166 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



cured at intervals few and far between. I spoke 

 of the effect salt pricking spindrift has on the eyes. 

 It now causes me to turn my back on it, and to get 

 on the top of the sea-wall and march homewards. 

 Before I have tramped a mile, I meet the fowlers 

 coming down for the flight-shooting. Nowhere else 

 could I see such a battery of guns, half-a-dozen of 

 them all told, some of them muskets from the army 

 and the navy, which the owners said " hed helped to 

 leather old Boneypart." The musket party proper 

 consisted of three. The fourth man had what he 

 called a Spanish musket, "one thet hed bin in his 

 fambly fur years," he said, some of his folks having 

 brought it home when they went there for fruit and 

 nuts. Number five had what his companions called 

 a musketoon, well named, for the muzzle was bell- 

 shaped, and quite as large as a small hand-bell. 

 The sixth had one of the finest fowling-pieces I 

 have ever seen or handled. Manton's guns were 

 not scarce in that locality. This one, like all other 

 good fowling-pieces, w r ould send a bullet straight to 

 the mark if properly handled. When the butt was 

 on the ground, the muzzle came up to his chin, and 

 the shooter stood five feet ten inches in his shoes. 



