HISTORICAL 71 



one striking feature cannot fail to arrest 

 the attention how, step by step, the 

 improvement of guns and shooting has 

 been attended by a proportionate increase 

 of game. So far, the supply has kept 

 pace with the demand ; but the limit 

 must nearly have been reached ; no 

 ground will carry more than a certain 

 stock, however good the systems of pre- 

 servation, and if there be still further 

 advance in our seemingly perfect sporting 

 weapons, game will surely be the sufferer. 

 To return to our records of the past. 



In other days it was the fashion 

 happily now discountenanced in every 

 form of sport worthy of the name to 

 stake large sums of money on shooting 

 events. The actual stakes were not often 

 very heavy, but betting went on apace, 

 until the champions went out for a day's 

 partridge-shooting with thousands depend- 

 ing on the result. Thus while Lord de 

 Roos, Colonel Hon. George Anson and 

 Captain Ross were passing a hot July 

 afternoon in 1828 on the river, a casual 



