BREECHING. 31 



let it lie on all night, and rub it off clean in the 

 morning. With a few such dressings, you will bring 

 out a superior polish. 



If a stock, which, in other respects, suits you, is, in 

 a trifling degree, too straight or too much bent, the 

 maker could rectify it by means of boiling it in hot 

 water, instead of persuading you to have a new one. 



BREECHING. 



A GUN-BREECHING, till of late years, was simply 

 a plug, screwed into the end of the barrel, so as to 

 reach to the touchhole. 



The first improvement was to bore a hole down 

 the centre of this plug, and bring the touchhole to it 

 in a right angle, thereby having the communication 

 directly through both the male and female screws. 

 How far this may be safe, I leave to the more ex- 

 perienced to judge ; but it certainly shoots so well, 

 that I never could find any solid breeching to beat 

 it, until Mr. Joseph Manton brought out his, which, 

 like the rest of his work, has been abused and imitated 

 by most of his filing fraternity ! 



To treat on the various kinds of solid breechings, 

 that have been made since the original invention of 

 Mr. Nock, would be wasting time, and consuming a 

 volume, when we can at once warrant, that there are 

 none superior to the one above-mentioned. 



For example, a breeching on Mr. Manton's con- 

 struction places the touchhole literally to the chamber, 



