2 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



now taken off, while the landlord, never letting go of his faithful 

 pipe, the capacious china bowl of which is adorned by a brilliant 

 painting of a lady's curly head, talks about the weather, the 

 prospect of sport, the result of the last potato crop, &c., pouring 

 out at the same time a glass of " Schnaps " for everybody to 

 keep the cold out and for luck ; then were the last preparations 

 made before taking the field. Game-bags, with long roomy nets, 

 closed by flaps either worked in wool in likeness, complimentary 

 or otherwise, of fox, deer, or dog, or made of the skin of either 

 of the two former, are slung over the right shoulder by means of 

 embroidered straps Christmas presents, no doubt, from the 

 "frauen" balanced by powder-horn and shot-bag over the 

 other. Wads are safely stowed away in one pocket and caps in 

 another, for this, of course, was long before breechloaders had 

 come into use here. 



It was a great event for me, boy as I was, for although both 

 partridges and hares had already fallen to my gun, I had never 

 shot anything as big as a fox reader, hunting was here utterly 

 unknown or roe-deer, both of which, with luck, I was to see 

 and perhaps even kill for the first time. It was indeed a great 

 day for me a day on which I intended to show the world what a 

 mighty hunter I was. How long the minutes seemed before at 

 last every one was ready to start, before the slowest had filled 

 his pipe, finished his " Schnaps," wiped his spectacles, settled 

 his accoutrements satisfactorily, and paid the last compliment 

 to the pretty landlady ! I, of course, had nothing to get ready, 

 nothing to do except to throw off my coat, under which every- 

 thing required had at home already been arranged to the 

 smallest detail, ready to do battle at once with the beasts of the 

 field. At last, to my intense satisfaction, a start was made ; all 

 were very warmly clothed, with long boots, some with fur collars 

 and cuffs, fur caps, one or two even with muffs, or fur gloves 

 suspended from the neck by a cord. The guns, provided with a 

 strap, were slung over one shoulder, cigars and pipes were in 

 full blast, and a good deal of chaff went the rounds, more par- 

 ticularly at the expense of a very stout, short-sighted, and 

 spectacled individual, who trudged along with both hands deeply 

 buried in a muff, upon which a fox's head was worked in the 

 brightest colours, with the pinkest of noses and the bluest of 

 eyes. Now at these annual shoots, to which the neighbouring 



