igo TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



imposing pistol grip) did not work properly. And 

 small wonder, for the lever was glued to its seat 

 by a layer of rust. After considerable excavations 

 with a knife, we got the lever to work ; and we 

 explained that the weapon was not an ordinary 

 gun, but a fowling-piece, whereat the shooter 

 seemed mightily pleased. 



Some shooters will go to big expense in guns 

 and cartridges, yet do not see their way to have 

 a serviceable cartridge-bag. A lord turned up at 

 a shoot, and brought with him in a brougham 

 (by the way, I am certain I could not shoot 

 after arriving in a brougham) a high-grade gun 

 and expensive cartridges ; but so dilapidated was 

 his cartridge-bag that before it could be used it 

 had to be tied up, like a rat-gnawed sack, with 

 bits of string begged from the beaters. Another 

 well-to-do shooter had a cartridge-bag that re- 

 sembled one of the cheaper makes of satchel 

 carried by children to school. Whether he feared 

 he might lose cartridges or bag, or both, I cannot 

 say, but he persisted in carrying his bag all day. 

 It was at a covert shoot on a damp day, and 

 when this shooter reached his stand he would 

 place his bag tenderly on the sodden ground. 

 Never shall I forget the struggle with sticky 

 cartridges during the greater part of the best 

 rise of pheasants. 



Beware of the man in weird raiment ; avoid him, 



