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BY "SNAFFLE"

THE

SNAFFLE PAPERS

By SNAFFLE"

AUTHOR OF "GUN RIFLE AND
HOUND" 'MN the land OF
THE BORA" ETC. ETC. a a

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WITH FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS
BY

HARRY DIXON

London: W. Thacker & Co. 2 Creed
Lane E.C. ^ Calcutta & Simla
Thacker Spink & Co. ^ 1898

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]

DEDICATED
TO

WHOSE HEARTY CO-OPERATION AND ASSISTANCE ALONE

HAVE MADE MANY SHOOTING TRIPS IN

OUT-OF-THE-WAY PLACES

POSSIBLE.

INTRODUCTION

" I "HAT the reader of a book, of whatever
class, has a right to expect the writer
to understand his subject, is an axiom few
will be found to dispute ; but unfortunately
it is also one frequently more honoured in
the breach than the observance. Only the
other day I was reading a book in which a
writer on mountain sport attributed a miss
to his bullet having gone low, it being,
according to him, a well-known rule that
in firing at an animal from above, extra
elevation must be given to the rifle. These
few words proved to me his total ignorance

4 INTRODUCTION

of his subject, and made me inclined to look
upon his entire description as apocryphal ;
the truth (so simple a one as to be known
not only to hill sportsmen, but also to every
soldier and rifle-shot who has ever paid
the slightest attention to the question of
trajectory at all), being that, in firing down
from a higher point than that aimed at,
the rifle must be directed considerably
below the mark. Takinor the averao^e of
shots that occur in stalking, the knee of
mountain sheep or goats is often the proper
level at which to direct the (point-blank)
sights, but it has occurred to me, and no
doubt to many others, to have to aim quite
as low as the hoof The object of this
introduction is, however, far from beine to
pick holes in others' work, but to say that
I think I am fairly entitled to claim that in

INTRODUCTION 5

the following papers I have confined myself
strictly to matters that I do know somethlng
about. I have endeavoured not only to
provide something to interest individually
the hunting and driving man, as well as
the shooter, whether with rifle or gun, but
as a rule to write in such a manner as to
interest all sportsmen, even if the subject
matter of any particular paper should not
be that sport In which he takes his chief
pleasure.

It has been remarked to me that two of
the papers on rifle-shooting (Nos. 10 and
23) are too highly technical. Technical
they certainly are, but I venture to think
they will not on that account be less
welcome to sportsmen. To begin with,
I, like most others, have passed through
that stage of my shikar career when I was

6 INTRODUCTION

willing to take my rifle from the gunmaker,
and my cartridges from the ammunition
manufacturer, and to go out after game
without even having tried either at a target.
These pages may reach the hands of those
who are now going through this stage,
and if what I have written only induces
one of them to think of what he is doing,
and alter his ways, it will not have been
written in vain. I think, however, that
the number of sportsmen who neither
trouble as to how their cartridoes are
loaded (so long as they do not miss fire),
nor as to whether their rifles are at all
calculated to give the results they desire
to obtain, is a daily decreasing one ; and,
if I am rioht in so thinkino-, there is the
less need to apologise for the dryness of
the articles referred to, As to the fair

INTRODUCTION 7

sex, I fear I shall not find many readers
among its members ; and perhaps among
them some whom the one paper which
specially relates to them will greatly offend.
Only recently I was reading a lady's article
on deer and pig driving, which contained
an expression of thankfulness that her
mankind were of that unselfish sort which
is willing to admit her to a share of their
pleasures. Then she went on to describe
a roe gracefully bounding down the hill-
side till she raised her gun, and ''it fell,
to bound no more." The true sportsman
would have felt, I consider, at least one
pang of regret at taking the life of a
creature so much more beautiful and harm-
less than himself; and his satisfaction
might have justly lain in the fact that its
death was at any rate so instantaneous as

8 INTRODUCTION

to be practically painless. Into such trifles,
however, the lady (?, save the mark !) did
not enter ; but hastened on to send a bullet
into a boar, which, however, got away,
"leaving only a broad blood-trail." This
time she does express regret, not, however,
for her victim's sufferings, but for her lost
bacon. Into this subject, however, I have
entered elsewhere ; so will only say here
that I do not write for women who shoot,
whilst for the benefit of those who do not
and of the o^eneral reader I have endeav-
oured, with the exception of the articles
already referred to, to write in such a
style that the papers shall help them to
pass an Idle hour ; and with this view I
have also introduced three or four de-
scriptions of travel and colonial experience
only indirectly relating to sport,

INTRODUCTION 9

A number of the following papers — in
more or less the same form as that In
which they are now printed — have already
appeared In the Field and the Shooting
Times, and one in Bailys Magazine. To
the proprietors of these three periodicals
I would here express my thanks for their
kind permission to use the same.

SNAFFLE.

Drumsallie House,
August 15, 1898.

CONTENTS

I.

On the Dogmatism of Sportsmen . . 17

11.

The Old Pack .

30

III.
Twenty Years Ago . . . .42

IV.

On the Road in the Herzegovina . . 55

V.

The Hazel Grouse . . . .72

VI.

Sport in Shakespeare . . . .85

12 CONTENTS

PAGfi

VII.
Which the Young Sportsman may Read

WITH Advantage . . .92

VIII.

On Dachshunds . . . .94

IX.

A Record . . . . .106

X.

"Trade Bullets" . . . .110

XI.
Old Coaching Days in the Lake District . 123

XII.

The Finest Sport . . . -135

XIII.

Round the Boundaries . . . 150

XIV.
Coaching in Ceylon . . .162

CONTENTS 13

PAGE

XV.

Poor Pussy ! . . . . .185

XVI.

A Diligence Drive in Austrian Turkey . 195

XVII.
My Moor ..... 208

XVIII.
On the Edge of the Desert

XIX.

English and German Sportsmen

XX.

In Albania

21;

. 22J

239

XXI.

Shooting-Ladies . . . .257

XXII.

Shooting-Rights of Small Freeholders . 264

XXIII.

Dead Weight ..... 280

*

14 CONTENTS

FACE

XXIV.
Japanese Deer ..... 297

XXV.

Robert S. Surtees — An Appreciation . 303

XXVI.
Racing in Ceylon .... 323

XXVII.
The End ..... 342

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Huge Head appeared

The Squire is not given to
WASTE Time

" Crook- knee'd and Dewlapped

LIKE ThESSALIAN BuLLS "

Held him up, flapping

"What the Devil did you 'alloa

FOR?" "'Cos I'SE PAID TO " .

Put the Tape on his Horns
The P'ox is safe enough .
Making sure of him

15

Frontispiece

facing page 34

86
107

» 141
„ 148

» 191

225

i6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Going best Pace . . . facing page 244

Fast becoming a Professional

Poacher • • • „ 268

Japanese Deer • • • „ 297

The Full-choke doubles him up „ 344

THE SNAFFLE PAPERS

THE

SNAFFLE PAPERS

ON THE DOGMATISM OF SPORTSMEN

QPORTSMEN, by which term I here
^^-^^ mean what the Americans call
"hunters," or, in other words, those who
endeavour to compass the destruction of
their game by the aid of powder and lead,
have had a number of epithets, more or less
flattering, applied to them by various writers.
I am afraid that as a rule they are less than
flattering, being generally such qualifications

i8 ON THE DOGMATISM

as selfish, untruthful, and so on. But I
think it has been reserved for me to point
out that in ninety - nine cases out of a
hundred they are nothing if not dogmatic.
I confess I am myself ; though I trust that
the sharp edge of my dogmatism has been
slightly blunted by a sporting experience
embracing many years, many countries,
many men, and many methods.

For real, downright, honest dogmatism
give me a country gentleman of any nation-
ality who has never been out of his native
land and not often out of his native province.
But for him there is more excuse. Those
who ought to know better are nearly as bad.
Not very long ago I went to a certain pro-
vince, in the hope of getting some chamois
stalking. "No use," was the chorus; "no-
body ever stalks here ; you can only get

OF SPORTSMEN 19

them by driving." Now these men were
not natives of the country, yet their dog-
matic assertion proved totally unfounded. I
soon proved by my own unaided exertions
that It was a remarkably easy stalking
district.

''Nice dogs, very," remarks someone
when you go down to a new county ; " but
you won't find setters any use here, we
always use pointers." In the sequel this
last sentence proves to contain the whole
truth of the matter. Local custom Is In
favour of pointers, but as for any reason that
setters should not do as well It is absolutely
non-existent.

I have spoken elsewhere ^ of the bigotry of
the German sportsman, and he Is indeed a
bad case. He has reduced his kennel to a

^ Gim, Rifle, and Hoimd, chap. xxv.

20 ON THE DOGMATISM

minimum — a retrieving pointer and a dachs-
hund ; and I am not sure he is wrong. But
this does not warrant his talking of retrievers,
which he has never seen, as "poodles," or
laughing at the idea of long-legged deer-
hounds for securing a wounded stag. The
Scottish keeper with his pointers or setters,
retrievers, perhaps spaniels and even beagles,
and certainly deerhounds (or, more's the pity,
collies now-a-days) for stalking, looks ask-
ance at the heavy retrieving pointer with the
docked tail, and absolutely explodes at the
idea of a dachshund as a sporting dog.
Dogmatism ! pure dogmatism on both sides !
The German's kennel is exactly the thing
for the great majority of German shootings.
But his heavy pointer would soon collapse in
an August day on the heather ; and the
dachshund, though excellent to guide one to

OF SPORTSMEN 21

a wounded deer in a woodland, would hardly
get up to him on the " forest " before he was
" over the march."

