

3obn fbolt, of ZTottenbam 157 



John Holt. But with a rifle I could beat him ay ! 

 and every other man I've ever come across. I've hit 

 five penny pieces running at fifty yards for a match 

 of .50 a side, and I've never found my master at 

 that game." 



From what I had already seen of the miller's skill 

 I could readily believe this. He was without doubt 

 a remarkable shot. 



It must have been quite twenty years later that I 

 came across John Holt for the second time. I was 

 looking over the contents of an old bookstall in Holborn, 

 and on picking up a stray volume of the Sporting 

 Magazine for 1835, I lighted upon the portrait of John 

 Holt, with the accompanying biographical sketch, which 

 I give intact as an interesting record of a genuine 

 sportsman of the good old school, whose memory is 

 worthy of preservation. 



"The subject of this plate, John Holt, Esq., of 

 Tottenham, who departed this life on the 26th of 

 December, 1831, having nearly completed his 8 5th 

 year, was an excellent shot of the Old School ; and 

 so true a lover of fair play, that he scorned to take 

 the field with a double gun ; and as to battues, he held 

 them in utter abhorrence ; he considered the former 

 unfair ; but the latter he deemed a crime little less 

 than sacrilege. He was not fond of new-fangled 

 innovations, and repudiated detonators ' flint and steel, 

 and straight powder (he was wont to say), were all 

 that a fair sportsman required.' 



Woodcocks were his favourite quarry indeed he 

 preferred it to any other kind of shooting and in 



