The gamekeeper, as a rule, is an old hand at dog-dealing. All keepers
have an eye for a dog, and are tempted to buy for a song any sort of
sporting dog, in the hope of making a few shillings or pounds by a
quick sale. We knew a keeper who would buy almost anything that could
be described as a dog, but his stock price was "A bob and a pot"--a
shilling, that is to say, with a quart of beer. When a shoot is let,
and the keeper's services go with it, he often has a good chance to
make money over dog-deals. Outgoing tenants commonly make him a present
of a useful, general-purpose retriever, or spaniel--a dog that has done
a good deal of all-round work on the shoot. A dog may be a good dog
only on one shoot, or he may obey only one keeper; so when the tenant
goes away he leaves his dog where it can do the most good in the world,
kennel, chain, collar and all. Then a new tenant comes in, to whom the
keeper offers the dog with its outfit--the whole being, as he declares,
"honestly worth five pounds to the shoot." But he will take three
pounds, and it is clear profit. And the new tenant makes a good bargain.
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