When we get to guns and rifles, dogmatism
is rampant indeed. ''English cannons" my
Austrian friends call the 12-bores favoured
by most British sportsmen, whilst, till re-
cently, we pooh-poohed their i6's. " A man
must be a Johnny to shoot with anything
larger than a 28-bore," wrote a noble lord in
the Field not very long ago. Now I must
admit that although a small-bore man myself,
a 28 seems rather small even to me. But as
I never tried one, this again may be my dog-
matism, and I certainly got some wonderful
results out of a short-barrelled 24 not long
ago. But for the 16 I have nothing to say.
It is neither fish nor flesh, neither a small-
bore nor a big-bore ; and it seems to me to

22 ON THE DOGMATISM

combine the defects of both. But very
likely this is my dogmatism again — still I
had one for some years.

I own I swear by the 20-bore. I have
had almost every bore between 12 and 24 —
all that are made for modern cartridges, and
a few besides ; so, at least, I have tried those
I like less. The only thing to be said against
them is that the cartridges are not always at
hand, if one's own run out. For this reason
I intend my next gun to be a "Vena
Contracta " — is it necessary to explain that a
*' Vena Contracta " is a 20-bore eun taking
i2-bore cartridges? — and for this reason also
I recommend the i6-bore to sportsmen
going to Germany and Austria, where nearly
everyone uses that calibre.

In this matter of guns sportsmen, how-
ever, are not nearly so dogmatic as their

OF SPORTSMEN 23

gunmakers. How many years was it before
the latter were at last induced, by actual
experience with the try-gun, to let us have a
say as to the length of our own stocks?
Then we escaped from the old straight short
stock which saved the life of so many a bird.
The Americans apparently have not done
so yet, for I read in the catalogue of their
biof2*est firm of ounmakers that all stocks
will be sent out i2| inch long with a drop
[Anglke, bend) of 2| inch, and departures
from this pattern will be charged ten dollars
extra. Our gunmakers certainly make us
pay for our " scatterguns," but they draw the
line at two guineas extra for gun-fitting.
Now we are trying, and at last with a little
success, to escape from the thraldom of
''12-bore 30-inch barrels," a sealed pattern
which has been crammed down the throats

24 ON THE DOGMATISM

of English sportsmen pretty well ever since
breechloaders came into general use.

Sometimes it is the other way ; for in-
stance, the .303 rifle. Gunmakers saw its
wonderful powers, as far as initial velocity,
flat trajectory, and penetration were con-
cerned, and jumped to the conclusion that
here was the ideal sportsman's weapon.
For some years every gunmaker's catalogue
or advertisement harped upon this, but now
we hear less of it. The truth is, that the
.303 rifle and similar w^eapons cannot be
ideal sporting weapons, though admirable
with an expanding bullet for certain kinds of
stalking. But it smashes no bones, and
makes too litde blood for most countries.
Above all, it is deficient in stopping power.
I think the trade is now learninor the real
lessons the .303 should have taught them —

OF SPORTSMEN 25

the value of smokeless powder of high initial
velocity and of low trajectory, combined with
stopping power and a considerable weight in
the projectile. That they will ever obtain
this with a smaller bore than the .400 (as a
minimum) I do not believe. But such a
rifle, carrying a hollow-fronted bullet not
under 350 grains weight, and burning about
48 grains of smokeless powder, will, in my
opinion, be the all-round sporting rifle of the
future.

Just at present they are all off again, on
sinofle-triofeer gruns this time. I must confess
I cannot see the advantage of this system ;
and it seems to me that some of the argu-
ments which are used to recommend the
invention are decidedly specious. For in-
stance, we are told it gives an equal length
of pull with both triggers. I never found

26 ON THE DOGMATISM

yet that there was an unequal length with
any gun, the distance between the two
triggers corresponding to that between my
index and second fingers. Perhaps some
people do not press the second trigger with
the second finger ; and this may be a piece
of my dogmatism. Let us get back to the
gunmakers. Not very long ago they hit
upon an excellent idea — a real addition to
every sportsman's battery — the shot-and-ball
gun. Every firm of note makes them now,
and I believe the difference between the
systems — none of which are patent— exists
principally in the registered names given
them by their makers. One and all of these
depict, write of, and recommend them as
i2-bores. Why, in the name of goodness?
As a rifle the 12-borc is only to be recom-
mended for the biggest of big game —

OF SPORTSMEN 2/

elephants and bison, for example. Now, in
the first place, these come in few people's
way. In the second, when they do, I
greatly doubt if these weapons, burning as
they do a very moderate powder charge
(some 3i drachms), can possibly give the
necessary penetration for such game. At
least, I always used 6 to 8 drachms in my
1 2 -bore rifles. Shot-and-ball ouns are most
useful in countries where there is a little
game larger than what we have in England,
and this game, as a rule all over the Old
World, will be pig and small deer or ante-
lopes, none of which require so big a bullet.
I was showing that of my 20-bore " Uni-
versal " to a friend the other day.

''Would it stop a boar?" he asked; to
which I replied, '' I never tried ; but it stops
a bear, horrid." And so it does.

28 ON THE DOGMATISM

Of all dogmatism, that of youth naturally
bears away the bell. Not long ago I met a
young man at a Levantine table d hole, and
found him to be a brother o-unner. Thlnklno^

o o

to interest him, I took out of my pocket the
cartridge of the latest thing in rifles, which
had been sent me with a letter solIcitinQf an
order. It was the usual type of bullet, small-
bore smokeless — a 117-grain "armour-clad,"
with a soft lead point. I told him the
makers recommended it for deer-stalking, to
which he said, ''Well, it might do for deer,
but It wouldn't for pig." Our subsequent
conversation revealed the fact that he had
once seen a pig shot — with a shot gun — and
never any other big game at all. Yet he
gave his opinion authoritatively to me, who
had been Introduced to stis scrofa before he
was breeched — to me who, knowing what

OF SPORTSMEN 29

has been done with the .303 by such men as
Hohnel (two rhinoceroses with one bullet),
and Glynn of Sabie Hall (five buffaloes with
five shots), almost hesitated to admit that I
did, and do, agree with him.

II

THE OLD PACK

T T is all very well to " go to the Shires," as
Mr. Sawyer did, or to cross the Irish
Channel and enjoy the delights of gallops
on equally green and less holding pastures
in Meath, but after all we never lose, I think,
the old keen sense of pleasure, which dates
from our knickerbocker days, and which
returns when we run down for a few days
with the old pack "at home."

As we emercre from the little station into
the street of the quaint old market town, we

30

THE OLD PACK 31

are reminded of the hounds at once by a
broad grin under a finger-rapped hat brim,
whose wearer occupies the box seat of a
comfortable-looking waggonette. Is It not

Bill M , erstwhile the man who blooded

us to fox, and who has now In his old age
descended to the comfortable servitude of
two maiden ladles? For In the provinces
the huntsman by no means occupies the
position he does In the crack counties ; and
we have known one who was not above
ploughing on non-hunting days. But we
can't wait, for the dogcart Is. As we pass
the local club we exchange a wave of the

hand with the Rev. Nat B , who, though

staunch to his resolution, made the day he
first took orders, never to hunt again, is
generally engaged In parochial work In the
neighbourhood of the covert most likely to

32 THE OLD PACK

be drawn whenever the meet is In his

parish. Talking to him is F. E , the

most sporting of soHcitors, and the worthy
secretary of the Old Hunt. Now we are
out of the town, and the home welcome
concerns ourselves alone.

Next morning comes the jog along the
familiar lanes to the meet with *' the
governor," who, on his confidential cob,
doesn't look as if he was verging on the
scriptural limits of man's age. His broad
ridge-and-furrow cords and stout-soled tops
make our leathers and Bartley's look rather
dandified ; but no matter, we have other
things to think of. "The Forty Acres in
roots this year?" "Yes; and held more
birds than I ever saw there," is the answer.
"Why, oh why, were we at Hong Kong,
or Meerut, as the case may be, then ? "

THE OLD PACK 3^

"Yes ; that hill pasture never was any good,
so I planted It up with larch In '9 — . Rare

covert It Is now ; Johnny B killed three

woodcocks there on one day last season."
Then we are off the old place, but remarks

on 's farm, and how such and such a

place has recently changed hands, fill up
the time, till we are surprised to see how
soon we have reached the meet.

The meet ! The last we were at was
perhaps at Dunshauglln, or Badby, or
Thorpe Thrussels. This Is rather a differ-
ent thing. Counting ourselves, there are
just six pinks, perhaps thirty horsemen all
told, and two vehicles. But what a hearty
welcome to contrast with the "How do.f^"
we got there.

First It is the squire. Ton my word, he
does not look a day older than when he

34

THE OLD PACK

first took the horn. Was that the year

before or the year after we went into

trousers ? Anyhow, it is over a quarter of

a century ago. He is as monosyllabic as

ever, but the grip he gives your hand

makes your fingers tingle. Close to him is

Will, the kennel huntsman and whipper-in,

who has been with the pack as long as the

master, and is absolutely autocratic in the

feeding-house, and very nearly so on the

flags. Like his predecessor yesterday, he,

too, is on the broad grin. Then there are

a couple of the governor's cronies w^ho

remember us in long clothes, and half a

dozen farmers, some of whom do the same,

whilst the others played cricket with or

against us in the holidays later on.

