84 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



Twenty for the following term. Then came the summer 

 holidays, spent at Sleights Vicarage, near Whitby, the 

 vicar's wife, Mrs Walker, being my aunt on my mother's 

 side, and the Rev. T. Walker was one of the executors 

 of my father's will. 



Sorrows quickly lose their poignancy when we are 

 young, and by the first week in August I was vastly excited 

 about a new gun which had been bought for me from 

 W. R. Pape, of Newcastle. Hitherto I had handled 

 nothing but muzzle-loaders, of which my father had some 

 very good ones, but this was a pin-fire breech-loader, 

 1 6 bore, and a really beautiful light gun. Pape's guns 

 had won The Field gun trials three years, and the 

 joy of possessing one of these champion weapons was 

 indeed great. With it came instructions for loading 

 cartridges, with sundry little measures for powder and 

 shot, and a machine to screw on to a table. In that 

 machine you could turn down the edges of the cartridge 

 on the end wad. It was all very primitive, but there was 

 vast pleasure even in loading cartridges after screwing the 

 machine to one of my aunt's tables. The cleaning of the 

 gun, scrupulously according to instructions, was also a 

 constant delight, and the culminating event was that 

 I should go grouse-shooting on Saltersgate Moor on the 

 I2th. It was easy to get permission to shoot on Salters- 

 gate Moor in those days so easy that the only chance of 

 any success was to commence shooting at the very first 

 break of day before the crowd of shooters had arrived. 

 A neighbouring farmer, named Mead, had arranged to 

 drive a dog-cart to the scene of action in the small hours 

 of the appointed morning, and he agreed to call for me. 

 I had sent for a pointer dog from home, and now let me 

 quote from The Sport of Shooting, written by me years 

 ago, for it is perfectly accurate in its details of this 

 expedition. 



" I had most carefully prepared my bag of cartridges, 

 gun and all accoutrements. Don had been discreetly fed 



