260 THE NEW FOREST 



Mr. Howard was always a single-handed shooter, 

 and did not work himself to death. But two 

 years later he writes me a comical letter of com- 

 plaint as to the woeful falling off in his sport, 

 his score having fallen to 557, with only 46 

 pheasants, against 91, and 441 rabbits as against 

 687. 



But he confesses to have been exceedingly 

 slack both as to days and hours spent in pur- 

 suit of game, and also in particular having been 

 afflicted with a very inferior kennel of dogs, on 

 which so much depends. But, taking either year, 

 I don't think Mr. Howard had much to grumble 

 about as to the result of his expenditure of 20 ; 

 and he was a good average specimen of the suc- 

 cessful New Forest shooter. 



Mr. C. C. Dallas, of Eastley Wootton, was 

 one of those sportsmen who keep a very accurate 

 game book ; and, while he generally took a grouse 

 moor in Scotland, he devoted himself in the 

 autumn to the New Forest and to the shooting 

 there, a form of sport that he greatly prized 

 generally, however, going abroad after Christmas. 



The record he sends me in summary is that 

 he shot from 1886 to 1914 consecutively for the 

 whole or part of the season ; that he was out on 

 1144 days, and killed 8495 head not a great 

 average perhaps daily, but in the case of genuine 



