6 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



keeper's views upon the prolificacy of rabbits, 

 or wandering round the biUiard-room admiring 

 those masterpieces " after Sir Edwin Landseer " 

 A\ith which its walls were lavishly besprinkled. 



There was one picture in particular which 

 always riveted my attention, and thus uncon- 

 sciously sowed the seeds of that love of shooting 

 which bourgeoned into maturity as soon as I 

 reached an age at which I could safely be en- 

 trusted with a fowling-piece. In this remarkable 

 engraving the artist had succeeded in depicting 

 a scene from the everyday life of our beloved 

 Royal Family, at once dignified but homely, 

 human and yet in a way sublime, which was 

 calculated to appeal especially to the taste of a 

 loyal youth like myself, whose passion for all 

 forms of sport was latent if as yet undeveloped. 



In the foreground of the picture stood Queen 

 Victoria, dressed in the ample evening gown 

 fashionable half a century ago, while on a sofa 

 at her side Prince Albert gracefully reclined, 

 pointing, with not unpardonable pride, to a 

 brace of grouse, three moor-hens, a wild duck 

 and a couple of teal which he had just laid at 

 the feet of his royal consort. From the vantage 

 point of an adjacent footstool a small King 

 Charles's spaniel was engaged in regarding the 

 proceeds of the day's sport with an air of de- 

 tached interest from which suspicion was not 



