270 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
record bag of tips (thirty pounds) after a shoot 
at which royalty was present. Another said he 
took from four to six pounds every week, from 
September to February, for several seasons, which 
was very nice indeed while it lasted. At his other 
places his tips did not keep him in beer and baccy. 
I should say that ten pounds is about the sum 
received in tips by an ordinary gamekeeper in a 
season. A good many long for so much—vainly, 
Once I enjoyed the distinction of driving partridges 
over the head of a reputed millionaire; and he 
could hit em, too. He tipped me a couple of half- 
sovereigns, and complimented me on my show of 
birds. 
The first tip that came my way was remarkable 
for its size, being a five-shilling piece, as I have said 
in a preceding chapter. I have a special recollection 
of the first occasion on which I took gold. I had 
been helping a neighbouring keeper. One of the 
guns told me he would be shooting with us on the 
following day, and wanted to know how best he 
might be saved bother about his gun and cartridges. 
I volunteered to take them home with me and bring 
them along to the meeting-place the next morning, 
Well, we had a good day, at the end of which, to 
my intense surprise, he slipped half a sovereign into 
my hand ; and so soon as I got the chance I tied it 
into a corner of my handkerchief, and spent it on 
boots. 
