen-name) had been published 

 in a daily paper. One of my guns was at most 

 unnecessary pains to expound to me the views 

 and so on set forth in the article, and wanted to 

 send me a copy of it. I told him I thought I 

 could borrow it quite easily. The majority of 

 keepers, being staunchly conservative, do not like 

 the contribution-box plan as applied to tips. It 

 savours too much of charity a help-the-poor-keeper 

 sort of arrangement. On the other hand, they 

 appreciate the modern method of placing the guns, 

 by numbers drawn by lot, for it removes all 

 suspicion of favouring the heaviest tippers. 



My last tip was six shillings, in florins. The 

 day was January 29, 1909. I have the coins safely 

 wrapped up and labelled, and shall keep them 

 at any rate, I shall try to so that some day I may 

 have them mounted on velvet as memorials of 

 those game-keeping days of old. 



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