WALKING UP 167 
or walk the same ground in line with the guns, they 
must be taught to beat every fence before getting 
through it, and after getting through to spread at once 
right and left, so as to cover the whole field before 
advancing in line. 
On days when there is a stiff breeze, perhaps from 
the east, with a warm sun, half the birds on a beat 
will be enjoying the shelter and warmth close under 
the fences, and unless the ground is carefully beaten, as 
indicated above, only half the stock will be shown and 
brought to the guns. I remember Lord Walsingham 
and myself killing seventy-three brace one day, before 
five o’clock, on an estate in Yorkshire where thirty to 
thirty-five brace to three or four guns was the highest 
previous record. We had to leave off at that hour, 
with a quantity of broken birds and good cover in 
front of us, and often have I regretted we were not 
able to go on till dusk, for we should certainly have 
made roo brace of it, which I think would have been 
a remarkable record for that part of the West Riding. 
But on the commonplace lines of beating the 
ground we should never have done anything like this. 
I knew every inch of the ground, and had besides 
the man of all others as a partner who was capable 
of taking part in breaking a record. The country 
consisted largely of grass fields and bare stubbles, 
