156 SNIPE SHOOTING COMBINED 



the honour to send ; and which, no less for its utility than for 

 the remembrance of your attention, shall have a place in my 

 library. 



" I can, without flattery, assure you, that I am well pleased 

 with the work, because you have comprised, in a small compass, 

 all the necessary information ; and, instead of prosing on the 

 various subjects, and taking up the trade of book-making, by the 

 detail of useless anecdotes, that are perhaps nothing more extra- 

 ordinary than have occurred to every old sportsman, or have been 

 handed, for ages, from one book to another, you have judiciously- 

 inserted that which is most useful on other points. In short, 

 you have given, in the way of directions, recipes, &c., all that 

 can be required for a good sportsman j and then, very properly, 

 devoted the remainder of your little volume to the purpose of be- 

 coming an universal, though portable, calendar. 



" As I see you have thought a few of my instructions worthy 

 of notice, permit me to observe, that there are two points on 

 which I dissent from you in opinion : 



" 1 st. About cocking the gun after the bird rises : I have so 

 many times nearly had one of my dogs killed by young shooters 

 letting the cock escape from the thumb before the scear had 

 caught the tumbler (through eagerness to fire), that I have, by 

 subsequent experience, found less danger in allowing them to 

 cock their gun when the dog stands, making it my first object to 

 see that their guns are always carried in a safe direction. No 

 man can kill double shots brilliantly in December, if he takes 

 down his gun to cock the second barrel ; and, as for danger, Mr. 

 Joseph Manton's gravitating stops, which may be put to any gun, 

 will preclude the possibility of an accident, even admitting that 

 you are so unfit to be trusted with a double gun as to load one 

 barrel without uncocking the other. 



" 2dly. With regard to Snipes : It is only when they lie well 

 that you can allow them to finish their twisting ; the greater part 

 of them require to be taken extremely quick, and the knack of 

 doing this constitutes the crack snipe-shot, who will kill a dozen 



