236 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



being only an amusement for a certain set, 

 namely, chiefly the publican, his friends, and 

 patrons, consequently as a national sport quite 

 a useless one. We have pigeon shots and 

 match shots from the gentleman to the pugiUst, 

 and verily about as many of the one as the 

 other, with intermediate grades of all sorts and 

 avocations, it is moreover a kind of snap- 

 shooting, the practice of which is of little 

 benefit to the legitimate sportsman. It is to 

 be tolerated because I am not aware of its 

 doing any ostensible or actual harm, but I 

 should say not encouraged as it does no decided 

 good. In some proof of its not being held in 

 high estimation there are not, that I am aware 

 of, any clubs now existing among gentlemen for 

 the purpose of patronising it ; I can call to 

 mind but one nobleman whose name was known 

 as a patron of pigeon shooting, there were 

 then also some gentlemen whose countenancing 

 it boded its rising in the estimation of the 



