236 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



long ago have told me repeatedly that they 

 preferred rough shooting to that of coverts ; 

 and on the point I quite agreed with them, 

 for in the former you never know what will 

 get up or what may run before you. A very 

 large amount of quiet observation is necessary 

 before any one can consider himself to be what 

 is termed a rough shot ; and before the laws 

 were altered, owners of property, or those 

 who rented it, would give to those whom they 

 knew to shoot fairly and honestly, permission 

 to shoot over their lands. 



The granting of this favour brought its own 

 reward. Many a pole-cat and marsh-hawk 

 also was lost to the number of his mess, to say 

 nothing about most valuable information given 

 at times concerning a sluice that did not work 

 well, or a weak spot in one of the dyke walls, 

 by those who had been permitted to roam 

 there, gun in hand. The only restriction was 

 where hares and partridges were concerned. 

 Some people would never shoot, if they wasted 

 powder and shot by trying to shoot, for a life- 

 time ; others take to a gun like a young duck 

 does to water. The guns I am writing about 

 the old-fashioned muzzle-loaders have their 

 own peculiarities, only understood by their 



