PAINS AND PENALTIES OF THE LONG GUN. 229 



" No 'teant," says the old keeper, scratching his 

 head and apparently ruminating on the scene : " thay 

 do all zay so, as do shoot wi' her, but I never knowed 

 none an 'em but what got well by dinner time." 

 The keepers then take the old " long guns," and, 

 slanting them, reload, for none of them, were the guns 

 held perpendicularly, could load them without a ladder, 

 the guests beseeching them to put in only a squib. 

 The guests, however, handle the guns agaiixj but, un- 

 less the keepers give them a compassionate wink, take 

 very good care not to get another shot. I am afraid, 

 as I always shot if a goose came within distance, 

 and used a heavy double Manton of eleven gauge, 

 with a number one lono'-distance cartridge, and refused 

 to hug the old tubes, that I never at the Castle was a 

 favourite goose-shooter. One day, in particular, I re- 

 member Lord Fitzhardinge, and Mr. Craven Berkeley, 

 and myself, only were of the goosing party, when, as 

 the geese were in the best of humours for sport, and 

 kept flying in small plumps up and down the course 

 of the river only a little way inland, we manned 

 a hedgerow that thwarted their line of flight. His 

 lordship stojDped nearest the river, Mr. Craven Berke- 

 ley next him, and myself on the extreme right. The 

 geese, I suppose, not knowing where the owner of the 

 lands on Avhich they fed was, took to the most in- 

 land flight, and bang ! bang ! bang ! went the eleven- 

 gauge, and down came two or three great grey 

 geese. They all fell well beliind me ; and as lots of 

 geese were coming the same line, and the order 

 being not to show oneself, I refrained from picking 

 them up, and loaded away to be ready for more. 

 My annoyance was great when Mr. Craven Berkeley 

 called to me that our leader was up and going 



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