ioo Ifcfns of tbe 1Rofc, IRffle, anfc 6un 



innovation; and I have known many good sportsmen, 

 who, having been used all their lives to muzzle-loaders, 

 could not or would not see the superiority of the 

 breech-loader, but maintained with their dying breath 

 that the good old muzzle-loader shot straighter and 

 harder than the best breech-loader that ever had been 

 or ever would be invented. 



Colonel Hawker, as I have said, was on intimate 

 terms with Joe Manton, who was a good sportsman 

 and an excellent shot, and I cull the following extract 

 from the Colonel's Diary, descriptive of one of Joe's 

 many visits to Longparish : 



"September i$th y 1827. Mr. Childe the artist arrived 

 at Longparish, and Mr. Joseph Manton, preparative to 

 a painting being made of our partie de chasse. 



1 7th. Assembled my myrmidons for one more grand 

 field day, in order to have some of their likenesses. 

 Mr. Childe attended as a strict observer, and Mr. 

 Joseph Manton shot with me. Our united bag was 

 48 partridges and i hare, and we returned some time 

 before the day was over in order that Mr. Childe 

 might complete, by good daylight, the necessary 

 sketches of the group. My share of the bag was 28 

 partridges, but had I shot entirely by myself, and been 

 able to waive the usual ceremony of shooting in com- 

 pany, and galloped up to all my birds, as heretofore, 

 I am confident I should have killed 30 brace of birds. 

 I therefore calculate that by taking out another sports- 

 man the larder fell 6 brace short; because, to follow 

 birds up, as I ought in this wild country, I must do 

 that which in company would be unsportsmanlike and 



