THE TIPPING SYSTEM 243 



Gamekeepers are much associated with tipping. If 

 tips are to be reckoned as part wages, the element of 

 chance is great and unfair. There are cases 

 when tipping amounts to bribery, as when 

 System a T1C ^ man buys the best place in a shoot. 

 For the system, it may be said that a tip is 

 the most convenient token of appreciation of skill in 

 producing good sport. And we agree that if any 

 servant of pleasure deserves a tip it is the game- 

 keeper. But among the fallacies of the system is the 

 fact that the scale of tips is seldom in proportion to 

 skill and energy. Thus, a tip of a certain amount is 

 given for a day's covert shooting of, say, under a 

 hundred head, half pheasants, calling for a certain 

 amount of energy and skill on the keeper's part. But 

 a tip of only half the amount will be given after a 

 thirty-brace day at driven partridges, which has 

 afforded five times the amount of shooting, and called 

 for ten times more skill and energy from the keeper. 

 There is a saying among keepers that tips may be 

 looked upon to provide three useful things beer, 

 'baccy, and boots. In old times a five-pound note 

 was the order of the day this is represented now by 

 half a sovereign or five shillings. A few keepers are 

 lucky enough to serve where wealthy sportsmen shoot 

 regularly, who willingly give the keeper a ten-pound 

 note. But most keepers praise heaven for 10 re- 

 ceived in tips in a season. Where the scale of tips 

 most fails is when a tip covers compensation for 

 injuries. But the beater who received a note on 