But the squire is not given to waste time.
With a slio^ht whistle, he turns his hoo--

THE OLD PACK 35

maned horse off the green (of course the
meet is on a village green, and the specta-
tors principally women, children, and geese),
and jogs down the road. Not much more
than a furlong on he turns to the right, and
then a muddy, stony lane leads us to the
covert.

This is a leg - of- mutton - shaped patch
of young larch, the trees being some years
older at the broad end where the squire has
just waved in the hounds with a " Eleu in,
there." The other side of the high-road
we have just left is a big woodland ; but
it is up-wind to-day, and master and man
commence a duet of whip-crackings and
cheering which is calculated to turn any fox
from this point.

''Now then, youngster, as I suppose you
mean to show us all how to do the trick,

6 THE OLD PACK

you'd better come with me," says the
governor, and leads the way to one side of
the, so to say, point of the covert. Mean-
while, hounds have found, and are pushing
their quarry busily about the thick stuff.
So you are not surprised, on hearing a
cough, to look round and find the bulk of
the field silently waiting behind you. Not
the men these to spoil their own sport.

Just then a magnificent dog-fox goes away
not two-score yards in front of you. All
are silent until he has disappeared through
the next fence, and then a cheery "tally-ho"
bursts from nearly everyone. But the pack
requires no assistance, for they are close at
his heels, and like a waterfall they pour out
of covert, under, over, and through the
fence. A slight swing, a hover, and they
are away ! Master and man come pounding

THE OLD PACK 37

along on opposite sides of the spinny,
forrardawaying at the top of their voices.
But the pace seems to us rather too good
for politeness, and we are off before they
reach us, making the best of our way to
the place in the first fence — a big hairy
one — we picked a couple of minutes
ago.

Good as the pace was when they first left
the covert, the mixed pack has kept it up
for twenty good minutes, and the field is
considerably reduced. We have been lucky
enough to keep our place ; to our left is a
local doctor, riding, as doctors generally do,
as if they could set their own bones. Will
is about a held behind, but, as we know, he
got all the worst of the start, and between
him and us is a young horse-dealing farmer,
on something that looks rather like a

o

8 THE OLD PACK

thorouQfhbred. A few more men are de-
scending the slope we have just left behind,
but they are riding to us rather than to
hounds. This Is the bottom. A complica-
tion of muddy, swampy stream, with rotten
banks, ragged alders, half-broken rails, and
a piece of chain to keep cattle from walking
up the bed makes an obstacle which causes
us to rejoice that we are on an Irish one.
By giving him his own way we get over
and tackle the " bank " the other side of
the valley, perhaps four hundred feet high,
and really nearly as steep as the proverbial
"side of a house." Up and up we struggle,
hounds getting away from us at each step.
Fortunately the fences are full of gaps or
else provided with handy gates, for who
could jump at this angle? At last our
sobbing steeds top the hill, but hounds are

THE OLD PACK 39

gone. The where is hardly doubtful, for a
furlong on begins a wood, one of the many
with which the country is dotted. They
must be there, we argue, and spur our
sobbing nags into a canter. As we progress
they catch their wind by degrees.

Right ! the old oaks shake with the
melody with which the pack are driving
their fox through the woodland. Let us
hope they haven't changed. We are able
to siive our horses as they work their way
along parallel with the ride we are on, and
still we get to the far end first. " Whoa,
fool, vot are ye champing the bit for ? " to
quote Mr. Jorrocks. Yes ; there he goes,
and looks fresh enough, too. But it is a
hunted fox for all that. We rein back a
yard or tw^o to get room to shove at the
wattled stile at the end of the ride, and as

40 THE OLD PACK

we get over Will comes round the other side
of the wood. *' Away, away, away ! "

For the next ten minutes or so the country
is really delightful. There is a good deal
of grass, and the plough rides light. The
fences are easy, with gaps for those who
like to go and look for them ; and even
when here and there we get a big place, the
odds are the gate in it is no higher than a
sheep hurdle, and unlocked to boot. The
pace remains good ; we have been running
over forty minutes, when — what is this.^

"This" is Great Woods, one of the

drawbacks to fox-hunting in the old country.
Their extent is numbered by thousands of
acres, and when once you get into them
you may have to pound along for hours
in hock-deep rides to keep with the pack.
Neglect to do so, and you are sure to be

THE OLD PACK 41

slipped. Confound it ! here we shall spend
the rest of the day.

But what is that? Tally-ho, forrard ! It
is ride now, to see if the fast-sinking- varmint
will make his point. How the pack strive!
He will! He won't! Who-whoop! and
they roll him over under the very boundary
fence. Who-whoop ! Who-whoop !

Well, they can't say we haven't shown
them the trick this time. But who is this
who emerges from the lane on the left ?
The squire ! and the governor ! Presently
Will comes up to us. '' Please, captain,
squire says would you like a brush to put
with yours from the cut-'em-down countries?"
And, having said, explodes.

Never mind ; there is worse fun than a
day with the Old Pack.

II I

TWENTY YEARS AGO

/^^NE fine evening in the later seventies
found the British India Steam Navi-
gation Company's ship Africa leaving the
harbour of Point-de-Galle with myself and
my battery (a double 12-bore rifle and a
ditto ditto gun) on board. When I say
''fine" it must be understood that I do not
mean that the weather was good. It may
have been, but with the exception of the first
three months of the year few evenings
in Ceylon are without clouds, even if rain

42

TWENTY YEARS AGO 4

o

does not actually fall. But to me it was a
great day ; for, was I not off to visit India
for the first time in my life ? and, moreover,
was it not the very first slice of leave that
had fallen to the lot of a junior subaltern ?
Either of these things would have made it
memorable. To be sure, the slice of leave I
had got was but a small one — fourteen days ;
but I had determined to get a lot into the
time. One precious day was already gone
in getting to Galle, but that night sufficed for
our short voyage ; and, without losing a
minute at the little Indian port where I
landed, I inducted myself into a gharry,
and started on a drive which lasted well into
the afternoon. At last I reached the spot
where the road was no longer of any use,
and found a pony and coolies waiting. Hav-
ing handed over my gun-cases and my box

44 TWENTY YEARS AGO

(this latter in Ceylon and Southern India
replaces the Gladstone bag, as it is rainproof
and suitable to a coolie's head) to these latter,
I mounted and followed the active syce for
some hours along jungle paths, till, long after
dark, I heard a cheerful ''coo-ee," and was
soon shaking hands with my old school-
fellow, Erskine, at whose hospitable instiga-
tion my journey had been undertaken.

When our dinner in the bare white-
washed room of his temporary bungalow had
been discussed, and we were ensconced in
two long chairs in the verandah, he unfolded
the plan of campaign.

"The best chance you have of getting
any sport is to go straight on to the Anna-
mullais," said he. " Here there is nothing
that you would not get in Ceylon — sambur,
jungle sheep, and leopards, and, if you

TWENTY YEARS AGO 45

stayed all your leave here I could not
guarantee you a shot at one of them. But
the hills I speak of are full of game,
elephants (which of course you know you
mustn't shoot here), tigers, deer of sorts,
ibex (which you haven't time to go after),
but above all, bison ; and it will go hard but
you will get a shot at them, for I have
ordered the best shikari about there to meet
you at the hut."

"Is It far from here ? " I asked.

"Well, the way is a bit rough," was the
reply, "and as you don't know it you can't
go faster than the syce, so there was no use
laying a dawk. My pony will take you all
right, but you won't get through in one day.
If you are tired of it, come back here ; but if
you prefer to run it to the last, go straight
down to the coast and catch the steamer

46 TWENTY YEARS AGO

there. In any case keep the pony there, but
don't let him be left out for fear of a tiger."

When I woke next morninof my baeeaee
had already started, and I soon followed. A
long day's ride brought me to a dilapidated
looking dawk bungalow, at a point where we
crossed a road, and here I slept with the
help of some bedding Erskine had sent.
Next day the path was rougher and wilder
than ever, and rose continually. At noon
we made a halt of some hours, and then
went on, mostly through thick jungle, often
on the edge of terrific k/mds, till, before
dark, we reached a roughly made hut where
a couple of hill men were waiting. One of
these was the shikari, and a pretty high-
flavoured one he was, as I had occasion to
know, for many a weary hour I tramped
after him through the steamy jungles. A

TWENTY YEARS AGO 47

man that Erskine had sent had soon some
dinner cooking, and everything seemed to be
comfortable for the night, when the syce
came to me and asked where the pony was
to go. This was a puzzler. The hut, which
contained a churpoy and a stool only, con-
sisted of (if I may so call it) one room only
with a door of branches fastened on a
bamboo frame. At one end of the hut the
roof overhung and formed a sort of verandah,
where the men had their mats and where the
fire was. There was no alternative ; the
pony had to share my apartment, and he did.
Four of my precious days were gone already,
I reflected that night ; and the next night
added another one to the number, for we
saw no game, at least only small deer at
which I would not fire. On the sixth day
we saw bison tracks, but not fresh enough to

48 TWENTY YEARS AGO

follow; and also the fresher '*pugs" of a
tiger, but still no game.

