SHOOTING AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 13 



with idle force to the earth, as if they were so 

 many useless stones, and without a particle of re- 

 flection, that every knock upon their bodies while 

 warm, from being recently killed, added bruises 

 to the wounds that had bereft them of life. Yet, 

 so the powder and shot world wags on. This 

 manner and method of careless slaughter, I firmly 

 believe to be the result of the fashionable insanity 

 of shooting pigeons, to which the attention of the 

 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 

 is so greatly needed. Ho ! I was nearly sug- 

 gesting that a twin society for the protection of 

 young females, as well as doves, was as much 

 required in its attentions at Ilurlingham ; but if 

 dowagers can't look after their own doves, why, 

 no association ever formed will do it for them, 

 and humanity, morality, and the slang term ^^slow" 

 will have to linger on, hand in hand, till the ^^fast" 

 world runs itself wildly to an end. 



Arrived at my time of life, when ^^ the heart" 

 is no longer ^4iot and restless," but its pulse 

 '^ subdued and slow," it often happens to me to 

 have a bird or hare rise or get uj), or run almost 

 beneath my feet, when out with the fast man of 

 the day, and w^iile mj cool and deliberate aim 



