THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
bore. Shooting into a flock of birds rising or flying seems to be mainly 
contemplated. For crossing shots, the following advice is given: “ If the 
Birds be out of reach, Are as at a mark about six yards before, and then the 
Shot will take them as they are passing.” 
A book of rather later date, the ‘‘New Complete Sportsman,” con- 
tains a chapter ‘‘ Of Shooting, and Shooting Flying,” which opens as 
follows: ‘‘ Go early to the field, take with you some rum in a wicker 
bottle that will hold about a gill . . . but do not take too much, for 
too much will make your sight unsteady,” Other directions are: ‘‘ Ram 
the powder well, but the shot lightly; let one -third of the charge be 
powder and two -thirds shot, securing the charge with tow. When you 
are about to Are, take time, and keep your temper quiet and unruffled as 
a Stoic.” 
It was not till the latter part of the eighteenth century that the art of 
shooting flying was generally cultivated in this country. Daniel, in his 
‘‘Rural Sports ” (1801), says that within sixty years of the time when he 
wrote ‘‘ an individual who exercised the Art of Shooting Birds on the Wing 
was considered as performing something extraordinary, and many persons 
requested to attend his Excursions, that they might be Eyewitnesses of it. 
Since that period, the practice has been more common, and is at present 
almost universal; so that Lads of sixteen bring down their birds with all 
due accuracy.” Shooting, in fact, became a rage in England towards the 
end of the eighteenth century and in the beginning of the nineteenth. The 
Sportsman’s Directory of 1792 says: ‘‘ The rage for shooting was never 
at a higher pitch than at present; and, as the art of shooting flying is 
arrived at tolerable perfection, perhaps there needs no additional in- 
struction towards annihilating the different species of game.” It was 
during this period that English gunmakers at last began to lead, instead 
of following, those of other nations. 
HI 
It had long been the custom to use for the material of the best barrels 
old horsenail stubs, these being of iron of good quality already much 
worked. These were usually imported into this country from Holland. 
They were sorted and cleaned, and, in the early part of the nineteenth 
century, mixed with a proportion of scraps of steel, the latter being 
usually three-eighths of the whole. A mass of about 40 lb. weight 
294 