On the seventh day I saw my first bison.
We struck the trail of a small herd early,
and followed it for hours. At last it led us
to the crest of the hill, where the shikari
beckoned me excitedly. Yes, there they
were, about six hundred yards away, three of
them, but evidently disturbed and moving
on fast. At that advanced hour of the day
it was obviously useless to follow. Before
we reached the hut I bagged a fine stag
sambur, whom we surprised feeding in an
open glade. A ball from the smooth-bore,
which I had in my hand, broke his back just
as he was off.

Next morning I sent a coolie to Erskine,
asking him to come over, as I feared I could
not otherwise see him aeain, but this he was

TWENTY YEARS AGO 49

too busy to do. The day was again blank,
till towards evening we came on the fresh slot
of an apparently very large bull. At the
shikari s suocrestion we went home at once,
so as not to disturb him then. The follow-
ino^ morninor found us on the trail, and to
my delight it grew fresher and fresher. At
last the shikari seized my wrist, and gazed
intently into the bamboo jungle in front.
My eyes followed the direction of his, and
after a bit I made out a patch of slate-
coloured hide. It was the bull.

With the impetuosity of youth, and dis-
regarding the gestures of my companion, I at
once levelled my weapon and fired. The
sound of a heavy fall followed, and then a
struggle, a crash through the covert, and
silence. The native shook his head.

When I had reloaded, I hurried to the
4

50 TWENTY YEARS AGO

spot. Here was blood, nay more, splinters
of bone. The bull was as good as mine.
The shikari made signs (it was our only
means oi conversing) to me to sit down and
lunch. I angrily refused. I would have the
bull. Reluctantly he proceeded ; and, of
course (as I now know), we moved the animal
again before he had got stiff, and followed him
all that afternoon in vain. The very blood
ceased to show.

I returned to my hut in despair. The
next was my very last day ; was I to go
home empty-handed '^. I called the shikari
into counsel ; he was all Qrrins.

'"Shikari say all right, sar," interpreted
Erskine's bearer, a coast Tamil, " that cow
ver much shot ; or go quite away to-day.
Soon find morning, sar."

After this I could hardly sleep for excite-

TWENTY YEARS AGO 51

ment. Two hours after sunrise we struck
the trail where we had left it the day before,
and followed very cautiously. Not an hour
afterwards there was a crash in the jungle
close in front. We ran on, and reached a
sloping bank. The bull was limping down
it, straight away from us. I aimed at the
root of the tail, and the shot sent him rolling
to the bottom of the little valley. I followed
jubilantly, not even reloading. All at once
the bamboos in the bottom parted, and with a
moaning bellow the huge head appeared.
T\\^ shikari, however, grinned more fiendishly
than ever. I sighted just above the eyes,
and fired my second barrel. When the smoke
cleared, the bull was lying dead. After a drink
of cold tea we proceeded to a post-mortem,
of which, and of the shikaris pantomime, the
following were the results. My first shot

52 TWENTY YEARS AGO

had been unwittingly aimed at the flank, for I
had not realised what an enormous animal 1
had to deal with. It had, as a matter of fact,
smashed the stifle, and I suppose it was this
that discouraged the beast from charging, for
from what I have read since of bison-shooting
few bulls die as pacifically as mine. The
second shot broke the spine ; and so, when
the beast reappeared, he was really sitting
up, and his bellow was an empty menace,
for he could not have moved. The last shot
penetrated the brain and came out at the
back of the head.

That night my two heads were packed up,
and the shikari well rewarded. The next
morning saw me en route for the coast. We
sailed that night, but passed the next day
loading and discharging cargo at another
small port, so only reached Point dc Galle 07i

TWENTY YEARS AGO 53

the fourteenth day of my leave, at daylight.
To my horror I found the coach only left at
night, and reached the capital at eleven or so
next day. And I was due on parade at 6.30!

While I was distractedly rushing about
asking everybody's advice, I met the skipper
of the steamer I had arrived in. "Why,"
he said, '' I go on to Colombo to-night, and
generally get in about half-past six. Won't
that do you ? "

" No," I said, " I fear not. I have to be
in uniform and on parade by then."

"Well," he said, " I'll stretch a point. I'll
be off the port before six and send you ashore
in a boat before I anchor."

The good fellow kept his word. A few
minutes after six next morning two lascars
landed me on the breakwater, then in its first
stages of construction. I ran to my quarters,

54 TWENTY YEARS AGO

w

here, as requested by telegram, my things
and servant were all ready, and at half-past
six I was duly present on parade.

Afterwards I went back to the ship to get
my luggage, and above all my heads, which
hang on the wall opposite me as I write.
Of the bison I think I have every reason to
be proud, for the horns are no less than
thirty-two inches across the span (outside
measurement), and each measures nine-and-
twenty inches long, being sixteen and a half
inches in circumference at the largest part.

IV

ON THE ROAD IN THE
HERZEGOVINA

XT OT many years ago a paper on the
^ roads of the Herzegovina would

have been of a similar nature to the oft-
quoted one on Icelandic snakes, ''There
are no snakes in Iceland." But the Austrian
occupation of this Turkish province, which
will soon complete its fourth lustre, has to a
certain extent changed all that. At least,
there are not a great many roads yet ; not,
indeed, nearly as many as are urgently

56 ON THE ROAD

wanted ; but those that there are, are well
graded, and provided with bridges and
culverts where necessary. It is true that
they are quite without parapets, and as the
bulk of them wind alono- hillsides this is a
fruitful cause of smashes. But one can't
have everything in eighteen years, and the
traffic that goes out of a walk is very
limited.

The principal and, as I suppose, the
oldest, of these new roads is that which
follow^s the river Narenta more or less up
from its mouth at Mekovic, through the
capital, Mostar, and then to Konjica, where
it enters Bosnia, and terminates at the
Bosnian capital, Bosna Serai, or, as it has
been called of recent years, Sarajevo. This
is certainly an excellent road, though, of
course, it is pretty well collar work all the

IN THE HERZFXxOVINA 57

way Li]). Just before we get to Mostar,
after crossing the Dubrava — a great place
for wolves In winter, by the way — there are
a few miles of steep descent into the Mostar
plain. Once the capital is passed it is
gradual ascent up a winding and romantic
valley all the way. A second principal road,
still a post-road, for on the one just named
the iron horse has run the diligence ''off the
line " already, is that which joins Mostar in
succession to Nevesinje, Stolatz, Gatcko,
and Trebinje, whence another diligence runs
to Ragusa in Dalmatla. Lastly, there is a
road from Mostar to Ljubuski in the west
of the province, about the only one on the
right bank of the Narenta.

So much for the roads themselves. But
the main interest thereof lies after all on
those who pass along them ; and it may as

58 ON THE ROAD

well be conceded at once that nine-tenths of
the traffic, even on these new roads, is not
wheeled.

Let us begin with the capital. Although
every attempt is being made to improve the
streets, it must be said that at present all
traffic has to pass by one route — as a matter
of fact the Metko vie- Sarajevo road. For
part of the way it is doubled by a narrow
parallel street, with blind turnings leading
into it ; but both are generally choked with
cabs, driven badly and recklessly by Turkish
boys, strings of pack-animals, and troops on
the march. So it is clearly not the place
one would care to work an awkward team
through, especially as at its narrowest,
crookedest part there is a sharp and totally
unnecessary hill, which the municipality does
not seem to dream might easily be levelled.

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 59

Yet at this very spot the mounted troops are
continually messino- with their forage, and
blocking;- the street with horses and wai^gons
— a thing- which surely would not be per-
mitted elsewhere.

The Mostar cabs are one of the nuisances
of the place. Dear, dirty, and badly driven
as they are, they are, nevertheless, perhaps
more of a nuisance to those who do not use
them than to those who do. Durinsf a few
months' residence I had several narrow
shaves, and though a report to the town
sub-prefect always ensured the jarvey's being
locked up for a day or two to cool his ardour,
the nuisance seemed to abate but little.
Somethino- has been done to abate the
second nuisance, the pack-animals. Firstly,
the number which may be led by a single
man or woman is limited to three, whereas

6o ON THE ROAD

formerly five or six was not uncommon.
Still it is wonderful how much road a man
and three horses, loaded, say with straw, and
linked by ropes ten feet long, will take up.
Secondly, their guns have been spiked, in
other words the bells on the horses' necks
must be plugged with grass before they enter
the town. But it often falls out, and nobody
seems to care.

For a capital with a garrison of a good
many thousand men, Mostar is singularly
deficient in private carriages of any descrip-
tion ; and the bulk of these, as in so many
places abroad, are of an appearance calculated
to make one wonder at the time our Improve-
ments in coach-building take to reach countries
so easily accessible. For shooting purposes
the India tonga would be especially adapted :
to the ponies of the country, a suitable pair

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 6i

of which ought to be bought for about £\2.
I oave a drawino- of one to one or two
officers of the garrison ; but the continental
mind is hard to wean from four wheels ; and
no wonder, considering how great a part the
antiquated wheel-brake plays in their method
of driving.

