258 



have to be bred yearly, and they cost more than the old dogs. But 

 putting the old and young down at the same figure, we come to £340,600 

 as the enormous amount spent annually upon the keep of dogs u«ed for 

 shooting. From that, for the purpose of this calculation, has to be 

 deducted the £6,500 for the keep in Scotland, leaving, say, £334,000 to 

 be charged to England. 



To this has to be added what is called dog tax. In IreUnd we pay 

 only 2s. 6d. a dog ; over the rest of the kingdom 7r>. 6d. is paid. Giving 

 to Ireland, say, one-tenth of the dogs, the tax will come to £22,900. 



Putting a value of £2 on each trained dog all round, the let would 

 be worth £131,000, throwing the puppies into the bargain. 



Not yet have we nearly accounted for the money which these two 

 grand old sports ciuse to be expended. We have still to deal with 

 such trifles as licences, guns, rods, clothing, etc., articles which, of 

 course, must be put to the general account, and before focussing the 

 totals in table form I shall, in further explanation, deal shortly with 

 these items. 



As we have 44,870 men, including guests, proprietors, and lessees, 

 going to shoot in Scotland, we may take it that, all over the kingdom, 

 at the very least 150,000 men shoat game. Each must take out a 

 licence ; say, 100,000 at £3, 25,000 at £2, and 25,000 at £1. That 

 figures up to £375,000. I can't form any idea of the number of 

 gamekeepers for whom certificates are taken out. Anyway they will 

 bring the amount up to £400,000. 



Now about the guns. Considering that hundreds of men are 

 possessed of three or four, each of which cost from twenty guineas 

 upwards, and that very few shoot with a gun for which they paid less 

 than £10, and that every fellow must have one, we may allow a gun 

 and a half to each of the 150,000 shooters, and assess the cost price all 

 round at £l3 a gun ; that with the rifles will figure three millions of 

 money, which at 10 per cent, per annum for renewals means £300,000 

 a year. 



A tidy sum also is spent annually, and permanently invested, in 

 such articles as game bags, baskets, and creels, together with belts^ 

 boxes, and bags for the cartridges, '^ et cetera ceterorxim^'' as Jorrocks 

 says. Say each man has £2 invested in such like, it totals £300,000, 

 with £30,000 for yearly renewals. 



We may with all reason put down that 75,000 men fish for salmon- 

 Lots of them have most expensive rods, with valuable assortments of flies 

 and other minor tackle. Allowing that each, together with his trout 

 gear, has invested £5 in that stock, we come upon £375,000 with £37,500 

 a year for repairs and renewals. Rod licences will come to about 

 £30,000, although no licence is required in Scotland to kill salmon with 

 rod and liLe. 



Shooting and fishing necessitate getting from our tailors, hosiers, 

 and bootmakers a rig f-pecially adapted to the work. Luckily fashion 

 does not require us to dress for the mountain or river in style so costly 



