150 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
winged bird in turnips, will never be first-rate, even 
for driving purposes ; and a boy who does not know 
how to carry his own gun, or use it when walking in 
line, nor how to handle that retriever, will never be a 
pleasant neighbour nor an accomplished performer in 
a good week’s driving. One thing, however, I would 
beg of him—to decide finally which he prefers, and 
not to walk up his birds as well as drive them on the 
same ground. This is trying to eat your cake and 
have it, both with partridges and grouse. The walk- 
ing up skims the cream, spoils the subsequent driving, 
and undoes the good the latter sport may do to the 
stock. The driving, after the ground has been already 
walked, is not worth having, and, if persisted in, is 
hard upon the stock of birds. 
Driving partridges is the cream, the luxury, and 
poetry of the sport ; walking up is the very marrow 
and essence of it. I defy any one to handle a line of 
men, or arrange a beat for driving, who has not plenty 
of experience in walking after them. The partridge, 
like most things, must be known from all points of 
view that he may be properly appreciated and dealt 
with. Walking up, or shooting partridges over dogs, 
is, in my judgment, the finest training of all for a 
young shooter. Here he can learn everything of the 
habits of the birds, of the instinct or the merits of the 