Once away from Mostar, wheeled traffic
becomes very scarce. On some of the roads
the post-cart may be met. This is a purely
military affair. The driver is a native
soldier of the Transport Service ; the ostler
who brings out the change of horses on the
road is another, and like him wears a fez
and baggy scarlet breeches. Not only is
the guard armed, but on the back seat of the
concern sits another escort — an infantryman
with loaded rifle. Besides this, the road the
coach runs on is patrolled by troops and

62 ON THE ROAD

gendarmes. These precautions are practically
no longer necessary, but, of course, their dis-
continuance is difficult As for the vehicle
itself, in summer it is a low open cha7'-a-banc
with an awning and side-curtains, and in
winter a coach body with low driver's seat in
front, and one behind for guard and escort.
Rarely we may meet a waggon, or the
carriage of some civilian on his rounds, but,
as a rule, the only thing we shall pass will
be pack-animals. To these I must return
presently. One district there is, indeed,
where an especial form of vehicle is to be
found, but there are no roads there, only the
roughest tracks. 1 refer to the ox-waggons
of the Nevesinjskopolje, a tableland some
three thousand feet high, almost in the centre
of the country. These waggons are the
roughest home-made affairs possible. The

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 63

wheels have, nevertheless, what we consider
a modern hiiprovement, the so-called tangent
spokes, and these, no doubt, they have had
for centuries. The felloes are still more
characteristic, and consist of four naturally-
curved pieces of wood. The history of these
is peculiar. On the steepest slopes of the
Velez Ranee, which frinoes the one side of
this great plain, and which is covered with
beechwood to about four thousand feet eleva-
tion, the snow bends down the young trees
just above the ground every year. When
summer comes the struiru'le for lioht and air
in these neglected woods causes the sapling
to shoot rapidly straight upwards. It thus
takes the shape of a J, and when it is about
twenty years old the native cuts out the
circular segment and carries it off with a
pack-horse, with perhaps a couple of dozen

64 ON THE ROAD

more, leaving the rest of the trees to rot.
It Is just worthy of remark that those that
are not so destroyed eventually strike down
to the lower ground, and at forty to fifty
years old present no signs of having grown
in this way. For this, however, the snow,
which every year brings down stones, earth,
and decaying branches, is pardy responsible,
in that it covers them up.

The ordinary tourist does not go off the
roads at all in the Herzegovina, rarely,
indeed, off the railroad, and it must be con-
fessed he sees very little of it. Personally
I saw a great deal of it, and it was rarely
that I heard of two Eno-Hshmen havin^r been

o o

before me, sometimes of one, and very often
I had the satisfaction of knowing I was the
pioneer. But for such journeys one must
leave all hope of roads behind, and take to

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 65

the bridle-ways — I cannot even call them
tracks. I thouoht I knew something about
bad roads before I went to the Herzegovina.
But I found out that all those I knew before
in various corners of the earth were only
comparatively bad, whilst here they are
superlatively bad. I don't mean all of them
by any means, and much has been done
to improve the principal ones, but some
places are really calculated to give one "the
creeps." The horses are very sure-footed,
though how they can be so, with their feet
covered, as they are, with the Turkish bar-
shoe, is a mystery to me. Nor is the
situation improved by the knowledge that,
perched up as one is in an abominable
Turkish saddle, one can give no assistance
should the horse require it. Unfortunately,

I had committed the folly of not having an

5

66 ON THE ROAD

English saddle with me. After a few days
of the other sort I preferred to walk ; and
did so.

Although one may be on a track which
is almost undiscernlble among the rocks,
if it is one that joins two centres of any
importance we shall meet plenty of traffic.
As a rule, the passers-by consist of peasants,
with a pack-horse or two. The men are
gaily dressed in brown jackets, braided with
red, red waistcoats, blue breeches, and red
leggings. All wear fez or turbans, and
round their loins is a sash, green if they are
Turks, red if they are Christians. The
women are always in white, their home-
made woollen dresses being turned back and
fastened behind to show the breeches of
similar material. The pack-saddle of the
country is peculiar to our ideas, for It comes

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 67

half-way up the horse's neck, and is so high
that when it is merely covered with the
usual blanket the horse seems to be loaded
already. It is secured with one girth, a
crupper and two cords running under the
horse's forearms, a practice which accounts
for the scars one universally finds there.
The people are very lazy about off-saddling,
and one often sees a pony grazing for days
with his saddle on. A fair load is con-
sidered 80 oke, and an oke is over two
pounds and a half English, say, with saddle,
sixteen stone dead weight to be carried ten
hours or more by a pony thirteen hands —
not a bad performance.

Another commonly-met sight consists of
a gendarmerie patrol — two men, as in
Ireland. This duty is tremendously severe,
as the patrols go out for forty-eight hours at

68 ON THE ROAD

a time, and every portion of the country,
mountains, forests, etc., has to be patrolled
in turn. On the Monteneo-rln frontier the
monotony of the duty Is often broken by a
rifle bullet ; three gendarmes were killed In
1895. Except those who escort their
officers In this district, the o-endarmerle are
not mounted, however, so can hardly count
as traffic. Civil servants, foresters, engin-
eers, telegraphists, and officers are the horse-
men one most often meets. There are no
postmen, for there is no post, nor does the
doctor make his rounds on horseback, for
there Is no such person. The priest does,
though, or perhaps I should call him a
monk, for they are all Franciscans ; and here,
like nowhere else, they wear a (ez and long
moustaches.

Flocks of sheep and goats and herds of

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 69

ponies and cattle we, of course, meet
frequently, according as the season regulates
the feeding-grounds. In summer they are
all high up, in winter all low down. But
winter at high elevations is not to be spoken
of lightly. I have tried it, but I don't want
to try again ; and, as a rule, those whose
duty obliges them to travel then, take good
care to go round by the lower roads which
follow the beds of the rivers. There snow
is rare, and does not lie long.

'' As many of the Turks have considerable
wealth in horseflesh, it is not uncommon
to meet trains of twenty to thirty ponies
with good pack-saddles (not a bridle among
them) and rugs over their loeids, their
jingling bells reminding one of past days in
Andalusia. But here is no arnero ; the
rear is brought up by one or two Turks on

70 ON THE ROAD

better-class horses, which, under the double
influence of the murderous bit and of the
corners of the shovel-stirrup, carry them-
selves smartly enough. Although deprived
of his arms, the Turk (so the Mahometan
Slav is always called here) still looks
unmistakably the lord of the country. His
carnage and bearing are confident and
haughty, but I found them very good
fellows, and more pleasant to deal with than
the Christians ; though I have know^n the
two combine to get to windward of the
stranger."

I quote the above lines from my own
book. In the Land of the Boj^a, because I
think it fairly describes the only familiar
object of the road I have not referred to
before. I think I have made it pretty clear
that the Herzegovina is not yet, at all events,

IN THE HERZEGOVINA 71

a country for the lovers of the coach-horn
and the long thong (although the Metkovic,
Mostar, Sarajevo road would form no bad
commencement to a driving tour, say to
Buda-Pesth) ; but to those whom riding tours
please, and who can rough it a bit, it has a
great deal to recommend it, not the least
inducement being that it is extraordinarily
cheap.

V

THE HAZEL ^GROUSE

{Tetrao Bonasid)

1\ /T Y recollections of this beautiful, if,
perhaps, not v^ery sporting, bird,
have been recalled by a paragraph in the
Shooting Tifnes, for January 2, 1897, in
which the paragraphist wonders why " this
excellent crame bird, which belonos to the
grouse tribe, should never have been intro-
duced into Scotland, when the conditions
of climate and terrestrial surroundinos differ
but slightly from those of Scandinavia."

72

THE HAZEL GROUSE ^

The writer styles the bird the " Norwegian
hazel hen," and I am by no means sure
that he does not imagine it to be found in
Norway (and, of course, Sweden) alone. If
so, he is, of course, greatly mistaken. I
first came into contact with it — perhaps I
ought rather to say, it first came into
contact with shot from the barrels of my
gun — in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,
as related in the Field for Dec. 31, 1892.
Since then I have met it in most European
countries — as far south, indeed, as the
Balkan Provinces of Turkey, and, I dare
say, though I have no book of reference
at hand to verify the fact, that its range
extends to the Caucasus, and, perhaps, even
further to the southward and eastward. Be
that as it may, from the Arctic Circle to
Turkey is a long stretch.

74 THE HAZEL GROUSE

I was the more impelled to notice the
paragraph above quoted because I, myself,
had so recently made the same remark, i.e.
suggested the acclimatisation of the bird,
not. Indeed, In Scotland only, but through-
out the British Islands, In my book. In tJie
Land of the Bora ; but when the writer
goes on to suggest that " the common
grouse (a very wrong name, by the way,
to give Lagopus Scotictis) and black-game
may be rivalled on their own moors by
their Scandinavian cousin," he does, Indeed,
give himself away. The very name he
uses — "hazel hen" — might have taught
him that the species under consideration
Is not a moorland bird.

In case he may retort upon me by saying
I am not acquainted with the bird in
Norway, I propose to quote two sports-

THE HAZEL GROUSE 75

men who are, and the first gentleman I
shall put into the witness - box is Mr.
Edward North Buxton. He says : "In
the densest groves of spruce a rapid
scuttling of wings will indicate the presence
of a covey of hjerpe, or hazel grouse, the
smallest and perhaps the handsomest of
the grouse tribe, and, as some think, the
best eating. They only fly up into the
adjoining spruce, where the brown bars of
the breast, so conspicuous when the bird
is handled, harmonise perfecdy with the
twi^s."

