PREFACE ix 



Magazine, Country Life, The Field, The Sportsman, The National 

 Review, The Fortnightly Review, The Monthly Review, and else- 

 where, and I am afraid that I have unconsciously repeated the 

 ideas running through some of these articles, without acknow- 

 ledgment to the various editors. 



As Colonel Hawker went to school in gunnery to Joe Manton, 

 so did Joe Manton go to school to Hawker in the matter of 

 sport. But we have changed. That those who make guns can 

 best teach how to make guns I do not doubt for a moment ; that 

 when they write books on the making of guns those books are 

 regarded as an indirect advertisement is inevitable, but they are 

 none the worse for that, if readers know how to read between 

 the lines, and it is not necessary to go to a shooting school to 

 do that. But when gun-makers add to their business by means 

 of books upon sport and by " shooting schools," they are turning 

 the tables on us. To that I have no objection. But when it is 

 asserted that shooting schools teach more than the sport itself, 

 as has lately been done, then I think it is time to protest that 

 even if they could teach shooting at game as well as game 

 teaches it (which is absurd), that even then they cannot teach 

 sportsmanship, of which woodcraft is one part and the spirit of 

 sport and fellowship another. 



But the greatest value of sportsmanship is, after all, that idle 

 man should be the more healthy an animal for his idleness. 

 Consequently, when shooting parties are made an excuse for 

 more smoke and later nights than usual, even if the shooting 

 is not spoiled next day, less enjoyment of life follows, and 

 lethargically apparent becomes the missing of that perfect 

 dream of health, that reaction after great exertion ought to 

 bring to those who have ever felt it. 



It is often said that big bags have ruined the sporting spirit. 

 That is not so : big bags are necessary proofs that the science of 

 preservation of game is on the right lines, and their publication 

 is also necessary on these grounds. At the same time, it is a 

 fact that hard walking is not appreciated as much as it was 

 thirty years ago, and ladies can now take just as forward a place 

 in the shooting of game and deer as men can or do. This is 



