142 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



that the gentleman on his left had fired the first 

 barrel at a hare and the second at the terrier, but 

 apparently without damaging either. The host 

 explained that he did not object to that particular 

 gunner shooting at his dog, so long as he aimed at 

 it, adding : 'It is only when he is aiming at other 

 things that my dog is in danger.' 



It happened at a covert shoot at which I was 

 present that two of the guns were posted in a field 

 on the flank of a beat, while the rest of the party 

 were out of sight round the corner. A hare broke 

 out between the two flank guns, to be clean missed 

 with both barrels by one of them, who, after the 

 beat was over, jeered at the forward guns for 

 stopping so few pheasants. ' But,' asked one, ' what 

 was that double shot on your side ?' He was told 

 that a hare was the cause. ' Then you missed it ?' 

 ' No ; it ran between us, and I fired off merely 

 to call the other fellow's attention to it/ came the 

 ingenious excuse. 



I remember a huntsman who went in for shooting 

 as well as the pursuit of the fox. He frequently 

 figured at local rabbit shoots, though he was invited 

 chiefly from motives of courtesy and diplomacy, for 

 he never helped the bag. However, he had a 

 stock method of enticing attention from his atrocious 

 aiming. Following his every shot you would hear, 

 in tones unwarrantably cheerful : ' Gone awa-ay.' 

 * 'It 'ard. ; ' Look out ; comin' down to you, sir !' 



