u6 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 



rubbish. The two forms of shooting are so unlike 

 that there is no necessity for allowing the one to 

 confuse you for the other. I remember going to stay 

 with de Grey at Nocton, in Lincolnshire, which then 

 belonged to Lord Ripon, accompanied by the late 

 George Ward Hunt, almost the most brilliant shot 

 with gun and rifle that I have ever seen. The rooks 

 were in thousands, very forward, and though many 

 still sat on the trees, the majority flew as well and as 

 high as good rocketing pheasants. We were each 

 armed with two breech-loaders and one, or perhaps two, 

 rifles, and the way those rooks rained down alternately 

 from trees and sky was a sight. I think we killed 

 about 1,100 in three hours one day at Gautby, an 

 old property of the Vyners across the fen. We came 

 up to London the next day, and on turning up at 

 Hurlingham were, of course, told that not much 

 could be expected of us as we had been rook-shooting. 

 De Grey, however, won the cup, and I was second. 

 I was also lucky enough one year to win the principal 

 prize at the Running Deer at Wimbledon on the 

 Thursday, and a cup at pigeons at Hurlingham on the 

 Friday, having had a deer-stalking rifle continuously 

 in my hand during the whole of the Wimbledon fort- 

 night. 



My readers will, I hope, forgive my relating this ; 



