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.’ 
“Tt’ard.’ ‘Look out ; comin’ down to you, sir!’ 
