ii6 GUNS 



*' to a gallery " ; far and away the best games I have 

 played have been in the semi-final and final rounds 

 of tournaments and handicaps. But shooting I do 

 better when I am my own critic. However, there 

 are compensations. An Englishman, whose views 

 in many things inspire conviction, said to me that 

 a spirit of competition, if it entered into his angling, 

 would mar his enjoyment ; that a feeling of inde- 

 pendence, or complete indifference as to whether 

 some other angler on the same water made better 

 baskets of trout, was necessary to such enjoyment. 

 There is wiseness in this. To be able to shoot or 

 angle the entire day, without the least thought of 

 whether or not we are likely to be beat by some 

 other gunner or fisherman, and yet to enjoy one's 

 successes and regret one's failures keenly — this is 

 proof that we are doing the thing for the sheer 

 love of it ; that there is in us that enthusiasm which 

 we should bring to bear on all we undertake in life, 

 business and pleasure alike. 



I have described my early shooting as being in 

 the nature of a solitary sport. A gamekeeper, or 

 some *' odd hand " employed on the place, who 

 might volunteer to come out and carry game and 

 beat for an hour or two, scarcely counts in this 

 connection. It is true that soon after beginning I 

 was able, if I liked, to get up occasional shooting- 

 parties, composed of a few farmers and others in 

 the district who could shoot, and who moreover 

 could bring a dog or two ; and great fun those jolly, 

 unconventional parties used to be. How we| were 