This writer, though he gives a capital
picture of a covey of hazel grouse, is writ-
ing of elk-shooting primarily, so it may be
advisable to produce further testimony. Sir
Henry Pottinger, in an article on "The
Shot Gun in Norway," must, I think, be

-je THE HAZEL GROUSE

allowed by all to be an authority. This Is
what he has to tell us (after saying of the
black-game that they haunt the margins of
the open morasses where they can run out
of the w^ood to feed or bask amone the
patches of heather or willow) : — '' In similar
localities, but rarely given to quitting the
shelter of the trees, we find the beautiful
little Iijerpe (hazel hen, gellnotte), the
smallest of the grouse tribe, with flesh as
white as that of a partridge. Singularly
cunning or lucky must he Indeed be who
finds a covey of these birds out In the
open. Directly they are flushed they take
to the trees, and there sit motionless, utter-
ing at times a faint shrill whistle, which
often betrays them. For unpractised eyes
they are not too easy to see. I recommend
the sportsman to put old-fashioned scruples

THE HAZEL GROUSE ^^

into his pocket, and shoot these birds sitting,
whenever he gets the chance. They have
a habit of dartinor from the trees on his
approach, and luring him into the wood by
the sound of their repeated flight ; for they
seldom fly a hundred yards before they
perch again, escaping just out of shot as
the too eager pursuer comes noisily up.
On the wing they are extraordinarily fast,
and he who manao^ed to kill a ri^rht and left
at hazel hens, oroinor like bullets throuoh the
trees, may fairly congratulate himself on
having performed a pretty, and not too
common feat with the o^un. The birds are
delicious eating, but their flesh is too
delicate to bear well the freezing necessary
for export."

With all that these two writers say my
experience (gained elsewhere than in

7^ THE HAZEL GROUSE

Scandinavia) coincides, except, indeed,
that I am inclined to consider the lesser
Indian sand-grouse, rather than the gelinotte,
"the smallest of the grouse tribe." But
very likely Sir Henry had the European
grouse in his mind — possibly, indeed, has
no Asiatic sporting experience/ It is also
worthy of remark that one of our authors
speaks of spruce and the other of willow
trees. I have invariably found the bird
in beechwoods — the commonest kind of
covert on the Continent. I think I am
warranted, therefore, in saying that the
name hazel grouse is a misnomer. Be this
as it may, there is no doubt that the bird
is nowhere found on open moorland, and
therefore could not ever ''rival" the red

^ Sand-grouse are, by some authorities, not classed among
true grouse.

THE HAZEL GROUSE 79

grouse of Scotland. Even black-cock
ground is not suited to its habits ; and it
would be far more likely to be at home
in pheasant coverts, which are found
throughout the British Isles.

Noteworthy it is, too, that both of our
writers speak of its great table qualities.
I do not agree with Mr. Burton's friends,
who call the hjerpe the best eating of the
grouse tribe. I have always held that a
cold Scottish grouse and a bottle of
Burgundy is a lunch for the gods, and this
toothsome stranger shall not oust our older
friend from my gastronomic affections. But
the hazel grouse, as I have shot him, in
wintry woodlands, is excellent eating, and,
according to Sir Henry Pottinger, the
plentiful diet of wild berries to be obtained
in a Norwegian autumn gives an exceptional

8o THE HAZEL GROUSE

flavour to all kinds of game. The hazel
grouse Is also a peculiarly handsome bird.
I know no wing more effective in a lady's
travelling hat than his, save, and except,
that of the painted snipe. The colouring
of the breast and sides is very beautiful
and would make lovely trimming, and even
the loose feathers thereof make a collar or
boa much handsomer, to my mind, than the
dyed things sold in shops. But now it is
time to look at the other side of the picture.
I have found the hazel grouse exactly as
described by Sir Henry Pottlnger. Rarely,
indeed, does he rise at one's feet, and if he
does, he is off through the thick branches
like the proverbial "shot out of a shovel."
A woodcock in covert is a fool to him.
But follow him up noiselessly, and presendy
you will become aware of your game, un-

THE HAZEL GROUSE 8i

mistakable by its triangular head (the

crest gives it this appearance), quietly

seated, though with every sense alert, on

the limb of some tree. Then if the pot is

empty, or the camp menu requires variety,

you will "down" him ruthlessly, as Sir

Henry advises. Being, however, as you

may be, a beginner at the game, you

endeavour to approach nearer. All at

once the bird is gone ! You heard the

whirr of his wings, but you saw nothing,

for he kept the big beech tree between

you and him. With beaters it is another

matter. If the guns are posted in the

wood itself, and that wood be fairly open —

a beech wood, for instance — you will get

shooting, and every bird killed will send

a virtuous glow dow^n your back. But I

venture to prophesy that there will be a
6

82 THE HAZEL GROUSE

great many more empty cartridg-e cases than
birds.

Now we can cast up the merits of the
bird, and weigh the pros and cons of the
matter. In favour of accHmatisation we
have — (i) That the bird Is calculated to
thrive In British woodlands ; (2) that he
is excellent eating- ; (3) that he can afford
good sport if he alone is the object sought
for ; (4) that he will never stray from the
woodlands ; (5) that he will never do any
damage to crops.

Against him we must urge — (i) That In
covert shooting, as now arranged, not
one of these birds would ever come to
the gun ; (2) that where they were syste-
matically shot, as I have above indicated,
the pheasants would be greatly disturbed
and driven off

THE HAZEL GROUSE S3

From this we may sum up that the hazel
grouse is very suitable to certain landowners
and shooting tenants, and specifically to
those (a) who have coverts given up to
rabbits and occasional cock, but free of
vermin ; {/?) who cannot preserve pheasants
because the covert Is on the boundary, and
the birds are led away by corn crops, etc. ;
and (c) those who find the big stupid
pheasants impossible to preserve if they
are ever to be at peace with their
neighbours. Those living near collieries,
mines, or factories will know what I mean.
The pheasant is certainly a great tempta-
tion, but the hazel hen, active and wood-
loving, will, I think, prove a difficult nut
for the night poacher to crack. Day
poaching with the gun can easily be kept
down.

84 THE HAZEL GROUSE

Lastly, how to get the birds ? Well,
any continental game-dealer should be able
to supply, or some of those agents who
advertise Norweman shootlntrs.

I only hope that this article will induce
some landowners and shooting tenants to
try the experiment. I, for one, intend to
do so as soon as I have the opportunity.
It is, however, only right to add, that all my
attempts to purchase a few couples of live
hazel grouse have hitherto failed. I have,
however, not had any opportunity to try
Scandinavian dealers.

VI

SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE

^ I ^HE allusions to the pastimes of his day
in Shakespeare's plays are so endless
that I propose to avoid them altogether,
and to confine myself to those which refer
to our most prominent field sports. Hawk-
ing, of course, was the principal one of that
day, but I do not propose to enter into that
either, because so few of us know anything
about it nowadays.

Shakespeare certainly was a sportsman, or
he could not have written as he did ; and it

86 SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE

is a pleasure to think that his boyish raid on
Sir Thomas Lucy's deer at Charlecote was
inspired, not by any desire for filthy lucre,
but by the feeling so well expressed in the
old song —

" For it's my delight on a shiny night
In the season of the year."

Probably the best known allusion to hunt-
ing in Shakespeare is that in the Alia-
suninier Nighf s Dream, where Theseus
describes his pack thus —

" My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flew'd, so sanded ; and their heads are hung
With eais that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd hke Thessahan bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells
Each under each. A cry more tuneable
Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn."

An irreverent modern sportsman might
say that there was probably more cry than

SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE ^y

wool — or rather fur — with such a pack. I
confess I have often puzzled over this pass-
age, and wondered what kind of hound the
writer could possibly have had In his mind's
eye when he penned It. Had the quotation
been a modern one, I should have said that
It was a perfect description of a pack of
French bassets - a -janibes - torses, such as I
once had the pleasure to be a master of ; but
we know that this Is a modern breed, being
the result of a cross of the dachshund with
the long-eared French breeds, such as the
Arras. It is said, indeed, to date no further
back than the Restoration of '15, and to be
due to the emigres, who brought back the
crook-kneed breed from Germany. Be this
as It may, I do not believe the basset existed
in the days of Queen Bess. I know it has
been said that the old Enorlish bloodhound

88 SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE

was a crook-kneed animal, but I do not
believe this either. The idea possibly arose
from the representation of some animal
deformed by ''rickets," for that this can
occur with stray specimens of any breed is
to my mind as certain as that the dachs-
hund's formation is not so produced. This
is one of the oriorlnal varieties of the eenus
canis, in proof of which statement, Assyrian
sculptures and Egyptian paintings can be
adduced.

The passage which to my mind proves
that Shakespeare knew a good deal about
hunting is the following one from the
Taming of the Shrew, which could
undeniably only have been written by a
hunting man and a " houndman " —

" Lord. Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good
At the hedge corner in the coldest fault ?

SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE 89

Huntsman. Why, Bellman is as good as he, my lord,
He cried upon it at the merest loss.
And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent.

Lord. Thou art a fool ; if Echo were as fleet,
I would esteem him worth a dozen such."

Here we see nose and pace valued just as
much as we value the union of those quali-
ties now ; and it is worth observing that
these lines occur in a play of no assigned
period, whereas we can easily understand
the writer putting into the mouth of Theseus
such ideas as he might conceive to have
been entertained by a sportsman of ancient
Greece, however far removed from his own.

To coursino- there are fewer allusions in
our author, though greyhounds are referred
to several times. In The Merry Wives of
Windsor, Slender asks Page, "How does
your fallow greyhound, sir ? I heard say he
was outrun on Cotsall." Paore's answer is :

90 SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE

'•' It could not be judged," which I take
to mean that the fallow dog had run an
undecided course.

