102 REMIXISCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAX. 



Samson and the courage of a lion — "Si non e vero, e 

 ben trovato." * 



In the early part of the season, when the heather is 

 strong and the birds sit close, a fair shot ought seldom 

 to miss a grouse, for they are at that time slow in their 

 flight, and I think more easy to be killed than a full 

 grown partridge, but to enjoy this sport in real per- 

 fection, go to the moors six weeks later, when the 

 grouse are become strong and rather shy, and then if 

 the sportsman succeeds in making a good bag by quick 

 and long shots, he must feel far more gratified in such 

 success than in having killed on the 12th his five and 

 twenty or thirty brace of young grouse, many of which 

 had not arrived at their full gi-owth. If grouse shooting 

 were not to commence till the 20th of August, the day 

 fixed for the shooting of black game, the eight days 

 gained by this postponement, would, I conceive, be of 

 much benefit to the grouse in respect of their growth. f 



I never had any good grouse shooting in Ireland. I 

 went one year with a friend to the Wicklow mountains. 

 In this expedition we had two serious evils to contend 

 with which it was impossible to overcome — constant bad 



* I consider Mr. St. John a eoiTect model of the old sportsman ; his 

 physical powers seem to be equal to any fatigue, and he does not mind 

 roughing it in his night's lodgings in the Highlands. He is thoroughly 

 au fait in the most delightfid and exciting of all shooting, wild field 

 sports. How exhilarating are the feelings of a keen sportsman when 

 ranging with his dogs and gim in a wild country, with such bold and 

 picturesque featixres as that of the Scottish Highlands, and when, 

 perhaps, in a day's shooting a dozen different species of birds and 

 animals^ for example, here is what Mr. St. John bagged one year on the 

 21st of October : grouse six, partridges thirteen, woodcock one, pheasant 

 one, wild-duck one, snipe four, teal one, ciu'lew three, plover four, jack- 

 snipe two, hares fire, rabbits two. 



t Grouse shooting does not commence in Ii-eland tiU the 20th. 



