206 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



and needy there are always plated cigarette 

 cases, warranted not to hold more than four 

 cigarettes; calendars that provide one with an 

 apt daily quotation from the poets ; and almanacs 

 which supply information upon such entrancing 

 subjects as the close time for hares, the birthday 

 of the Venerable Bede, of the late Prince Consort 

 and Fred Archer, and the date upon which 

 it becomes lawful to shoot a pheasant. 



Pocket diaries, indeed, can be things of beauty 

 and joys for ever. There is nothing more agree- 

 able for the business man than to turn to his 

 diary for January 10 and learn that upon this 

 particular date '' Snipe - shooting Ends " or 

 " Pike-sniggling Begins." It fills him with a 

 pleasant sense of mystery and awe to read that 

 he is to-day unconsciously celebrating the 

 " Feast of St. Botolph the Sublime." With a 

 resigned look he relinquishes any hope he may 

 have cherished of shooting a rocketing snipe or 

 two in Eaton Square on his way to the City, puts 

 together his trout-rod, pockets a dozen worms, 

 and turns his footsteps in the direction of that 

 fountain in Piccadilly where the pike rise so 

 freely at this season. Or, if the thought of St. 

 Botolph and his sublimity are uppermost in his 

 mind, he may discard his fishing-rod in favour 

 of the more appropriate Prayer-Book, which he 

 borrows from his ^viie. When, however, the 



