14 THE CO:\IPLETE SPORTSMAN 



a day passed ^^dthout some innocent human being 

 in the vie init}^ being liberally peppered with shot. 



At last, however, when in the course of a 

 single afternoon the Colonel had poured both 

 barrels into the legs of our local vicar, whose 

 tuneful methods of clearing his throat had 

 caused him to be mistaken for a covey of par- 

 tridges, he was adjudged to have overstepped 

 the limit of legitimate carelessness, and was 

 sternly warned oS the field. His unpopularity 

 in the county had by this time reached such a 

 pitch that, in deference to the earnest solicita- 

 tions of his friends, he reluctantly consented to 

 give up shooting and occupied himself for the 

 remainder of his life with the less perilous form 

 of sport known as " philately." 



The day on which Colonel Vipont reached 

 this momentous decision was long kept as a 

 public holiday in the district in which he re- 

 sided, where, o^^dng to the prevalence of crip- 

 pled rustics whom he had at one time or another 

 added to his bag, every village bore a striking 

 resemblance to the town of Lourdes. The news 

 of his retirement (prematurely published by a 

 post-mistress who read it on the back of a pic- 

 ture postcard which the Colonel had despatched 

 to a friend in London) was received mth uni- 

 V ersal expressions of delight. Athanksgiving ser- 

 vice was held by the vicar in the parish church; a 

 rabbit was roasted whole on the village green; 



