152 SPORT. 



" tail " on each shot, and backing their particular gun to 

 have the largest number when the game was counted 

 at the end of each beat. The young man in question 

 was not shooting well, and after two or three egregious 

 misses a Herculean miner came up to him, and gently 

 but firmly informed him that he, the miner, had 

 backed him, had already lost a good deal of money, 

 and that if he did not improve his shooting, " he had 

 a moind " to give him a " holding." Here was a con- 

 tingency totally unexpected. This was adding the 

 " element of uncertainty " before mentioned as so 

 desirable, in a very unpleasant shape, and with a 

 vengeance. But I never heard how it ended. It is 

 anyhow difficult to conceive that the intimation could 

 have encouraged the nervous youth, or improved his 

 shooting. 



On another occasion a noble lord, a distinguished 



o 



cavalry officer, and an awful martinet, had a large 

 shooting party, when, in spite of endless loudly-given 

 orders, marchings, and counter-marchings of beaters, 

 everything seemed to go wrong, pheasants included. 



