156 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



In hard frosts you wouldn't find one there unless there happened to he 

 an iron spring or some warm exudation which never froze. In such places 

 I have often found five or six snipe in a place not twenty feet square ; and 

 at such times the little trickling streams would hold them. Again, in very 

 wet weather the water in the moors would he too deep, and the streams 

 would be so flooded that the mud puddles were submerged, and when this 

 was the case they would often take to turnip fields and all sorts of out-of- 

 the-way comers.. In knowing the ground and wind when snipes get up 

 you would always know, too, where they were gone to, and where to look 

 for them ; and this knowledge served me well. 



" What sort of dog is the best for snipe shooting ? " I have found a 

 quiet old pottering setter as good as any, particularly if he has the knack 

 of retrieving. I had, however, a pointer once that proved himself a 

 wonder with the long-bills. His name was Duke, for the reason that he 

 came from the Duke of Wellington's kennel at Strathfieldsaye. He wasn't 

 what you would call a very handsome dog, being coarse in the stern and 

 with a middling tail, though his fore quarters were very good. He was 

 slow but he was sure. , He never made a mistake. Larks and such small 

 deer he took no notice of. If birds only "had been" he would 

 acknowledge the fact, but that was all ; but if he drew up stiff and meant 

 pointing you might bet your bottom dollar that the old dog had game before 

 him. As to chasing fur, or anything of that sort, he didn't know what 

 chasing meant, and was too staid and circumspect to chase anything. 



I had bad luck with the old dog. I bought him of Billy Missing, 

 formerly of coursing notoriety, but long since defunct. Billy had him 

 from his brother, the Councillor Missing, who haunted the Andover 

 district, and of whom many good tales are told. Among others this : He 

 practised in that circuit, and one 'sizes there was a case of a stolen 

 moke in which he had to defend the putative thief. He made a strong 

 case out that the donkey never was stolen at all, and was as usual a 

 little down on anyone who could suppose otherwise. Q. C. Quasher 

 replied, with slow deliberate diction and an imperturbable gravity, 

 "My Lord, there is one point no living being can dispute, and that is, 

 that the ass is missmg." 



