CHAPTER V 

 THE GUN 



IT is a happy saying that, among English field sports, 

 angling is our friend. The meaning of this appeals 

 at once to the angler who is also a gunner, a hunter 

 or both. It was not spoken in a narrow spirit, or 

 by an angler who could see no good in the other 

 field sports; but, I take it, simply meant that with 

 angling we can enjoy a quiet intimacy which does 

 not live in the scenes of stir and many figures in- 

 separable from a shooting or hunting party. To angle 

 is to withdraw from society to hunt or to shoot 

 is to take part in it. Both have their advantages 

 there is a time for both. One can enjoy the quiet 

 companionship that is in fly-fishing or float- fishing; 

 yet at another time be exhilarated by the life and 

 colour and gaiety that are in the shooting or hunting 

 party. So that one can easily agree about the value 

 of angling as " our friend " without making this an 

 invidious comparison against the other sports. But 

 I fancy that in some cases shooting can be almost 

 our friend as angling is. It will not be so in shooting 

 where a party gathers for the sport, and there is the 

 crowd of beaters and camp-followers of the shooting 



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