9 SPORT. 



have two or three shooters at least ; beaters must be 

 told off to walk the bare stubbles where the gun is 

 a useless encumbrance, and the birds must be 

 manoeuvred into the turnips or potatoes, when a line 

 must be formed, and the game walked up by or driven 

 to the dogless sportsmen. And if the latter is done, 

 as often is done, and as must be done when birds get 

 wild — why not ? Quid vetat ? Why should large 

 circulations so furiously rage, and comic papers and 

 " penny dreadfuls " imagine a vain thing in the shape 

 of descriptions and illustrations of fat young men 

 seated in arm-chairs at the end of a field or covert, 

 with pots of beer by their sides, languidly shooting 

 at pheasants and partridges feeding on the ground ? 

 Making every allowance for the humour and paradox 

 of the pencil, these critics and caricaturists are either 

 grossly ignorant themselves, or, as is most probable, 

 feel obliged to pander to the ignorance of others, by 

 the dissemination of a fallacy, first promulgated by 

 jealousy and the class hatred of ultra-democratic 

 political agitation. Let the critic or caricaturist, keen 



