186 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



" 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 again ; but, unless 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 long-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 remember Lord Fitz- 

 hardinge, 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 hedge- 

 row that thwarted their line of flight. His lordship stopped 

 nearest the river, Mr. Craven Berkeley next him, and myself on 

 the extreme right. The geese, I suppose, not knowing where 

 the owner of the lands on which they fed was, took to the most 

 inland flight, and bang ! bang ! bang ! went the eleven-gauge, 

 and down came two or three great grey geese. They all fell 

 well behind 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 elsewhere, and had sent him to tell me 

 to come, and " not make any more useless noise." When this 

 message was delivered to me, neither of my brothers knew that I 

 had made anything but an useless noise, and, as they had not 

 had a shot, I was highly amused when I reached them, carrying 

 at my back the geese, and saw their disappointed faces; but 

 there was no more allusion to " an useless noise." Ever after that 

 I declined to go goose-shooting, and amused myself on goosing 



