4 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



marsh in Wessex in good King Alfred's time. 

 Here, if we are to believe an ancient document 

 still carefully preserved in the family archives, 

 my forebear " dydde oftetymes slay ye nyne 

 snyppe in ye syngle noone, wyth ye bolte and 

 crossebowe." 



On my mother's side, too, I am distantly 

 related to the famous William Tell, and at the 

 maternal knee I was taught my letters from a 

 rhymed analogical alphabet which opened with 

 the suggestive line; " A was an Archer who shot 

 at a Frog," the music of which haunts me still. 

 My uncle. Sir Noel Biffin, under whose kindly 

 guardianship my early Hfe was spent, could 

 justly boast that he was within six inches of 

 being the best game-shot in Rutlandshire, and 

 there was scarcely a pheasant in the Midland 

 Counties that had not at one time or another 

 escaped by but a hair's breadth from his ubiq- 

 uitous gun. 



2. 



Biffin Grange, Sir Noel's famous country-seat, 

 decorated throughout -wdth trophies of the chase, 

 was long one of the most popular show-places 

 of England, and tourists would come from all 

 over the world to inspect the marvellous collec- 

 tion of stuffed pike \vith which the front hall 

 had been superbly furnished. I well remember 



