72 UNASKED ADVICE. 



evasive quarry — whether,, in shorty the power of holding 

 straight remains to him after a rapid journey performed 

 for the most part upon his waistcoat buttons, and 

 enlivened by mental anxiety to match the physical dis- 

 comfort, or whether the sights of his rifle insist at the 

 critical moment on performing a spirited version of that 

 once popular dance " The Cure/^ But the 12th of August 

 is at hand, and our sportsman is hard at work with 

 what our American friends would describe as '^ a scatter 

 gun and smell dawgs/^ the result being, it is to be hoped, 

 the transmission of many a neatly-packed hamper to 

 friends at a distance. Then the scene changes again as 

 September arrives, for the birds are now so wild, and, in 

 consequence of improved farming, covert so scanty, that, 

 excepting by driving, birds are hardly to be got in 

 comfort after the third week in which their destruction 

 has become legal. Then we come to October, which is, 

 in my humble opinion, the pleasantest month of the year. 

 Partridge shooting is still going on, while it is not for- 

 bidden to bowl over an outlying cock pheasant as he rises 

 from a hedgerow. Grrayling are worth catching, and 

 cooking too (if there be much difficulty about the first 

 performance, try the " Francis " fly, and hard are your 

 lines if you do not fill your basket), while cub hunting 

 increases in interest every day that the hounds go out. 

 If I am not mistaken, it is that keen observer, Mr. Whyte 

 Melville, who accounts for the fondness of some few 

 people for cub hunting, by the reflection that the plea- 

 sures of hope are superior to those of memory — con- 

 sequently that the very beginning of the season is pre- 

 ferable to the middle or end; and also by the further con- 

 sideration that the sportsman need not ride over the 

 fences. 



