THE GUN 99 



party and the arrival of the guns at the meeting place 

 in field or wood, and the keenness to know of the 

 plans and prospects for the day : these are features 

 stimulating and delightful when we are in the mood 

 for marksmanship and frankly wish for plenty of 

 action. The hot corner, the big drive or beat of 

 the day one does often live intensely, if not always 

 with equanimity, in such an environment. Shoot- 

 ing at these times is a fine excitement, a telling test 

 of nerve and skill and temper. The talk about driven 

 pheasants or partridges not really proving the sports- 

 manship of the shooter is mostly careless talk. When 

 all has been said, it remains true that a man who 

 can with clean skill and quickness stop his game is 

 probably good enough anywhere as a shot. I should 

 be the last to question the skill in this branch of 

 shooting. But it is not the shooting that can be 

 likened to angling as our friend. The shooting I have 

 in thought is on the very small scale taking up the 

 gun on a winter day and with a dog or two going out 

 into the large quiet woods by oneself, or with the 

 keeper to beat -and carry game and advise about the 

 best strips of coppice or the best bushes on the common 

 for rabbits and an odd bird or so. This is a style of 

 shooting which I have constantly with hardly a 

 missed winter enjoyed for many years past. It is 

 this I mean in saying that shooting may sometimes 

 be almost the intimate and quiet and sympathetic 

 friend that angling always is. 



