GENERAL REMARKS 21 



The author is not an advocate of "taking a gun" on either 

 moor or lowland, for although he himself has twice tried it 

 with the happiest results, yet so many friends have told him 

 of their unlucky experiences that it is clear great caution should 

 be used before embarking on such a venture with a total 

 stranger, while more often than not the money paid for " the 

 gun," if spent on some small shooting entirely to oneself, would 

 give far more pleasure to the disburser. There are, moreover, 

 a few regular shooting " coapers " who advertise almost weekly ; 

 they have taken several different shootings on speculation, and 

 needless to say these are the men to whom a very wide berth 

 should be given. On one occasion two friends and the author 

 each replied to three advertisements relating to three distinct 

 shootings, and each received an answer from the same indi- 

 vidual ! Anyone taking a gun on a moor for a month or so 

 should make sure his future host is a gentleman and a good 

 sportsman, while stipulating that the party be a bachelor one; 

 for the presence of a solitary lady shut up in a shooting box 

 with four men is somehow or other depressing and undesirable. 

 Moreover, if there are a plurality of guns and each brings his 

 wife, and several ladies hitherto strangers to each other get 

 boxed up together on a Scotch moor, ten miles from shops or 

 neighbours, there are almost certain to be " ructions " ; and 

 small wonder either, for a duller life for ladies can hardly be 

 imagined — botany, entomology, and mild trout-fishing are the 

 only outdoor amusements open to them. Under such circum- 

 stances, ladies will at times take to the gun itself, and in the 

 present day it is a fashion on the increase. Few of them, how- 

 ever, are '"built that way," and the writer is convinced those 

 who do shoot rarely find any real pleasure in the matter, and 

 as soon as they have shown us poor men they can do it if they 

 choose, and wipe our eyes as often as they please, most are 

 content to rest on their laurels ; and this view of the case is 

 strongly supported by the fact that never yet have two ladies 

 been known to rent a moor to themselves and take the field 



