64 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



them having no relationship to the departed worthies, nor 

 has the mantle descended on the pretenders. 



To those who cannot afford the London prices, then I 

 recommend the best provincial makers of England, unless 

 they prefer, as I should, to build a gun in America, under 

 my own eye, at the best provincial price. 



Of the provincial gunmakers, the best, probably, and 

 at all events the most generally known, is Mr. Westley 

 Richards ; for it is idle, although he has a London estab- 

 lishment, with Mr. Bishop at its head, to speak of him as 

 a London gunsmith, since his guns are notoriously made 

 and finished at Birmingham, and sold at Birmingham 

 prices. Mr. Richards' guns are well liked, and, as it is 

 evident from the general favor in which he is held, give 

 satisfaction ; I have seen many handsome, well-finished, 

 and strong-shooting guns from his shop, though the tout 

 ensemble of their fitting and finish does not, as in fact it 

 cannot be expected to, come up to the highest priced 

 London guns. 



My greatest objection to his guns is, that I think I 

 have observed them to be soft. I do not mean soft- 

 metalled, for that I regard as a merit, not a defect ; but 

 incapable of enduring hard usage, and liable to yield and 

 give out disproportionately soon, as considered in refer- 

 ence to their price relatively to London guns. So far am 

 I, however, from desiring to disparage his work, that, for 

 persons who cannot afford to pay 50 or upward for a 

 Purday, a Lancaster, or a Moore, or who consider that 

 price enormous and absurd, as I know that some men do, 

 I have nothing better to recommend, than that they should 



