xii INTRODUCTION 



taking his own line across country in a good run with 

 foxhounds ; in handling the tiller of a yacht ; in wield- 

 ing the oar, or the billiard-cue ; in fact, in all situations 

 where the field is wide and the scope for untrained effort 

 is more or less safe and unbounded. All the same, the 

 beginner will be wise in laying to heart the fact that 

 blunders which might be tolerated or readily excused 

 elsewhere cannot be lightly regarded in the case of the 

 man with a gun in his hand. The gunner's education, 

 in so far as handling the gun and the acquirement of a 

 generally safe comportment therewith, should certainly 

 be completed before he takes the field in the company 

 of other shooters, for it is inexcusable that a man should 

 cause anxiety and destroy the sport of his neighbours, 

 solely through lack of knowledge as to how he should 

 comport himself. 



Thorough education and training are as essential 

 towards insuring the proper handling of the gun as they 

 are in all other directions. There is no royal road to 

 the art of shooting, neither any such thing as a born 

 shot albeit it is indisputable that certain individuals 

 become proficient in the handling of the shot-gun much 

 more readily than do others. The man anxious to 

 become a good and safe shot should be aware that an 

 acquaintance with the maxims and precepts, as also the 

 acquirement of a certain amount of skill in the manual 

 portion of the art of shooting, do not comprise the whole 

 of the necessary education. There may, for instance, 

 be various idiosyncrasies of temperament to overcome, 

 for these, unless mastered, might for ever preclude the 

 possessor from the enjoyment of that enviable title, a 

 safe shot. Now and again, though happily such cases 

 are somewhat rare, persons are to be met with who 



