120 How I Became a Sportsman. 



Everything was done at the inn to conduce 

 to our comfort ; the cooking was excellent, and 

 everything we had, plain but good. One day 

 they would give us, perhaps, a nice young hen 

 turkey for dinner, the next a goose, and then 

 a small joint of well-hung Welsh mutton. I 

 can only say that we enjoyed ourselves most 

 thoroughly, so much so that we made up our 

 minds to, and did, go down again about the 

 middle of December, when the second flight 

 of cocks was in, and had quite as good sport. 

 Since that day I have participated in all kinds 

 of shooting, which the British Islands can pro- 

 duce, in perfection, from the lordly battue to the 

 single snipe ; I have had ample cock-shooting 

 in Ireland, grouse-shooting in Scotland, and at 

 our own bonny little brown bird on the English 

 stubbles, and I have had opportunities of 

 shooting with such first-rate and experienced 

 sportsmen as " Idstone " and " Sixty-One," 

 and with many others of equal note ; but to 

 no time can I look back with greater pleasure 

 than to that week's rough wild shooting when 

 I killed my "first cock." 



Now, when I add to all this that our bill, 

 including everything for the week, was only 



