126 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



I did on the Lago Maggiore, to shoot on the Lago 

 di Como. He was one day unloading his punt gun, 

 which had missed fire from the touch-hole getting 

 clogged. He had got out a good deal of the powder 

 with his copper loading-spoon, and was trying, with 

 the muzzle of the gun between his knees, to loosen 

 the powder in the chamber in the breech with his 

 loading-rod, which had an iron or steel worm to it. 

 All of a sudden off went the gun. Luckily he was not 

 standing in front of it, or no doubt the loading-rod 

 would have gone through him, as it was blown away 

 to a considerable distance. As it luckily turned out 

 he was not seriously hurt, but his hands were burnt, 

 and he bore the marks of the powder on the back of 

 them and his fingers to the day of his death. 



He was a capital sportsman in every way, a very 

 good shot, a first-rate fisherman. He was a great 

 friend and supporter of Sir Roger Tichborne, and 

 one of his great reasons used to be that he was such 

 a first-rate sportsman. " Why," he used to say to me, 

 " I thought that you and I could fish as well as any 

 one else, but we can't do anything against Tichborne. 

 The way in which he handles his gun, the way in 

 which he throws a fly, the very way in which he takes 

 off his hat to a lady, prove that he is a gentleman. 



