OCTOBER JOTTINGS, 1899 183 
Cannot something be done to stay this illegality ? Could not 
gun-licences he made to run from September i to March i, and 
let gun-carrying in the off-season be illegal save on a man’s own 
land ? But the question bristles with difficulties ; one only 
knows that the present law appears most difficult to enforce.” 
“A Norfolk Rectory.” — Mr. Henry S. Salt, of the 
Humanitarian League, sends us the following : — “ From the 
Rev. E. T. Daubeny’s assertion that, whatever his critics may 
say of him, he will continue to shoot rabbits and catch fish, it 
appears that he has somewhat misapprehended the protest 
which his article called forth. What we objected to was not 
Mr. Daubeny’s personal indulgence in blood-sports, but his 
glorification of them in Nature Notes as characteristics of ‘ a 
sweet home.’ We did not venture to hope for Mr. Daubeny’s 
conversion to humanitarian principles, but we did think that 
such an article as ‘A Norfolk Rectory’ was more suitable for 
the Countvy Gentleman or Rod and Gun, than for a paper which 
appeals to the humane. 
“ The two reasons which Mr. Daubeny gives in defence of 
his blood-sports are far from convincing. First, that some lovers 
of animals do not know what they write about, as in the case of 
one who confused jackdaws with rooks. It is true that the 
Londoner’s ignorance of natural history is sometimes deplorable; 
but such ignorance cannot in the least disqualify a man from 
protesting against cruelty, a question involving a moral judgment 
of a wholly different sort. 
“ Secondly, Mr. Daubeny reminds us that when we boil 
water we destroy infinitesimal forms of life, and asks where we 
draw the line ‘ between boiled rabbit and boiled bacillus.’ One 
might as fairly ask Mr. Daubeny where Ae draws the line between 
boiled rabbit and boiled missionary. His assumption that, 
because destruction of the lowest animalcules is inevitable, it 
is therefore justifiable to make ‘ sport ’ out of the sufferings of 
highly sentient beings, is not only bad logic, but fatal to all 
morality. A cannibal might excuse himself on the same 
grounds.” 
OCTOBER JOTTINGS, 1899. 
HERFECT autumn weather! St. Luke’s summer has 
not failed to justify its name this year. Day after 
day of almost cloudless sunshine, and gentle breezes, 
making outdoor life a blessing to all who can live it, 
and so incomparably superior to those London fogs whereof 
rumour and the daily papers have spoken ! Here on the 
Hampshire downs is air and plenty of it, a good lungful of 
healthy and undefiled breeze, to which smoke and soot and the 
varied odours of city atmospheres are quite unknown. 
