Colonel TTbomas Gbornton 71 



statements are reckless exaggerations, does not usually 

 write like a braggart but like an honest sportsman, and 

 his failures are set down as conscientiously as his 

 successes. 



With the gun Colonel Thornton achieved nothing 

 phenomenal during his famous tour. But then game, 

 though plentiful to his notions, was nothing like as 

 numerous as it now is, when moors and forests are so 

 carefully preserved, and breeding so scientifically stimu- 

 lated. And, moreover, the fowling-pieces of that day 

 were but very primitive weapons compared with the 

 splendid engines of destruction now in use. The flints 

 of Thornton's day must have sorely tried the sports- 

 man's patience. On one occasion, says the Colonel, 

 " at eight good shots my gun missed fire, though I put 

 in five different flints." Then, it was but very rarely 

 that he ventured on a double shot. Like most sports- 

 men of his day, he preferred a single gun. " I look upon 

 all double barrels," he says, " as trifles, rather knick-knacks 

 than useful." His two favourite guns, " Death " and 

 " Destruction," however, he considered to be marvels of 

 the gunmaker's art. With the latter he won a great 

 match against Mr. Baird, who backed his gun to shot 

 closer and harder than any other in England. The 

 Colonel thus describes the winning performance of his 

 own gun : " She drove in thirty-seven grains ; every shot 

 through fifteen quarter sheets of small brown paper, 

 cut to the size of a quarter of a sheet of gilt, and ex- 

 ceedingly regular ; and in three parts the shots came 

 through so close that they had the effect of small balls 

 but could only be ascertained as one shot." The 



