1 8 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



offered, as he does not believe it possible by pure and simple 

 writing — no matter how long or minute the instructions may be 

 — to teach anyone to kill a bird on the wing or to drop a 

 fly neatly on a salmon cast at the end of twenty-five yards 

 of line. The foundation of every good shot or fisherman 

 must always be youth combined with an ardent love of the 

 sport, coupled with plenty of opportunities for practice. Of 

 course, some will by nature be more gifted than others, and 

 these are the men who come to the front. 



Let us recount our own experiences as a beginner with the 

 gun, and we do so solely in the hope they may persuade others 

 to persevere. At thirteen we were entered at rabbits and 

 an occasional pheasant by our uncle, Mr. Rothwell Pounsett, 

 who then rented the shootings of Mountfield Park, near Battle, 

 in Sussex. As a beginner we did well, and friends and keepers 

 were kind enough to prophesy a future for the schoolboy. 



Then for several seasons the exigencies of education and 

 army cramming did away with all chance of handling a gun, 

 till, at the age of seventeen, an old school-fellow, Tom Powell, 

 asked us to stay for a month from the first of September, at his 

 father's place, Dorstone Rectory, in Herefordshire. 



In those days Tom was a lively Oxford undergraduate, 

 some few years our senior, and an excellent shot. That, alas ! 

 is more than forty years ago, and Tom is now the Reverend 

 Thomas Powell, and lives at the Rectory and follows in the 

 footsteps of his good father, who was then our host. 



We arrived at the Rectory with plenty of powder, shot, 

 wads and caps, and a fourteen-bore double-muzzle-loader by 

 Forsyth; and in the smoking-room, on the eve of St. Partridge's 

 Day, we hinted somewhat plainly that birds would be scarce 

 by the end of the month ! In this case pride did indeed have 

 a fall, for during the month, in which we two killed two hundred 

 brace of birds over dogs, incredible as it may sound, our in- 

 dividual share of that bag was butyft'^ partridges! Our friend 

 gave us every chance, and we had more shooting than he had. 



