A CONTRAST IN SHOOTING. 229 



' Bother you and your grandmother, too!' 

 I once visited Mr. Wreford, at Gratton, for a few 

 days' woodcock- shooting, which in that part of 

 Devonshire is often very good. But I was unfor- 

 tunate ; for it rained for three weeks incessantly, and 

 caused me to extend my visit, in hope of a change 

 for the better. As it turned out, I had only a few 

 hours on the last da}^ I stayed, and killed two and a 

 half couple in the afternoon before leaving. Mr. 

 Wreford once came to my place at Woodyates to 

 have a little shooting. He was greatly astonished at 

 the difference of the two counties. In Devonshire 

 you kick an old cock pheasant, or a rabbit, or maybe 

 a partridge, out of a hedge into which you have 

 just driven it, a few yards before your nose ; and 

 you mostly bag it. He told me in this way some 

 wondrous feats of his shooting ; such as his having 

 killed ten shots in succession, and hardly missing 

 anything the whole day that got up within shot of 

 him. But this I take to mean within ten or fifteen 

 yards of the gun. Now in our open fields the birds 

 are often extremely wild. Late in the season in 

 crossing the first field, when side by side, a covey got 

 up about forty yards or more from us, and flew 

 towards the hedge, over which they very quickly 

 disappeared. But I fired and killed a brace, falling- 

 one each side of it. Mr. Wreford did not fire his 

 gun off, but, in great astonishment, said : 

 ' I never saw it done like that before.' 



