DIVISION III. 



SHOOTING, BY FIELD, WOOD, AND WATER 



CHAPTER I. 



rEELIMINARY REMARKS : THE GUN. 



To be " a good shot" is an enviable distinction 

 in the eyes of many; and, perhaps, at no period 

 of England's history was the art of handling 

 the gun so much practised, so popularly es- 

 teemed as a kind of essentiality to the accom- 

 plishments of a country gentleman, as at the 

 present time. Even the busy merchant in 

 the city occasionally forgets the cares of his 

 ledger, to have a day's shooting; whilst 

 our tens of thousands of riflemen are daily 

 practicing an art which, whilst it has for its 

 grand object the defence of our shores from 

 foreign invasion, is, at the same time^ incul- 

 cating a desire for field sports, far beyond 

 what might be imagined by those who see 

 nothing more in a rifleman but a civilian 

 dressed in strangely coloured regimentals, and 

 trained only to shoot at a target. 



As one of the most captivating of British 

 field sports, shooting has long held a promi- 

 nent place ; and we, ourselves, almost as far 

 back as we can remember, have a lively remi- 

 niscence of a bachelor uncle of ours, who had 

 long been in the West Indies, and who had 

 passed the threescore-and-ten as the allotted 

 period of man's life — taking us to the fields witli 

 him to practise partridge shooting, when it 

 was with the greatest difiiculty that he, himself, 

 could see a covey twelve yards before him. 

 We know of no sport that has so much to 

 recommend it. Every one, however, has his 

 hobby. Some delight in the quiet and solitary 

 pleasures of the angle ; some in hawking, which, 

 by the way, is a noble kind of exercise ; and 

 some in the more violent sport of horse-racing. 

 There is noLie of these, however, equal to the 

 sport of the " dog and gun." Each, no doubt, 

 has its individual charms to those who are so 

 constituted as to make it an enjoyment : but 

 the universality of " shooting" — of its practice 

 in every country and clime — from the estima- 

 400 



tion in which it is held, and which, no doubt, 

 in a great measure, arises from the open-air 

 exercise which it causes, amid scenes exempted 

 from the restrictions incident to artificial 

 life, and redolent of all the charms of nature, 

 whether belonging to the field or the forest, the 

 moor or the mountain, has rendered this sport 

 more general than any other. It is not all, 

 however, that are allowed to enjoy even this 

 sport as regards game. The law has stepped in 

 to prevent this ; and Byron has sarcastically 

 noticed the fact in some of his lines. 



" The corn is cut, the manor full of game, 



The pointer ranges, and the sportsman beats, 



In russet jacket — lynx-like is his aim, 



Full-grown his bag, and wonderful his feats. 



Ah ! nut-brown partridges ! ah i brilliant pheasants ! 



And ah ! ye poachers ! — 'tis no sport for peasants !" 



The lines alluded to certainly indicate the 

 cause which has produced a direful chapter in 

 the annals of British crime. But if game were 

 not in some way protected, nobody but the 

 farmer and the peasant would have anything 

 living to shoot at. Some of these are con- 

 stantly located where game is; consequently 

 they would have all the sport to themselves ; 

 and the gentleman returning to his own es- 

 tates in the country, after a residence in the 

 city, or tour on the continent, would have 

 nothing left for his own sport. The tables 

 of his labourers and tenantry would be covered 

 with game, whilst he would have none, except 

 what he was forced to purchase with the hard 

 cash from his own treasury. ' 



THE GUN AND THE FOWLING-PIECE. 



The origin of the word " gun" has not been 

 determined with accuracy. In the Encyelo- 

 pceclia Britannica, we find it observed that 

 some derive it from the French word onangon, 



