66 Spring 



trade to make Saturday and Monday holidays ; the 

 former is devoted to play, and the latter is given up 

 to tool-sharpening. Knapping cannot be done unless 

 the hammers are in perfect order, and it is said that 

 the only smiths who can put them right are a few in 

 the neighbourhood of Brandon, who have done the 

 work from infancy, and know to a nicety the face and 

 temper required. It is very difficult to calculate the 

 gross number of gun-flints made annually, as the work 

 is in more hands than one, but in all England there 

 are certainly not thirty men who can shape a flint. 

 Business used to fluctuate very much, and in dull 

 times some of the operatives were obliged to seek 

 employment elsewhere. From half-a-dozen to a 

 dozen knappers have constant work, however, and 

 while they do not make fewer than four millions 

 annually, they must be very busy to make eight. 

 Brandon is the chief but not the only seat of the 

 manufacture. Gun-flints are still made in small 

 quantities at Malaga, for example, and specimens are 

 to be seen in the British Museum. 



I fear that the figures afford an insecure basis for 

 calculating the number of flint, guns still in use. No- 

 body has been able to tell me how long a flint will 

 serve, and although my earliest firearm was an antique 

 horse-pistol that had never known a percussion cap, 

 my experience is not worth much. Firstly, my 

 allowance of powder being strictly limited, made me 

 careful not to waste any shots, so that the water-voles 



