X NOTES FROM A DEFENCE OF SEAFOWL SHOOTING. 



I would call attention to the well-known verse of Lord Byron, 

 "the poet peer and peerless poet: " 



" Though sluggards deem it but a foolish chase, 

 And marvel men should quit the easy chair, 



The toilsome way and long, long league to trace. 

 Oh, there is sweetness in the mountain air, 



And life that bloated ease can never hope to share." 



* * * 



The author of " Fowling-/' a poem published in 1808, says 

 (page 7) : 



" Ye fowlers! manly strength your toils require; 



Defiance of the summer's burning sun 



And winter's keenest blast of hail or storm, 



Of ice, or driving snow ; nor must the marsh, 



That quivers to your step, deter you, nor the brake 



That seems impervious." 



And, again, (page 8) : 



" Be silent, Prejudice ; nor call our sport 

 By any term severe. Bigot, forbear, 

 Nor dare arraign us at your angry bar ! 

 Has the Creator made, himself, the grant 

 Of ev'ry living thing fish, fowl, or beast 

 To lordly man, and shall your vain decree 

 Annul the grant? " 



The prefaces to Stonehenge's " British Rural Sports " and 

 DougalFs " Shooting " ought to be read by all who are inter- 

 ested in, or have anything to do, with shooting. 



In conclusion, let me say that, as long as I am able, I hope 

 to use my gun, and intend, barring accidents, to do so until the 

 great sportsman " Death " consigns me to rest. Like the Apostle 

 Paul in another cause, I have followed my hobby in weariness and 

 fasting, and looking round at some of the specimens I have 

 obtained, can feel that my labour has not been altogether in 

 vain. 



