SHOEE "POPPING" 



remotely situated are 

 my favourite fowling- 

 grounds that the nearest 

 town of any consequence 

 thereto lies a good ten 

 miles distant. True, 

 some half-dozen natives 

 seek to obtain a pre- 

 carious livelihood in 

 their narrow Lynn-type, 

 single-handed gunning- 

 punts during the winter 

 months ; but they are all good fellows enough, and 

 although I have reason to believe that when first I 

 took down my punt and stanchion gun, some 

 fifteen years ago [how quickly the seasons fly by] I 

 was regarded more or less as an interloper, a little 

 diplomacy en my part, meted out with sundry ounces of 

 black shag, canisters of punting-powder, and other 

 little gifts of a like nature, cemented good feeling between 

 these honest, brine -tanned gunners and myself. But 

 to get a bit forrarder on our walk across the salt-marshes, 

 which, by the way, are not manorial rights. Anyone 

 possessing a gun and gun licence is at liberty to shoot 

 over the saltings in question. 



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