the habits of all manner of vermin, and in the
mode of destroying them. He should not be
allowed to break dogs for any one save his
master, or to rear pets, or in fact to do any
extraneous duty. A gamekeeper's situation is
a pleasant one when he and his master pull
together. There is always enough to do, both
in and out of season, to keep a zealous man fully
employed. He should be brave, yet not
pugnacious; amicable, and on good terms with the
neighbouring farmers, yet not sufficiently so
ever to wink at poaching, however mild—and
the natural instinct for poaching, even amongst
farmers of the better class, is something
marvellous—and civil and attentive to his master's
guests. N.B.—It is usual to give a keeper five
shillings for the day, if shooting at a friend's
manor, and then he cleans your gun; at a grand
battue, a guinea is frequently given, but for a
day's partridge-shooting five shillings is ample.
This, be it remembered, is expected. Your head-
keeper will want a man under him, with wages
of twelve shillings a week, and a house, and at
certain seasons watchers or night-men. These
are generally paid by the night. The beaters
employed at battues are very frequently old men
or boys on the estate who are fit for nothing
else; they get from one shilling to half-a-crown
for their day's job.

For such a manor as I have pictured, two
brace of pointers, or setters, and one retriever,
would be enough, and a good close-working
spaniel, or a brace or leash according to fancy.
A brace of well-broken second season setters
should be purchasable at from twenty-five to
thirty pounds. Spaniels at five pounds each;
a good retriever would be cheap at twenty
guineas, ten pounds being a very common price.
If possible, by all means breed your own dogs,
or get them bred by your friends; a purchased
pointer is a pig in a poke; purchased, I mean,
through the medium of an advertisement or
from a regular dealer. Some animals so bought
have never even had powder burnt over them,
cower at the shot, and fly away home
immediately afterwards; others have a kind of
"crammed" instruction: that is to say, they will
be very good when kept in constant practice,
but if left at home for a few days will forget all
they have learnt, and come into the field wild
and ignorant. Pointers are more useful than
setters for partridge-shooting, easier to train,
less liable to take cold, more easily steadied,
and more tenacious of instruction. On the
other hand, setters are superior for grouse-
shooting, being harder footed. Spaniels are
the most useful of all dogs: there are two
classes, the " mute," which are the best for all
practical purposes: and those which fling their
tongues, begin their noise as soon as they are
put into cover, put all game on the alert, and
send every jack hare and old cock pheasant out
of the other end. A spaniel should stop when
he rouses a rabbit or hare, should never range
more than thirty yards from the gun, should
drop when the gun goes off, and should then lie
until signalled on. He should go through any
furze or brambles, like a rat, should be short on
his legs, long in his body, have a long head, go
to water, and retrieve alive; he should work with
his tail down, and the set of the tail should be
down also. His ears should be bell-shaped,
small at the top and large at the bottom. The
best breed is the " Clumber" spaniel, which is
always mute, always lemon and white in colour,
but not generally fond of the water. The next
best breed is the Sussex, liver and white; the
darker the liver, the better; the best marked
have a white blaze down the face, white muzzle,
liver nose, lips flecked with liver, and flecked
legs, belly and hips white, and white collar and
chest. The most fashionable spaniels are mute
black and white, or black and tanned, legs feet
and toes well feathered before and behind, and
the feet round as a cheese-plate. As to
retrievers, when you hear people speak of a genuine
retriever, do not place much credit in their
assertions, as there is no regular breed, and the
best retrievers are generally mongrels, half
poodle, half spaniel, and sometimes with a cross
of Newfoundland. A well-taught retriever
combines the qualities of pointer, setter, spaniel,
and water-dog, with his own peculiar instinct of
fetching a dead bird out of any brake, and carrying
him with jaws of iron and teeth of wool. I
need not say that such a dog is invaluable.

If you go in for pheasant-breeding, you go in
for expense at once. The artificial food for
three hundred pheasants, until they shoot their
tails, would cost fifteen or twenty pounds. By
artificial food, I mean eggs, rice, greaves, chopped
onions, lettuce, &c. I should say that every pheasant
shot on any manor costs twelve shillings, for
they must be reared by hand. The good friend
with whom I have had many a pleasant day in the
woods, calculates the cost of his birds at a pound
each; but he does everything in an unnecessarily
princely fashion, and has a staff of keepers and
beaters inferior to none in number or cost.

Grouse-shooting in England can be pursued
in Yorkshire, Northumberland, and Westmoreland,
in some parts of Wales, in Kerry, Limerick,
Wicklow, and Tipperary in Ireland, and in the
Scotch Highlands. Within the last few years
grouse-shooting has become such a fashionable
amusement that the prices of moors have risen
enormously, and have at length attained a
fabulous height. Twenty years ago, the highest
price for a moor of from twenty to forty thousand
acres, fit for four guns, was four hundred pounds;
you would be lucky now, to get it for double
the money. This is owing to the manufacturing
gentry, who are tremendously keen grousers, and
have a general leaning towards gunning, and
can afford to pay magnificently. Here it may
be well to call attention to the advertisements
of moors to be let for the season, the owner of
which stipulates that the tenant shall be " limited
to a thousand brace"! He must not shoot
more, for fear of thinning the stock on the moor.
Caveat emptor. The intending answerer of such
advertisement may safely pledge himself to abide
by this stipulation, and if he and his friends bag
three hundred brace, they may think themselves