204 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



case in which a gun was accidentally discharged in a 

 -dairy paved as most dairies are with stone flags. The 

 muzzle was pointed downwards at the time — the shot 

 struck the smooth stone floor, glanced off and up and 

 hit another person standing almost at right angles, 

 causing a painful wound. It is a marvel that more 

 bird-keepers do not get injured by the bursting of the 

 worn-out firelocks used to frighten birds from the 

 seed. Some of these are not only rusty, but so thin 

 at the muzzle as almost to cut the hand if it acci- 

 dentally comes into contact with any force. 



A collection of curious old guns might be made in 

 the villages ; the flint-locks are nearly all gone, but 

 there are plenty of single-barrels in existence and use 

 which were converted from that ancient system. In 

 the farmhouses here and there may be found such 

 a weapon, half a century old or more, with a barrel 

 not quite equal in length to the punt-gun, but so long 

 that, when carried under the arm of a tall man, the 

 muzzle touches the ground where it is irregular in 

 level. It is slung up to the beam across the ceiling 

 with leathern thongs — one loop for the barrel and the 

 other for the stock. It is still serviceable, having been 

 kept dry ; and the owner will tell you that he has 

 brought down pigeons with it at seventy yards. 



Every man believes that his particular gun is the 



