WILDFOWL SHOOTING. 307 



fen, to see a flock of fowl well pitched ; send a gentle- 

 man-sportsman after them, and he generally comes 

 back without a bird ; while a common fellow would 

 get a shot, and kill three or four. Why is this ? The 

 gentleman thinks his cracked shooting is to do every 

 thing, and will not go low enough, for fear of dirty- 

 ing his knees ; while the rustic, not minding dirt, or 

 any thing else, pulls off his hat, crawls to the fowl, 

 and is generally as sure of getting, as the other is of 

 not getting, a good shot. 



The average of shooting, on the coast, is now far 

 inferior to that in many private rivers and ponds, 

 by reason, that, where the wildfowl contribute to the 

 winter subsistence of the fishermen, they are for ever 

 followed, and not only by them, but every vagrant, 

 who can raise a few shillings to purchase an old 

 musket ; so that, on their appearing in numbers, 

 there is generally assembled a levy en masse, who, 

 by indiscriminately firing at all distances, make them 

 so difficult of access, that, although thousands may 

 be seen, few will fly or let you come within reach. 



Indeed, the sport is sometimes so completely ruined, 

 that I have heard the poor men, who earn their live- 

 lihood by it, express a most earnest wish, that some 

 kind of licence was required, which they could pay 

 for tenfold by the number of shots that are now 

 spoiled by the idle, drunken, mischievous rabble, 

 that frequent the alehouses about Christmas, for the 

 nominal purpose of wildfowl shooting. These fellows 

 would, by this means, be deterred from infesting the 



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