246 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
is probably better that it should be so. But the 
means of the man who either owns or rents sporting 
property need only be ample in proportion to the 
amount of land he has rights over, the number of 
men he employs, or of farmers and labourers he has 
to deal with. As remarked before, shooting is 
becoming daily more of a luxury, but luckily it is 
more universally popular, and therefore more widely 
demanded than ever. 
It naturally follows that it commands a more 
certain price. It is eagerly sought and handsomely 
paid for by all sorts and conditions of self-made and 
hard-worked men. It is no longer the exclusive 
privilege of aristocratic landowners of ancient family 
and their friends or connections ; and it grows more 
certain every day that the impoverished owner of a 
purely agricultural estate, who has, after paying all 
charges, to live upon the slender balance which may 
remain, cannot afford it. This may be sad, but it is 
true. The successful lawyer, doctor, stockbroker, or 
‘business man,’ of whatever shade of politics, seeks 
nowadays the relaxation and distraction which his 
hard-worked brain requires in shooting or fishing. 
He comes into the market with his store of hard-won 
guineas, hires the land from the family of long 
descent, looks upon the whole thing as a luxury he 
