34 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
many of the birds that did not break sideways 
pitched in it again. If all my five guns had been 
useful, our two double-rowed partridge-carriers 
would have been full before we reached the end 
of that strip of grass. The most exciting episode 
was when there were seven birds down, five of 
which proved to be runners—and we got them all. 
Another incident of note was the ‘browning’ of a 
big covey which rose out of fair range. Three birds 
more or less ‘ towered’ after flying some distance 
apparently untouched. We had finished the rye- 
grass for the time being, and lunch would be in 
ten minutes. I advised a détour of a couple of 
hundred yards, which would sweep the scattered 
birds into the grass, while I searched for the three 
‘browned’ birds. But no: it was preferred to 
walk straight ahead, and, as I said, drive most of 
the birds over the boundary, for the sake of walking 
an extra two hundred yards. I was almost sorry 
that I had found the three birds by the time the 
firing-line returned to tell me—quite unnecessarily 
—that they had had only a few shots, but had put 
a good two hundred partridges over the boundary. 
There was some excitement after lunch, when one 
of the guns ‘cracked his duck,’ so to speak, on a 
cheeper. I believe it was subsequent to the suppres- 
sion of that cheeper that he got into Parliament and 
bagged a title. I remember much more distinctly 
that he left before we had finished shooting ; that I 
