SHOOTING AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 3 



bird or looking for a wounded one ; tliey sally 

 forth to pull the trigger, and they care nothing 

 for the interest of the manor or spoiling of the 

 game. 



As a sportsman and a lover of game, I doomed 

 that when a breech-loader was invented and 

 brought into use, a ^^ loader," or a man to load 

 for his master, when two muzzle-loaders wore in 

 hand, would be done away with ; but such was the 

 growth of the appetite for unrelenting and con- 

 tinuous slaughter, noise, and fire, that then three 

 breech-loaders at a time were used, so that not 

 half a second with a gun unloaded should be lost 

 to the panting and headaching. destroyer. In 

 former times, a sportsman, or, perhaps, two sports- 

 men, in every sense of the w^ord, went out partridge 

 shooting, as I have previously said, with a brace 

 of setters or pointers, attended by one keeper to 

 carry the bag. In those days, the knowledge of 

 the habits of the game they were after led the true 

 sportsman to know that the cleanest and q[uietest 

 stepper in high turnips, and who made the least 

 noise, got the most shots; that is, that from his 

 hushed method of stepping between the roots he 

 got nearer to his birds. 



B 



o 



