CHAPTER XX 



CONCLUSION 



Long shotsCallousness Vermin the salt of the keeper's life 

 Game-keeping as a road to fortune. 



THE firing of long shots is a detestable feature of 

 modern shooting. And good shots, I am afraid, 

 are liable to be worse offenders than others. I was 

 speaking on this subject to the head-keeper on a 

 famous shooting estate ; with a shrug of his shoulders, 

 he said, ' They all does it.' The abundance of game 

 and the far from dead craze for big bags at present- 

 day shooting-parties are indirectly the cause of an 

 appalling callousness to the sufferings of dumb 

 creatures. I am no believer in ultra-humanitarian 

 ideas, but I do protest against that wantonly wilful 

 callousness which besmirches a great sport. 



The place above all I should like to go to as a 

 keeper would be over-run with all sorts of vermin. 

 I should enjoy myself far better than on ready- 

 made ground where game teemed. And I dare say 

 there are scores of keepers who would enjoy a good 

 season at vermin as a change from a surfeit of game. 

 Vermin supply the salt of a gamekeeper's life. 



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