of tbe 1Rofc, 1Rifle t anfc (Bun 



one suffered from his enthusiasm in pursuit of sport, 

 he was always ready to make due reparation. 



He was English, sir, from top to toe." 



I have given John Holt a place in these pages because 

 I regard him as a typical sportsman of the old school. 

 And when one bears in mind that he invariably shot 

 with a single barrel, his " bags " were phenomenal for 

 those days. As a game-shot, he could have had few, 

 if any, superiors among his contemporaries. It was well 

 that he died before the new style of shooting came in, 

 for he was one of those to whom " driving " would have 

 been an abomination, and a battue synonymous with 

 butchery. I confess that my sympathies are with the old 

 race of sportsmen, of which John Holt was so excellent 

 a representative. But, though I began my career as 

 a sportsman under the conditions and traditions of 

 the old school, I do not join in indiscriminate abuse 

 of the new school. My earliest and pleasantest 

 recollections of shooting are associated, with muzzle- 

 loaders and well-broken pointers and setters, when 

 the finding of your game was held to afford quite as 

 much sport as the killing of it. And I still maintain 

 that the test of a true sportsman is his capacity for 

 appreciating and enjoying the science of woodcraft 

 the study of the habits and habitats of the game 

 of which he goes in quest. The modern " drive " 

 has developed a race of splendid shots, but sports- 

 manship has been sacrificed to marksmanship. 



I will admit that the close farming of the present 

 day has rendered shooting over dogs after the old style 



