WALKING UP 179 
For this class of shooting I think pointers are most 
useful ; still more so for the man who likes to go out 
single-handed and kill his eight or ten brace of birds, 
accompanied only by one man to carry game, ammu- 
nition and refreshment. It is essential under these 
circumstances not to blunder on to the birds unex- 
pectedly, and so probably drive them in the wrong 
direction. It is a very pretty manceuvre, and one 
requiring all the qualities of the true sportsman, to 
get round a covey of birds lying fairly near the 
boundary fence, work yourself in between them and 
the enemy’s territory and put them back into the 
centre of your own ground. To do this it is essential 
to know where they are lying in the first instance, and 
you cannot do better than employ a steady pointer 
for this purpose. 
I would go farther than this, and recommend 
pointers or setters for the class of shooting I mentioned 
having had in Perthshire—two or three guns and about 
eight men—in short, what may be described as the 
average or popular form of partridge-shooting. I well 
recollect the dismay with which, in spite of consider- 
able keenness and activity, we used to survey a thirty- 
acre field of turnips as high as your waist, and into 
which we had driven, say, only two coveys and a 
brace of odd birds. To beat the field properly would 
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