A KARA AYIS. 17 



but if he practised till, when he cried " pull " to 

 the trapman, every bystander would say, " dead 

 for a ducat ; ^^ or till the flashing zig-zag flight of 

 the snipe never caused him a moment's hurry, or 

 the " wlmr " of the pheasant never surprised him, 

 let it be remembered that he also surprised the 

 welkin with his " whoo-whoop " when the worried 

 fox was held by the whipper-in over the impatient 

 pack. That " whoo-whoop ^' was alone worth a 

 day^s journey to hear, and to see him also at the 

 find and in the chase was Avorth a pilgrimage to 

 Mecca. Such men should never die; but as 

 they do, they have at least the consolation of 

 knowing their memory lives for ever in the re- 

 collections of sportsmen, while their regrets are 

 as undying as those recollections. The mere 

 shooter will of course be regretted by his friends 

 as a man, if he deserved such regrets ; but when 

 he dies, it is merely, as regards the sporting world, 

 one good shot the less ; and we may say, and we 

 may think, as was said of the fallen knight in 

 Chevy Chase, there are ^Mvithin the realm five 

 hundred good as he." Shooting is comparatively 

 a solitary and selfish amusement, and also com- 

 paratively does no good to any one ; so the loss of 

 a shooter concerns him only as an individual ; and 

 his loss will be regretted or not in accordance with 

 the estimation his general character placed him in 

 c 



