ENGLISH DRIVING 201 



visible, and would not be detected by the inex- 

 perienced. A great deal of personal care, as well as 

 honest and dearly paid labour, is expended on a pair 

 of ' best guns ' by one of these firms ; and I fail to 

 see why a man should grumble at giving, say, 1407. 

 or i5o/., or even more, for articles which, properly 

 cared for, will last him his lifetime, and for which the 

 demand is constantly and widely increasing. A well- 

 built gun, besides its practical use, is, to a certain 

 extent, a work of art, and it should be borne in 

 mind that as an article of British manufacture it still 

 holds its place against the competition of all other 

 countries ; and that whether you care to give the 

 price or not, there are plenty of Frenchmen Italians, 

 Austrians and Americans, without reckoning our own 

 colonists, who are ready enough to do so. The class 

 of gunmaker I am alluding to is one who makes 

 your piece to order, and specially to fit your 

 individual characteristics, who pays very high for 

 skilled labour, and bestows personal judgment and 

 care, the outcome of actual knowledge of working 

 at the bench, upon every detail of your order. There 

 is another class, who advertise weapons of extra- 

 ordinary cheapness, but are merely agents for great 

 manufacturing firms, who have a large stock of guns 

 always on hand, and stand in the same relation to 



