ENGLISH DRIVING 173 



Sentiment against this ' inhuman butchery ' so 

 overcame Mr. ' W. C.' that his feelings found vent in 

 poetry, and the lines in which he may be supposed 

 to have summed up his peculiar views on the matter 

 are really worth reproducing, if only as evidence of 

 his literary power and sporting instincts : 



Let gay ones and great 

 Make the most of their fate 



As from mantlet to mantlet they run ; 

 I envy them not - 

 No, not a jot, 



If you give me my dog and my gun, 



I should have been concerned to see, even at that 

 date, anyone who elected to run from ' mantlet to 

 mantlet ' during a grouse drive, and the light of sub- 

 sequent experience only tends to confirm the view 

 which I held then, that a dog and a gun are almost as 

 useful to a sportsman engaged in that pursuit as in any 

 other, and none the less if, as appears to have happened 

 to the fortunate ' W. C.,' they have been given to him. 

 Mr. ' W. C.' finally crushed me with the remark that 

 I was evidently more familiar with the pen than the 

 gun. a compliment I enjoyed the more as I had 

 never written anything for publication before, and had 

 used a gun ever since I was strong enough to carry it. 



It is no longer necessary to defend grouse driving 

 against this kind of onslaught, even when emanating 



