XL 



"THE DAYS THAT WERE" 

 1906 



Mrs. Auchterbody. "Weel, Sandie, yon was a fine dry day we had last 

 month." 



Sandie. " Deed aye, it just put me in mind o' ane we had when I was a bit 

 laddie, but it was, if anything, fully drier," Punch, November 14, 1906. 



IN my humble opinion the most enjoyable of all sport is 

 to be got in a " wild " country, where hard work is rewarded 

 by a varied bag the more varied, the greater the enjoyment. 

 Nothing is more delightful to my mind than, in the late autumn, 

 to wander, gun in hand, over moor and heath in some out-of- 

 the-way part of Great Britain, such as on the west coast of 

 Ireland or Scotland, or, better still perhaps, on one of the 

 Hebrides, as I lately found during a delightful visit with ten 

 different kinds of "game," from goose to Jack snipe to meet me. 

 Still more enjoyable would it have been had snipe been more 

 abundant, and woodcock " in " a greatly to be desired moment 

 which, unfortunately, it has always been my fate to miss. The 

 cock, alas ! in their numbers had passed through a month before, 

 during November's very cold days and those strong north winds 

 which always bring them from Scandinavia, and take them 

 on the next stage of their migration, Ireland. However, those 

 which remained satisfied me, most of them home-bred probably, 

 few in number certainly, but grand, well-fed birds, thanks to 

 abundant food in the soft moorland of the island. 



I confess to an intense enthusiasm for woodcock, and consider 

 them the most sporting birds out next come grouse and snipe 

 partly perhaps because I can generally hit them, and then 

 their surroundings on the wild moorland have always a 



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