70. TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
that one gun did not get a shot—I am quite sure 
this made no difference to his killing nothing—and 
that these long drives were not liked, and would be 
tolerated no more. The next drive I wanted to 
take was about five hundred yards in length, across 
the wind at right angles to the previous one, and 
consisted of one big field dotted with charlock plants 
—about one to every five square yards. On two 
sides of the field were boundaries. However, this 
would not do at all—though to my way of thinking 
there was no question of two opinions as to its being 
the right move. 
I had intended a return drive (the third), to be 
followed by an up-wind drive (the fourth), which 
obviously would have included its own birds and 
those from the three preceding drives. I was 
ordered to take the beaters round as for my idea of 
the second drive of the day, but to bring them along 
half at a time—that is, to make two parallel drives 
of the charlock-pimpled field. I even was asked 
what I thought of the plan. I said that I thought 
it admirably devised to insure two blank drives 
instead of one good one, and to send many birds off 
the place. Still, I was ordered to carry it out, which 
I did, thinking that if anyone knew more than I did 
about my partridges and the driving of them, the 
fact ought to be advertised. And I was always 
willing to learn. We all learnt what it was like to 
have two blank drives in succession, save that a rook 
