POACHING PARTRIDGES 67 
destructive measures, such as those that have sur 
vived into our own times, and may be perpetuated 
for many a long day. 
Our own views of game-preserving are too strongly 
coloured with inherited prejudice to admit of oui 
viewing the netting of the birds as a trifling mis- 
demeanour ; but while we make the most of our 
rights as game-preservers, truth compels us to admit 
that our rights to game were at one time allowed 
to remain pretty much in abeyance. Before the 
commons were so generally enclosed, country folk 
roamed pretty much where they chose in the more 
remote districts. The fact is that few men possessed 
serviceable guns, and still fewer of the number could 
shoot a bird in flight. Any one who made shooting 
his chief pastime could find plenty of scope for the 
indulgence of his tastes, as well as for supplying some 
items of variety to his neighbour’s larder. The best 
shot in a district came to be looked on as one whose 
skill entitled him to respect, and if he was hail-fellow- 
well-met, he seldom came acrossarepulse. Strangers 
were always regarded with more or less suspicion, 
especially among the reserved ‘statesmen ’ of the north 
of England, but they often fared well, even without 
introductions. 
A few years before the death of that good 
F2 
