HOUSEBOAT-GUN-DOG 33 



with the subject I venture to believe that 

 my reader will not object if I indulge in a 

 brief description of the gun, as fashioned 

 many years ago, by the most skilfull gun- 

 builder the world ever produced. The true 

 sportsman has already anticipated me, for 

 to think of a gun the name of Joseph Man- 

 ton at once comes into the mind ; and there 

 is Peter Hawker the no less unrivalled 

 sportsman. Shooting one day, in company 

 with Manton, Col. Hawker writes thus in 

 his fascinating diary: "Joe shot like an 

 angel ; he discharged ten rounds and 

 pocketed his ten birds in brilliant style. 

 What care we for all Europe." It takes a 

 real sportsman to write like that, and, 

 better still, to feel it. 



It is doubtful if there is a living gun- 

 maker of any note who will not readily 

 concede that Joseph Manton was the father 

 of the modern shot-gun. The guns built 

 by Manton and which, for symmetry and 

 balance, successfully passed the most 

 critical examination were of the flint-lock 

 pattern. It was on this pattern of a gun 

 he would seem to have exhausted his skill 

 in perfecting as nearly as art and invention 



