TIPS AND TIPPERS 275 
A tipping incident which tickled me greatly came 
about in this way. The day before a shoot, an 
article by me (under a pen-name) had been published 
in a daily paper. One of my guns was at most 
unnecessary pains to expound to me the views 
and so on set forth in the article, and wanted to 
send me a copy of it. I told him I thought I 
could borrow it quite easily. The majority of 
keepers, being staunchly conservative, do not like 
the contribution-box plan as applied to tips. It 
savours too much of charity—a help-the-poor-keeper 
sort of arrangement. On the other hand, they 
appreciate the modern method of placing the guns, 
by numbers drawn by lot, for it removes all 
suspicion of favouring the heaviest tippers. 
My last tip was six shillings, in florins. The 
day was January 29, 1909. I have the coins safely 
wrapped up and labelled, and shall keep them— 
at any rate, I shall try to—so that some day I may 
have them mounted on velvet as memorials of 
those game-keeping days of old. 
18—2 
