408 ffifngs of tbe 1Rot>, IRifle, anfc (Bun 



idea of what was a plentiful supply of birds was very 

 different from that of a Suffolk or Norfolk sportsman. 



Sir Richard Sutton and Squire Osbaldeston, as I have 

 said, shot over pointers, and thought that half the 

 pleasure of shooting lay in seeing good dogs at work. 

 Whether they would have equally enjoyed the present 

 style of driving is open to doubt. Lord Walsingham, 

 who of course is a thoroughly up-to-date slayer of 

 game, says : 



" The greatest advocate of driving would scarcely 

 argue that such fine old sportsmen as Sir Richard 

 Sutton and Mr. Osbaldeston, and hundreds of others 

 whose names are associated with the old style, were 

 mere pot-hunters. On the contrary, all would admire 

 and respect not only their skill and endurance, but no 

 less their true instincts, the feu sacre of sport ; and many 

 who, for the reasons already indicated, greatly owing to 

 changes in our system of cultivation, have been, as it 

 were, driven to driving, would have vied with such men 

 in their day in the keen enjoyment of ' To ho, Ponto ! ' 

 and ' Down charge, Carlo ! ' so often depicted in old 

 sporting prints. Admitting all that can be said in 

 favour of shooting over dogs, and by no means desiring 

 to decry or to despise so genuine a sport, the advocates 

 of the ' drive ' have a right to ask for equal considera- 

 tion, and to claim from their opponents a certain 

 meed of recognition for those advantages which they 

 attach to it." 



Lord Walsingham puts the case very fairly and 

 moderately, and, as I have elsewhere shown in these 

 pages, I admit that shooting over dogs is rarely prac- 



