SXIPE SIIOOTIXG BY MR. STURT. 103 



exploit, I venture to affirm, could not be excelled by any 

 of the best shots of the present day, although they 

 have a considerable advantage in the detonating gun, 

 the discharge of which is more rapid than the flint gun. 



When quartered with the Greys in Dorchester bar- 

 racks in 1800, there was some very good snipe shooting, 

 if the frost was not too severe, in the meadows and 

 ditches in the vicinity of the to-\vn. At that period I had 

 not had much practice in snipe shooting, and certainly 

 wasted much powder and shot. I say wasted, because 

 I seldom succeeded in bagging above two or three brace 

 of snipes out of about twenty shots. One day I was 

 firing away at the snipes with my usual ill success, when 

 to my great mortification a labourer who was snipe 

 shooting in the same meadows killed almost every 

 snipe which I missed and came within shot of him. 

 After having thus had my " nose wiped " several times> 

 I could no longer resist going up to him to examine 

 his gim and ammunition with which he did so much 

 execution. The gun was a very old single barrelled one, 

 not worth more I should think than twenty or thirty 

 shillings. His powder was coarse when compared to 

 mine of Pigou and Andrews. His shot he had loose in 

 his waistcoat pocket, which he brought out to show me, 

 with the bowl of a tobacco pipe, having a mixture from 

 number four down to snipe shot. He told me he could 

 not afford to miss as often as I did, as he was shooting 

 for his livelihood, and sold the snipes in the market 

 for sixpence a-piece. I purchased several brace of him, 

 and on my return to barracks boasted of my good 

 day's shooting at the mess. 



Having hunted, coursed, and fished in almost every part 

 of Dorsetshire, I really think, for the enjoyment of all 



M 2 



