LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS 



(SECOND SEEIES) 



LETTEE I 



REMARKS OX MODERN GAME SHOOTING 

 FROM A PRACTICAL POINT OF VIEW 



THE critics who so fiercely denounce modern shooting 

 are either ' Parlour Sportsmen,' whose ideas of game 

 and the use of guns are derived from the grotesque 

 accounts that appear in papers hostile to the classes, 

 or else they are viciously inclined scribblers, who, 

 to curry favour with the masses, incorrectly style 

 themselves ' Shooters of the Old School,' and who, 

 to give spice to their writings, flavour them with such 

 words and phrases as, Butchery ! Slaughter ! Poor 

 innocent birds ! Tame as chickens ! All driven help- 

 less into a heap. Feather-bed sportsmen ! Mere 

 executioners ! &c. 



Sometimes these critics gravely inform their 

 readers that it is not, in their opinion, sport worthy 

 of English gentlemen to idle down to the end of a 

 covert, and find ready at hand such accessories as a 

 small table with a bottle of champagne on it, a box of 

 cigars, an armchair, the Times newspaper, a carriage 

 n B 



