152 SHOOTING THE PARYRIDGE 
greatly increased and your bags proportionately 
higher, it is worth while to persevere. But if, as in 
many places, the soil is not favourable to a large 
stock, and you still cannot raise enough birds to kill 
say from eighty to one hundred brace in a day, it is, 
in my opinion, better to stick to the system of walk- 
ing, and to rely upon good keepering and judicious 
management for the best sport which this class of 
country will afford. 
A great many partridge manors are much too hard 
shot, and have nothing like the stock upon them that 
the ground will carry (of this I shall have more to 
say in another chapter) ; but this is accounted for in 
many cases by the clinging to the old traditions in the 
early part of the season, shooting every beat by walking 
in the old way, and in the later part imitating the 
fashion, and pandering to an unworthy and hopeless 
desire to vie with the places where good bags are 
made by exclusive driving—a fatal combination which 
reduces your stock of birds, disappoints yourself, and 
enrages and discourages your keepers. Ground which 
has been shot over by walking, if decent bags have 
been made, is not worth driving, and I know nothing 
more dispiriting than to be told, as you are placed 
for a drive, ‘You know, we have killed eighty brace 
off this ground already, and saw an awful lot of birds.’ 
