30 GEOUSE SHOOTINCr. 



dragsman — slioot in a style equidistant from that 

 of the gamekeeper on the one hand, and the bagman 

 on the other : neither killing nor missing every bird ; 

 but, true to the spirit of the Aristotelian doctrine, 

 leaning mth a decided inclination towards the first 

 rather than the second predicament. If we shoot 

 too well one day, we are pretty sure to shoot as ill 

 another ; in short, w^e shoot like gentlemen, scholars, 

 poets, philosophers, as we are ; and, looking at us, 

 you have a sight 



' Of him who walks in glorj' and in joy, 

 Following his " dog" upon the mountain side ;' 



a man evidently not shooting for a wager, and per- 

 forming a match from the mean motives of avarice 

 or ambition ; but blazing away ' at his o^vn sweet will,' 

 and, without seeming to know it, making a great 

 noise in the world. Look with thine eyes on yonder 

 bank — yonder sunny bank, beneath the shades of that 

 fantastic cliff's superincumbent shadow — seest thou 

 not basking there a miraculous amount of feathers ? 

 They have packed, Hamish — they have packed, early 

 as it is yet in the season; and the question is. What 

 shall we do ? We have it. Take up a position, 

 Hamish, about a hundred yards in the rear; on 

 yonder knoll, \rith the colonel's sweeper. Fire from 

 the rest ; mind, from the rest, right into the centre 

 of that bed of plumage, and we shall be ready with 

 Brown Bess and her sister to pour in our quartette 

 upon the remains as they rise, so that not escape 



