CHAPTER XIV 
BEATERS AND STOPS 
The shooter a beater appreciates—Bad guns, bad beating—The 
beater question— Beaters ancient and modern—A_ beater’s 
business—Host, keeper, and beaters—Complaints of beaters— 
Poachers as beaters—Stops—Beaters’ strikes—The beaters’ lunch 
—How to manage beaters—The beaters’ supper. 
‘I LIKEs to see a man a-shootin’ as if ’e know’d what 
’e was got at—not lookin’ as if ’e thought ’e was 
huntin’ or playin’ at golfs,’ said one of my beaters. 
And I always like to see a man beating as if he 
were thinking of what he is doing—not strolling 
about, apparently for the benefit of his health. I 
do not say that the best of guns would make some 
men into good beaters, but bad guns always make 
good beaters beat badly. Bad shooting has a 
terribly disheartening effect upon beaters, who 
scarcely can be blamed for feeling that their labour 
is in vain. They can see no point in blazing away 
all day without some sort of proportionate result. 
Neither can I. 
The problem of beaters, I hope, is not ever likely 
to become, in the smoking-room, a topic so absorbing 
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