BEATERS AND STOPS 231 
outside places, so that they may walk along a 
ride instead of through the stuff. It is necessary, 
as a rule, to have a beater or two on the ride, 
between the nearest flank gun and the first beater 
in the stuff, to prevent game from breaking out. 
But such posts are important, and I always allotted 
them as rewards of honour to men of proved 
capacity. A keen lookout should be kept for slack- 
ness among beaters; nothing is more infectious, or 
more difficult to cure when once it has spread 
among the whole party. Do not be harsh and 
unreasonable, but when you see any tendency 
on the part of the men to follow one another, 
check it at once. After lunch, especially, I have 
seen a line of beaters consisting of groups of 
half a dozen men who were strolling casually 
through the thin parts of a beat in Indian file. 
Keep your beaters well in hand with firm, decisive 
orders, but do not be continually nagging at them. 
Once lose your grip of them, and for the rest of 
the day they will beat only as their inclination 
prompts them. 
The beaters’ supper is an excellent institution, 
and, punctuated by judicious speeches, goes a long 
way to weld together those bonds of sporting 
sympathy which are so vital to the best interests 
of shooting. Even if you cannot afford the menu 
of a City company, you can run to rabbit-pie, 
than which, washed down with British beer, there 
is nothing more to the taste of the British beater. 
