114 GUNS 



to 'Mraw" the ''dons." It made a fearful noise 

 among the stone buildings, and the smoke from the 

 black powder hung about suspiciously near my 

 rooms ; but curiously enough no don would be 

 drawn that night. The other time I used it was 

 at a trap shooting-match, and very feeble sport 

 that was : you don't care for sport with captive 

 creatures ; it is not the real thing. 



At the time I got this gun I was at home, and 

 being coached by a tutor who lived about five miles 

 away. To him I used to ride most days in the 

 week. On my return home each day I generally 

 found there was enough daylight left for me to get 

 my gun and cartridges and hurry into the woods 

 after rabbits or wood-pigeons. The rides to and fro 

 between my woodland home and my tutor's form 

 together one of the loneliest passages of my life. 

 Many boys would no doubt jump at such a chance 

 of horseback exercise, but on my return in the after- 

 noons my chief desire was generally to get home as 

 quickly as possible, so as to lose no more shooting 

 time than could be prevented. And riding came 

 perhaps to be connected overmuch with book work, 

 and so somewhat to lose the place it earlier had in 

 my boy affections. 



In those days I was shooting chiefly in the woods, 

 though we had some very fair partridge-shooting 

 two miles or so from home, which on and off I went 

 in for from September to the last day in the season. 

 Rabbiting was our mainstay at home, and is to this 

 day. I am in the middle of a rabbit-shooting week 



