DRIVING 121 
‘having pitcht your nets below’ to ‘go above and, 
taking advantage of the Wind, drive downward.’ 
Substitute guns for nets, and the sentence may stand 
as it is for instruction to-day. Right he is indeed to 
spell Wind with a capital W, for is it not a most im- 
portant factor in driving or any other form of sport? 
In the days of Nicholas Cox every fowler, hawker, or 
keeper was brought up to study the direction of the 
wind as his first guide to securing game ; and it is 
lamentable to see how little this fundamental con- 
dition is attended to by the modern keeper or 
sportsman. It seems in our day (with a few notable 
exceptions) to be the monopoly of Scotch stalkers and 
ghillies. I have heard a Scotch beater describe the 
locality of a dead bird which was difficult to find, as 
lying ‘a wee thing wast of the dog’s nose’ that was 
pointing it. They reckon by wind. What English 
keeper, excepting always a very few whose knowledge 
of this subject has helped them largely in acquiring 
their well-deserved reputations, would talk of anything 
as being ‘west of a dog’s nose,’ or, for the matter of 
that, would know whether the wind was blowing from 
east or west? He and his master arrange the order 
of the drives days beforehand ; and whether it blows 
lightly from the south-east, or heavily from south. 
west, the programme is carried out, the order is main- 
