186 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
the day are about a beat and a half late. One never 
can undo the result of a late start. You may hurry 
things generally, and throw into one two beats that 
are much better taken separately. The result is 
that beaters must scamper over the ground, too 
wide apart to beat it properly, had they the time ; 
stops are told where to go instead of being shown, 
and of course go wrong. And, finally, after all the 
rush and scramble, the best beat of the day has to 
be left out owing to darkness. The second ‘ big day’ 
covert shoot I managed was ruined, from my point 
of view, by the guns turning up three-quarters of an 
hour late. I had the best lot of pheasants that had 
been in the wood for years; and, naturally, I was 
very keen that the guns should see them, if they 
could not kill them. The bag was a hundred and 
fifty odd pheasants. The guns were wonderfully 
pleased with the day, but none of them knew till I 
told them that the loss of time in the morning had 
lost us the best beat, in which there must have been 
quite another hundred and fifty pheasants. All the 
same, the guns robbed me of the pleasure of proving 
it. I do not believe in waiting for a gun. If 1 
asked a man to shoot, and he were late twice, | 
should want him very badly before I asked him 
again. 
The gun who cries out for the beater who has his 
cartridges just when that beater is as far away as 
possible is a nuisance, and his name is worthy of a 