Of shootino-, both with the lono- and cross-
bow, we have, of course, plenty. In Love s
Labour Lost we have an accurate descrip-
tion of deer shooting as It w^as practised,
amongst others, by Queen Elizabeth, but we
are not told If the deer killed by the Princess
was driven past her by dogs or beaters.
There Is also an amusing dispute between
Sir Nathaniel and Holofernes as to whether
It was "a pricket," i.e. a three-year-old, or
"a buck of the first head," that Is, a five-year
old, or, as we say nowadays, In the New
Forest, "a warrantable deer."

In that woodland drama As Yon Like it
we have, of course, a o^ood deal about
deer shooting, but nothing especially worth

SPORT IN SHAKESPEARE 91

quotation. Looking up the play in question
in Knight's Pictorial Shakespeare, I find
the " sequester'd stag" represented as a
fallow buck, and one of "the careless herd,"
resembling more than anything else an
American black-tailed deer — two singular
inaccuracies in one engraving. But all the
drawings of deer given in this play are open
to criticism. The description of the conduct
of the herd of red deer towards a wounded
companion may be true to nature, but most
animals show considerable consideration to
a wounded member, and generally wait and
look back for him after the first rush a rifle
report produces.

VII

WHICH THE YOUNG SPORTSMAN
MAY READ WITH ADVANTAGE

"\^ THEN I was a bit of a boy I read
somewhere that " to get the best
results with a cartridoe the shot should be
tightly packed with sand." I took the hint.
" Shutln's a quare thing nowadays," said an
old labourer of ours at the harvest -home
supper not long afterwards; ''t'other day I
picked up one o' these yere cartridges some
genelman had dropped, and, thinks I, I'll just
see what's In this chap ; so I cut 'un open with

A MORAL 93

my knife, and, dang me, if he weren't half
full of jackstones!" Let me now do what I
did not do then, and confess that the cart-
ridge was mine. The ''jackstones" were
the coarse sand I had packed my shot with.
But it was a long time before I got to see
the real cream of the joke. The "cart-
ridges " to which the sporting writer referred
were wire cartridges for wildfowling! — not,
of course, the ordinary '' shells," to use the
Yankee term. The only result of my load-
ing could be to reduce the shot charge, and
perhaps scratch the barrel of the gun. "A
little knowledge is a dangerous thing." . . .
I had intended to multiply examples of this
sort of thing, but as I cannot possibly beat
the above I think I will leave it "to point a
moral and adorn a tale.''

VIII
ON DACHSHUNDS

" T) Y this decision," I read In the Shooting
^^^ Ti7nes report on the Leicester Dog-
Show, " It Is apparent that a dachshund, how-
ever great a cripple he may be, Is not dis-
qualified from winning prizes."

It Is not my object In this paper to discuss
the points of dachshunds, so I will briefly say
that with me it Is a sine qua nan that a
dachshund's foreleg in profile should be
as straight as a foxhound's. The peculiar
curved shape should only be visible from the

94

ON DACHSHUNDS 95

front, and I do not believe that any dog so
built can ever be a cripple — I mean from
causes of formation. But my object does
remotely bear on this point, because It is to
try and convince a few English sportsmen
that the dachshund Is a sporting dog. If he
is, as I think I shall presently very clearly
show, it is obvious that he cannot belong
to that class of dog in which it Is not any
drawback to be a cripple. But the Ideas of
English people on the subject are really very
funny. The other day I saw a dachshund
advertised in the Field by a sporting
publican. "Can go a good bat when
roused," it ran, as if the owner was really
quite surprised it could do more than waddle.
I should be sorry to be (foot) huntsman to
a pack of dachshunds. When I was Mas-
ter of a pack of basset hounds, I for

96 ON DACHSHUNDS

some time ran a dachshund of mine with
them, but found hun too fast for them.
This is no criterion of speed, I grant, and a
dachshund is not, and should not be, a fast
dog ; but he should be a quick, active dog,
and go along on a scent at the rate, at least,
of a twelve-Inch beaole.

Now let us analyse the dachshund's claim
to be considered a sporting dog. I base that
claim on three grounds — (i) His position
in his native country, (2) his uses In
this country, and (3) my own personal ex-
perience of him in many countries.

And first as to his position In his native
country, by which I mean Germany and
Austria, where he has so lono- been natural-
ised, for the real land of his origin has long
been lost to human knowledo'e, even if he is
not, as I said in a previous chapter, one of

ON DACHSHUNDS 97

the original breeds of dog. At all events, as
there stated, we find the dachshund in Baby-
lonian sculpture and Egyptian frescoes. In
Germany and German-speaking Austria, the
dachshund is the keeper s Ao<g par excellence,
and one seldom meets 'd.forster or waldhiiter
who has not one trotting at his heels. This
alone should prove him a sportsman's dog,
for a keeper is not a likely man to keep
cats that cannot catch mice. Well, what
does he use him for ? First and foremost,
he uses him for the destruction of vermin.
In autumn, when the badgers are fat, he
expects him to lie up in the badger's earth
till both are dug out. He also uses him to
bolt the fox, for which he waits with ready
gun outside the earth. Or he will slip a
couple of dachshunds into a small close
covert while he covers the most likely place

98 ON DACHSHUNDS

for the fox to break. Secondly, he uses him
as we do beagles in Scotland, to drive roe
to the guns ; but this is not done every-
where, as harrying with dogs is apt to make
roe shift their quarters. Red and fallow deer
are also thus killed ; or wounded, when the
dachshund, on a line, is used to track the
stricken beast to his last lair. In wild boar
shooting, again, the dachshund is used in two
ways. If a single dog is used, the boar will
stand to bay, and the dog's bark directs the
sportsmen where to steal in and get a shot.
Two sportsmen approaching from opposite
sides have a still better chance. Or, if two
or three dachshunds are used, they will drive
a boar to the guns previously posted every
whit as well as larger dogs. To show that
the dachshund is looked upon only as a sport-
ing dog in Germany, it is only necessary to

ON DACHSHUNDS 99

mention the field trials held in many places,
where prizes are given to the best dachs-
hunds (in various classes) at bolting foxes
and badgers from scientifically laid-out
earths.

I now come to his uses in this country.
First and foremost, dachshunds entered
young make a pretty, handy, and smart pack
of beagles. The only difficulty, to my mind,
is to get them musical enough, but they can
be found so in Germany, and, for aught I
know, in England. English dachshunds will
do very well for this purpose, for the basset-
cross which must have been used to get the
position of the ear our judges go for (and
which also brought the prominent shape of
the back of the skull, the weak, snipy jaw,
and the want of pluck generally found in
English dachshunds) is no drawback here.

loo ON DACHSHUNDS

Secondly, they can be used in England as in
Germany for badger digging, and in Scotland
and other non-hunting countries for bolting
foxes to the gun. But their more general
use will be rabbitinor and covert shootino^,
where there is not much game — rough
shooting, in fact. I habitually use them so,
and it is not necessary to say more than that
they must be taught to go with the keeper,
or beaters, whereas they prefer to accom-
pany their master with the gun. German
authorities insist that the dachshund must be
trained to come to whistle, even if on a hot
scent. Mine, I fear, are not broken to this
canon, and I admit that it is rather trying
to hear an old cock pheasant go sailing away
far out of shot after five minutes' full cry.
This drawback, however, applies equally to
covert shooting with beagles, and sometimes

ON DACHSHUNDS loi

the same thing happens with cocker spaniels.
It is, after all, a mere question of training.
I have often shot partridges over dachshunds,
and had some dogs that would road a covey
steadily a field or two. In roots they are
capital when kept In close, and will find and
put up every bird of a scattered covey.
They could certainly be taught to retrieve.
I have a bitch now that finds and stays
beside every lost bird, but Is too old to learn
to fetch them. My German friends, who are
great sticklers for the traditions of sport,
tried to make me see that It was not "cor-
rect " to shoot partridges over dachshunds.
One of them asked, at the very moment I had
a couple busy In the beetroot field we
were crossing, "What would you do If a
hare got up?" "Why, that," I answ^ered,
rolling one over which the dogs put up.

I02 ON DACHSHUNDS

The answer came pat ; but it must be admitted
that if she had gone away, several coveys
might have been flushed. The proper
answer is, '* Break them to come to call,
whether on a scent or not." I do not do
this for a specific reason, which is that my
dogs are expected to go with me to certain
happy hunting-grounds I wot of, where the
roe-deer lie in great woodlands ; and experi-
ence has shown me that, in order to get
them to draw wide, and hunt till they bring
their deer to the gun, they must be trained
as hounds, that is, entered to game, but not
broken.

As to my third head, I have, I fear,
encroached on it already in the last one.
Suffice it to say, that in England I have
shot over dachshunds all our native game
except grouse ; and abroad, chamois, roe.

