ENGLISH DRIVING 199 



little across me after the first shot, or it could not have 

 been done. Keep your cartridges in your right-hand 

 pocket, and have your bag on the seat, wide open, on 

 your right, unless it is raining, when you must see 

 them bestowed in the dry, but the strap of the bag 

 left unbuckled ; and always feed your gun direct from 

 your right-hand pocket. I must say that since giving 

 them a fair trial I am distinctly in favour of brass- 

 covered cartridges, and more especially for grouse 

 driving, when one is so often overtaken by heavy 

 showers, during which the necessity for quick firing 

 makes it impossible to keep them all dry. For those 

 who use ejectors, they will be found, in the long run, 

 an economy, in spite of their trifling additional cost. 

 The ejectors of my present guns (Purdey's) have never 

 been out of order but once, and that was when I got 

 a sodden paper cartridge stuck fast, and used too 

 much force to extract it. We usually have to pay a 

 penalty for every improvement in this world, and the 

 use of hammerless guns with ejectors is no exception 

 to the rule. The mechanism of the piece is more 

 complicated, and requires more care in cleaning and 

 general treatment ; but with these precautions and 

 brass-covered cartridges there is no reason whatever 

 why guns of this improved type, turned out by a good 

 maker, should get out of order. They should not be 



