CHAPTER II 



HOW TO SHOW PHEASANTS 



A DELIGHTFUL expression is attributed to a head 

 keeper of the last generation, named Flatman, who 

 was, I believe, in the service of Lord Sefton. He was 

 placing the guns for a great rise out of one of the 

 well-stocked coverts of Croxteth, and in assigning to a 

 gun his position, outside the covert and on the flank, 

 he said, ' Would you please stay here, sir, and when 

 the trouble begins, be good enough to move up nearer 

 to the other guns.' 



Quaint as this term sounds, it is marvellously 

 expressive, in a sense not intended by Flatman, of the 

 difficulty which besets and usually baffles keepers 

 in showing a quantity of pheasants in the proper 

 manner. There are plenty of keepers in England 

 capable, in proportion to the climate and soil of their 

 particular locality, and to the expenses allowed them 

 by their employers, of rearing, preserving, and pro- 

 ducing a large stock of these birds ; but there are 



