i^nipe Shooting. 1B7 



Brother Missing scratched his head as if he even felt his ears growing, 

 and then joined in the laugliter against himself. But he died at last, 

 and Sweet William came in for his leavings, which were not extensive, 

 but among tliem was Duke. I bought Dake for seven sovereigns ; he 

 was so uncommonly ugly behind. I fetched him and put him up 

 on my dog cart, and just as I was driving off he jumped out, and before 

 I could stop the wheel of the cart went right over his loins and stomach. 

 I picked the dog up and put him back, but he did not seem a bit the 

 worse, though in a few months after he begun to show symptoms of 

 something that appeared to be dropsy, and of which he very gradually 

 got worse and worse, till he died much distended about a twelvemonth 

 after. 



I don't think the old dog knew much about snipe when I first showed 

 them to him, and that was at Plaitford in the New . Eorest, where I 

 went to shoot black game, among other things. There was a bog about 

 three-quarters of a mile long and eighty yards wide, which was full of 

 snipe when I commenced. There were swarms of snipe, mostly jacks, 

 though there was a fair lot of full birds, too, here and there. At first 

 the puzzlement of Old Duke was very amusing, as he stood often with 

 his nose right over a jack, and the little rascal wouldn't flush. There 

 stood the old dog looking down at the small sinner below, as if he was 

 saying, " You precious young ass, if you don't get up this moment I'll 

 chop you for certain ; " and his disgust of them when he saw their insig- 

 nificant proportions was quite funny ; if ever a dog turned his nose up at 

 anything, he did at first, though after a time he got quite keen at them, 

 and perfectly unerring. I remember, too, I shot infamously badly that 

 day, and, though the birds often seemed to hang in the air, I missed shot 

 upon shot, and Old Duke kept looking at me as if wondering what was 

 up. The old dog seemed quite puzzled at so much shooting (for they 

 were very tliick indeed), and at so little result. Luckily for me, it was 

 not my brother-in-law's setter Old Rock, for Bock would have howled 

 at me, and perhaps have assaulted me, and certainly have trotted off home. 



Now, this a fact I am going to relate. My brother-in-law had an 

 old black setter named Bock. The old dog was pretty good but very 



