140 A Sportsman at Large 



most courteous of cosmopolitan sportsmen. In fact, I, 

 whose activities have been exploited in so many connections, 

 if asked to name the group that most appealed to me as the 

 ideal of what sportsmen and gentlemen should be, would, 

 without hesitation, name my pigeon-shooting associates ; and 

 if further interrogated as to the pleasantest and least unbend- 

 ing of the foreign contingents, would bracket the Austrians 

 and the Russians of the now almost exterminated aristocracy 

 of their respective countries ; but such a selection would be 

 invidious, when, as was the case, I rubbed such amicable 

 shoulders with the French, the Italians, the Belgians, the 

 Dutch, the Spaniards and the Americans. This was before 

 the cataclysm of 1914, and even then, with one or two excep- 

 tions, I did not tackle to the Germans ! 



But here I am, anticipating again ! I apologize ! 



At the time when I first met Harry Roberts, I had recently 

 taken up my duties as trustee and vice-chairman of the boards 

 of management of The Field, and other journals and publica- 

 tions of our family group, as established by The Dads. My 

 new friend had read some of my descriptive articles in " The 

 Sportsman's Bible " (as The Field was regarded at that time) 

 and had gathered that I was a keen and fairly efficient shot. 

 So he urged me to try my hand at his favourite game. 



Always ready for any fresh experience of the kind, and 

 having an abnormal bump of combativeness otherwise being 

 possessed of the competitive spirit in excelsis I readily fell 

 in with his suggestion, though I declined his offer to, then 

 and there, introduce me as a competitor to the Monte Carlo 

 " Tir aux pigeons," being far too modest to make an exhibi- 

 tion of myself in front of the world's leading " cracks." 

 On our return to our native shores, Ted and I, for the nonce, 

 became too intent on marriage and giving in marriage 

 to trouble ourselves about sports and pastimes ; but having 

 effected unions with two charming sisters (respectively), 

 became so uxorious, for a space, that neither of us pursued 

 our former bents until a long honeymoon had reduced us to 

 our normal temperatures and temperaments, when happily 

 our sporting aspirations and activities were reborn. 



Just a year after our first appearance at "The Mount of 



