NOVEMBER 387 



had the shooting. He has been firing at my legs all down the 

 Grove, and I've been jumping the shot' 



Afterwards this reverend gentleman very nearly slew me also 

 in mopping up a low pheasant, at which no man ought to have 

 fired. 



Once, too, I knew another clergyman who went out ferreting with 

 a companion and, turning suddenly, aimed his gun at that un- 

 fortunate's boot and hit it. When remonstrated with he said that 

 he thought it was a black rabbit. However, he was only a curate, 

 from whom caution could scarcely be expected. 



Next to the clergy I think that naval lieutenants are the 

 most dangerous, for they return fresh from abroad, where they 

 have been accustomed to shoot with nobody within a square mile 

 of them. But perhaps the palm ought to be given to short- 

 sighted and peppery old generals who chance to be jealous shots. 

 I imagine, however, that sportsmen run more risk from their 

 loaders than from companions, no matter how careless, who are 

 rarely near enough to shoot them dead. I shall not readily forget 

 one such experience. 



Needing a loader, I retained for the next day's shoot a 

 gentleman with a statuesque countenance and a beautiful white 

 beard, who informed me that he had loaded for Lord Walsingham. 

 At the first hot corner, as my second gun was not handed to me 

 when I wanted it, I looked around, to perceive the party who had 

 loaded for Lord Walsingham fumbling at the breech blindly with both 

 hands, a loaded cartridge sticking out of each corner of his mouth. 

 I ought to have dismissed him then and there, but accepted some 

 explanation. At the very next stand, just as I had shot a high 

 pheasant and was watching it fall, I heard an explosion at my side 

 and saw a charge of shot strike the ground in front of my feet 

 My white-bearded friend had managed to discharge the gun which 

 he was loading in such a fashion that the shot must have passed 

 within an inch or so of my thigh. 



For the rest of that day I used one gun only ; moreover I took 

 to shooting with hammerless guns, which are much safer. On the 



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