Thomas Love Peacock, who a century ago wrote those lines about the mountain sheep being sweeter and the valley sheep fatter, once said of landscapes that their most attractive feature was unexpectedness. The same applies to shooting days.
Not everyone would care to be telephoned at 9am and asked to shoot “forthwith” because someone has cried off at the last minute. They think it invidious, like those unattached bachelors who are bidden at an hour’s notice to make up a bridge four or save their hostess from “sitting down 13”. But such umbrage is stupid. We who are old and slow, and perhaps lack shooting of our own, rely — far more than some would admit — on such
