230 THE SHOOTER'S GUIDE. 



willing to admit, that there are persons of this de- 

 scription who contrive to kill game, and that too 

 with greater certainty than could he expected; yet 

 .the practice, from the very nature of it, cannot be a 

 good one. It is absolutely impossible to take aim 

 with that precision with both eyes open, as when one 

 of them is shut: a person may easily be convinced 

 of this by shutting one eye, and looking down a gun- 

 barrel (or a straight stick), and then doing the same 

 with both eyes open. 



Amongst sportsmen, there will be found some who 

 ride when taking this diversion, which must of course 

 be much less fatiguing, in an open country in parti- 

 cular. But wherever a horse is used, a servant should 

 always attend : in fact, those who use horses are ge- 

 nerally attended by several, as well to load their guns 

 as for other purposes ; and this, for the sake of dis- 

 tinction, may be called sporting in the first style. 

 These gentlemen, so far from training their own 

 dogs, perhaps are unacquainted even with their 

 names ! They are attended by their game-keepers 

 to load their guns, and hunt the dogs ; so that all 

 they do is merely to shoot. At the same time, they 

 go to such places only where game is in the greatest 

 plenty ; and when it happens that one of these first- 

 style sportsmen is a good shot, he makes a prodigious 

 slaughter. After all, though these gentlemen sport 

 on a grand scale, they are by no means either true 

 or keen sportsmen. One of the latter description 

 will train his own dogs, hunt them himself; and, in 



