FRENCH HUT-SHOOTING. 397 



arid the misery of the inhabitants, preclude your having 

 any farther amusement than the constant pursuit of 

 sport. 



FRENCH HUT-SHOOTING, 



CALLED 



LA CHASSE A LA HUTTE. 



As the French hut-shooting is the only means by 

 which a very bad shot, with a very bad gun, may kill 

 ducks while as dry and as warm as if by his fireside, I 

 made a point, on a subsequent excursion to France, of 

 going up to Peronne *, which may be styled the uni- 

 versity for chasseurs on this system, in order to make 

 myself master of it, and insert it in the third edition, 

 under an idea that its great facility, and little incon- 

 venience, may better suit the generality of my readers, 

 than the more scientific plans of wildfowl shooting. 

 The lakes of Peronne are better calculated for a lover 

 of comfort to shoot at his ease than any place I have 

 seen. The water, being a part of the Somme, is not 

 quite stagnant ; and is, in every part, about four or five 

 feet deep, surrounded, and intersected, by innumerable 

 islands and walls of rushes. The waters here are rented 

 by different " huttiers" (hut-shooters), who get the chief 

 of their livelihood by supplying the markets of Paris, 



* The hut system is also tolerably understood near Calais. Mon- 

 sieur Huret I found to be " le plus fort huttier" there; and, if I 

 remember correctly, it was him that I met one morning with forty- 

 three wildfowl, that he was just bringing home, with his basket of 

 call-birds, after one night's sport. 



