226 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



neic^hbour, who carries on the question to the neigh- 

 bour behind him, and so on till it gets to the last 

 man, who, being the last living thing in sight, replies 

 by a look of indignant as well as injured innocence, and 

 finally the line proceeds to a termination. The leader 

 then points with a finger to the mud, and a man drops 

 into it, and so on till all are placed and he has as- 

 sumed his station : by this time the goose-driver has 

 circumvented the flocks, and a beautiful shot or two 

 come over the keepers' as well as the guests' heads, 

 but they all refrain from shooting lest they should 

 miss, and be deemed to have made a noise for no- 

 thing, and have frightened the geese, or spoilt their 

 leader's sport : the geese then perhaps come over the 

 leader, who lets go with two guns at them immedi- 

 ately, and in all probability brings down two geese, 

 for he shoots very well ; the instant the leader's gun 

 is off, bang ! bang ! bang ! go everybody else, at any 

 distance, resolved to have some fun while it is safe to 

 do so. 



These guns herein mentioned were similar to the 

 one used by the noted goose-stalking Roxburghshire 

 blacksmith, who, at the request of Lord Wemyss, 

 showed his lordship how to load his weapon, and then 

 the way in which he was to stalk and kill a wild goose. 

 Having called on the smith in his shop, the man pro- 

 duced from a corner, from the midst of other rustv 

 old iron, a bell-muzzled gun about six feet long, and 

 going to an old flower-pot not far off the forge, he 

 dipped his hand into it, and produced rather an ex- 

 tensive palm filled with powder : this he trickled down 

 the gun, topping it up with a large wad of brown 

 paper. The sporting artificer next dived his arm 

 into a promiscuous heap of ashes and old iron, and 



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