NOT SUCH AN ASS AS HE LOOKS. 



CHAPTER X 



WILDFOWLING COSTUME 



IT is, or should be, patent to all that, before entering on the 

 long course of practical experience requisite to attain any 

 high degree of scientific skill in punt shooting it is absolutely 

 necessary to be furnished with all appliances, and to pay 

 due regard to the important question of clothing required for 

 the purpose. For it must be borne in mind that winter, and 

 not summer, is the period for wildfowling, and the coarser 

 the weather the better at intervals will be the sport. Again, 

 a start should be effected long before dawn, and the one hour 

 before daylight is always the coldest of the twenty-four. 



The particular dress about to be described is by no means 

 the only one in vogue. But how many really possess a proper 

 outfit ? Very few will acknowledge the faults of their own 

 pattern, yet on inquiry there is sure to be a weak point 

 somewhere some little defect which they invariably make 

 out to be of no consequence. One cannot scull comfortably ; 

 another's circulation is impeded if he lies in a certain position ; 

 whilst a third is unable to get his cripple-stopper up, or some 

 other difficulty. Without any feeling of egotism Mr Fielding 

 Harmer may well say, " Rem acu tetigisti." 



His dress is the outcome of some forty years' experience, 

 and has only lately been regarded by him as perfected. At 



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