52 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
its parts; of its finich, engraving, the filing, buffing, and 
working of its locks, and by testing its firing, will be 
able to pronounce, with something nearly approaching 
to certainty, on the value of a fine gun; and, from 
its value and its finish, to satisfy himself whether it 
be or be not turned out of the shop of the builder 
whose name it professes to bear; since, be it known, 
the names of makers of guns are forged much more 
easily, much more frequently, and with much less risk 
of detection, or of punishment if detected, than are those 
of the makers of securities and powers of attorney. 
I have certainly seen many hundreds of guns, un- 
questionably short of three English pounds sterling value, 
to the original Birmingham wholesale manufacturer, bear- 
ing the names of Richards, Lancaster, Moore, and Joe 
Manton, sold in the United States, and shown by the pur- 
chasers as authentic productions of those makers, at prices 
varying from 50 to 150 dollars; for no one of which 
would I have given a ten-dollar bill—and this in the teeth 
of the fact, which every one knows, or might know, if he 
chose to learn, that not one of those makers ever sold a 
gun at home, for much less than twice the largest sum 
mentioned. 
Now, having satisfied himself, by examination of the 
finish, and by fixing the actual value of the gun, that it is 
the work of such and such a maker—which, if much 
acquainted with the work of eminent makers, he will do 
the more readily, that all of these have in some sort a 
peculiar style and character of their own—an amateur 
may at once rest content, that the workmanship is not out 
