98 Ifcinss of tbc 1Rot>, IRifle, an& (Bun 



sportsman of his day, regarded the introduction of the 

 detonator as ruinous to the gunmakers' trade. Take 

 the following passage : 



"As I before recorded, another celebrated man, old 

 Egg has been some time dead, and is succeeded by 

 his son John, who now lives in the Colonnade, Pall Mall. 

 Instead, however, of his " cutting up fat," as was ex- 

 pected, he died like a man of genius ; or, in other 

 words, with his balance on the shady side of the book ! 

 The gunmakers, in short, still remain as I left them 

 like the frogs without a king ; and as before, com- 

 plaining bitterly about the dullness of trade. But for 

 this they have to thank their introduction of the 

 detonating system, by which they got caught them- 

 selves in the very trap that was laid for their customers. 

 When flint guns were the order of the day, few sport- 

 ing gentlemen ever thought of using anything but the 

 gun of a firstrate maker, for the simple reason that 

 on the goodness of the work depended the quickness in 

 firing, and consequently the filling of the bag. But, 

 nowadays, every common fellow in a market town can 

 detonate an old musket and make it shoot as quick 

 as can be wished ; insomuch that all scientific calcula- 

 tions in shooting, at moderate distances, are now so 

 simplified that we, every day, meet with jackanapes 

 apprentice boys who can shoot flying and knock down 

 their eight birds out of ten. Formerly shooting re- 

 quired art and nerve now, for tolerable shooting (at 

 all events for the use of one barrel) nerve alone is 

 sufficient. Formerly a first rate gun was a sine qua 

 non ; now the most that we can call it is a desideratum ; 



