2o6 SHOOTING THE PHEASANT 



all these, or any considerable section of them, are at 

 perpetual war with your keeper, and look upon him 

 as the roughest and most unjust of men, good-bye to 

 your chance of ever keeping the amount of stock 

 which your estate ought to produce. 



Since writing the volume on ' Partridge,' ' I am 

 flattered to hear that my suggestion of a dinner, or a 

 subscription to the beaters and drivers, has been tried 

 in several places with excellent results. Any departure 

 of this sort, which brings the farming and labouring 

 class into closer touch with those who take their 

 pleasure in the sports of the field, can produce 

 nothing but good. Once the former see some chance 

 of participating in or benefiting from the festivals of 

 sport, they will be found, so long as they are well 

 treated, more useful, and infinitely less expensive, 

 than a whole army of tyrannous keepers. No 

 stranger will set foot in the district without your 

 keeper knowing it, and the depredations of the 

 organised gangs of egg and game stealers will be 

 pretty nearly checkmated. 



A very important point for your keeper is never 



to prosecute unless he has a perfectly clear and fair 



case, and a pretty good certainty of a conviction. 



Any case which he takes into court on trifling 



' Vol. i. of this series, The Parlridge. 



