440 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



KESUME. 



Many years ago, the average American sportsman, to 

 be well served, had to purchase his guns of English make, 

 for very few good and handsome guns were made in his 

 country as compared with those turned out abroad. 

 London then, as now, went in the van, for the most 

 beautiful and highest art in guns certainly claims Lon- 

 don as home. There is no disputing this. Still, magnifi- 

 cent guns are built in Birmingham, more particularly by 

 the Messrs. Scott & Son, who have so justly earned a 

 most enviable reputation, here and in many foreign coun- 

 tries, for the general excellence of their fire-arms. Tolley, 

 Greener, Bonehill, and others too numerous to mention, 

 make splendid guns, all well known in America, than 

 which, in its length and breadth, it would indeed be a 

 hard matter to find a more trying country on fire-arms. 



Nowadays, and for several years back, guns are pro- 

 duced in America which, for range, durability, closeness 

 of fitting, and absolute worth, can not be excelled, at the 

 price, by any made the world over, so that it is quite 

 en regie for some of the English makers to attempt to 

 make it appear that the home guns are merely "mus- 

 kets," while theirs are works of art. This is a last gasp 

 of the man who finds his much-vaunted and highly over- 

 rated wares steadily pushed to one side, to allow others 

 possessing greater and more enduring merit to take preced- 

 ence. Such a master as Purdey, for instance, is totally 

 oblivious of any and all machine-made guns; they come 

 not into competition with his masterpieces. The man wh o 

 wants a Purdey is after something different from an 

 ordinary gun, though it be ever so good. He wants 

 symmetry, beauty, elegance, high-bred work all over, com- 

 bined with greatest shooting power and durability, and 

 he is willing to pay for his fancy and so he must; while, 