ON DACHSHUNDS lo-.

o

foxes, jackals, wild boar, and many kinds of
wino-ed <j[-ame. To show what a dachshund
will do, I may mention a little bitch I took
with me on the trip to Albania, described in
another chapter. She had only one evening
to make the acquaintance of our skipper,
but nevertheless when told went readily
with him and the huo'e Albanian doo:s.
All day she hunted roe, pig, and jackal
till, in the evening, she could hardly crawl,
and her ears were perfectly hairless.
(Those who have been to Albania know
w^hat the thorns are there.) Next clay
we left her on the yacht, and on l^he third
day she was as ready as ever, and worked
all day. Ground and beaters were quite
strange to her, and she had never hunted
any furred game but hares, and those more
than a year before this. Was this not a

I04 ON DACHSHUNDS

sporting dog- ? and what use would a cripple
have been In such a country ? I have known
my dachshunds follow chamois along paths
on the face of sheer rock many hundred feet
high. Could a cripple do that ?

As for the non-sporting side of the
question, the suitability of dachshunds as
companions, I think there can be only one
opinion, but that It Is entirely beyond the
scope of this paper, which I will close with
a story told by Herr Cornell, a name familiar
to many Englishmen. He lost his two
dachshunds in the woods one day when out
fox-shooting. Five days after, a woodman
came, and said he had seen one crying at the
mouth of a fox-earth. Going to the spot, he
found one dog, and digging into the earth
the other, safe and sound. This dog had
followed the fox In, but a falling rock had

ON DACHSHUNDS 105

barred his exit, so, after killing the fox, he
had lived on him, having eaten all but the
head and the brush. Meanwhile, his com-
panion had stuck by him, fasting five days
in order to do so. One hardly knows which
to admire most — the pluck of the one dog,
or the fidelity of the other one to him.

IX

A RECORD

TTl TE were a small but cheery party
staying at the White Horse, at
Exforcl, ten years ao-o, for sta£{ huntino-.
The off-days were rather tedious, and the
youngsters of the party fell back on whip-
ping the Exe and Barle for trout. One
Sunday morning a little knot of us were
hanoino- about on the bridoe, when the
conversation turned not unnaturally on a
fish that for days had been persistently
lying just above the arch.

" I think I could get that fellow," I

106*

A RECORD 107

remarked. Beino- challena;ed to do so, I
borrowed a rod, and, removing- the top, tied
a hook about two and a half inches long to
the end of the next joint. I am not an
angler, but, schoolboy recollections helping
me, at the second attempt I neatly "snatched "
the fish, and held him up, flapping, in triumph.
Oh, horror ! it was not a trout at all, but —
a salmon pink !

''Well, for a county magistrate I think

that's a record," quoth the late Colonel ,

himself the Chairman of a Bench, when the
laughter occasioned by my exploit had
somewhat subsided. ''Let's see how it
would work out on a charge-sheet : —

"(1) Taking salmon in close time (Sunday).

"(2) Taking salmon pink.

" (3) Taking salmon without a licence.

" (4) Taking salmon with an illegal engine.

io8 A RECORD

*' (5) Fishing In the Exe without a ticket."

Unfortunately the unhappy salmlet was not
in a condition to be returned to the water,
but the lesson — not to meddle In sports one
does not understand — was not wasted on me.
I have never caught a fish since, though I
once did (in France) shoot a carp with a
rook rifie.

Fortunately my case never came before
any Bench, but I remember one w^ilch did,
and which ran it pretty close. It was that
of a youth who shot a swan on the Lower
Wye. He was charged w^Ith

(i) Carrying a gun without a licence ;

(2) Infringement of the Wild Birds Pro-
tection Act ; and

(3) Trespass In pursuit.

Moreover, when he had finished at the
Police Court, he was summoned In the

A RECORD 109

County Court for the value of the bird, by
the Corporation to which it belonged.

I should say next time he wants a swan
he will go to Leadenhall Market.

M

X

"TRADE BULLETS"

OST sportsmen who do any amount
of bio- Q-ame shootinsj must have
experienced some unaccountable results In
the getting away of game where they have
felt sure of their shot, and even where fairly
extensive bloodmarks show that the aim was
not to blame. It was such results as these
which made me fly to big bore rifles, and so
sacrifice range and trajectory rather than
smashing power. Some years ago a re-

110

•'TRADE BULLETS" in

viewer took me to task for speaking of a
.500 Express as a pop-gun, but when I
explained that I meant with a hollow fronted
bullet, he expressed himself satisfied — which
he ought not to have been. Since those
days I have made a series of searching in-
quiries into rifles, and especially ammunition,
and I believe that I have at last oot to the
root of the matter. At all events, except for
elephants (and perhaps bison) in jungle, I
am willing to renounce the 4, S, 12, and 16
bores for the future. The .577 Magnum,
which is 20 bore at the breech and practically
24 in the bore, is big enough for anything
else — perhaps even for these. I speak of
the " bottle " case, but the ;^^ in. straight is,
of course, equally effective. But such
weapons are hardly those which are in
use by the ordinary game shot, and I

112 ''TRADE BULLETS"

refer to those which might be required in
Scotland.

The reason, I beHeve, that there are so
many of these unaccountable failures to bag
with the rifles in common use is simply want
of ''drive." What is the secret of the
tremendous outcry made (mostly in South
Africa) in favour of the .303 as a sporting
weapon? Not, I think, as much low
trajectory or high velocity as the fact that
with these weapons either a solid (compound)
bullet is used, or, at all events, one with
a long solid base.

Now let us look at the ordinary, or
" trade " bullet supplied by gunmakers. We
will take the .500 as being perhaps the most
useful all-round rifle, and certainly that in
most general use. If we examine the 340-
grain bullet, as generally sold, in section,

TRADE BULLETS" im

J

we find that it has a hollow, ^ in. in diameter,
in the centre, the walls of which hollow are
but f in. thick at their broadest, and conse-
quently expand or fly to pieces directly they
strike a bone. Then what is left to penetrate
the animal is a wad-shaped piece of lead ^ in.
thick. Examine the shoulder of a dead
tiger, and then ask yourself what this is to
penetrate that mass of sinew, muscle, and
bone. This is the secret of these failures,
and it applies chiefly to the bores most in
use — the .500 and the .450, the" trade"
bullet, of which latter is only 270 grains.
The .400 is a litde better, as its bullets are
230 grains, with a seven - sixteenths inch
base ; but I propose to return to this bore
presently.

Of late years some gunmakers have
awaked to these facts, and supply a 325-

114 ''TRADE BULLETS"

grain hollow front bullet for the .450 and a
440-gTaIn hollow front bullet for the .500.
Now, it seems to me that they thus avoid
the Scylla of bullets with too light a base,
only to fall into the Charybdis of getting a
bullet too heavy for the powder, or, in other
words, a high trajectory. I say "it seems
to me," because I have not been able to
make the necessary experiments to prove or
disprove my idea. I imagine that for these
heavier-based bullets it is better to adopt the
so-called Magnum chambering, having 140
grains of powder in .450 and 160 in the .500 ;
but I leave it to gunmakers to consider
whether they cannot give us the lighter
bullets in a different shape, so that we may
have a heavier base and yet the same
weights of powder and lead respectively.
Meanwhile, sportsmen are warned that all

"TRADE BULLETS*' 115

ordinary ammunition made by the larger
firms of ammunition makers for use in .450
and .500 bore Express rifles contains these
''trade" or, in plain English, ineffective
bullets.

I said before that I would return to the
subject of the .400 bore Express — my latest
love in rifles. In this bore the "trade
bullet " Is 225 grains, with a base seven-
sixteenths of an inch thick. Behind this is
80 grains of powder, or in a Magnum no.
A better cartridge is the American
Winchester express, also made by Eley,
with 1 10 grains powder and a 260-graIn
hollow-fronted bullet.

An English firm has recently attempted
to get better results in this bore In what
they call the .400-400 rifle, the first number
referrinor to the calibre, and the second to

ii6 "TRADE BULLETS"

the \vei"ht of the soHcl bullet used therewith.
They also supply two hollow-fronted bullets
weighing 340 and 370 grains respectively.
In this latter the hollow is only five-tw^elfths
of an inch deep, leaving a solid base over an
inch long. This is no doubt a splendid
projectile, but it has unfortunately the great
drawback that an enormous charge of
powder ^ is necessary to give it a satisfac-
torily flat trajectory. The .450 Magnum, of
which the bullet weighs only 325 grains, is
found to require 140 grains of powder, so
that a 370 grain bullet would require about
160 grains, which the 400 case will not hold.

^ Black powder, of course, is referred to throughout this
article. I have no doubt the .400-400 rifle with a charge of
43 grains of smokeless powder would give excellent results.
But, as all sportsmen know, there are objections to the use
of nitro-compounds in wild countries, to go into which would,
however, be beyond the scope of these remarks.

-TRADE BULLETS" 117

But taking even the lightest bullet of this
make — 340 grains. From practical experi-
ence I know that the trajectory of the
Winchester .400-1 ic-260 is only moderately
flat. What sort of a trajectory can we
then expect with a bullet 80 grains heavier,
the powder charge being constant ? More-
over, so heavy a bullet would increase recoil,
and together with the use of the bottle-
shaped cartridge case, for which these rifles
are made, be very trying to any ordinary
rifle action.

Being thus dissatisfied with every .400
cartridge made, I turned my attention to
the possibility of devising one which should,
as far as possible, combine the advantages and
avoid the defects of all. Preferring, as I (and
most practical sportsmen) do, a tapered case
to a botde-shaped one, because it throws so

ii8 ''TRADE BULLETS"

much less strain on breech and action, I was
restricted to the Eley (or Winchester) 3I In.
case, which Is the only tapered .400 case
made, so far as I know. This case Is usually
loaded with iio grains powder, and the
Winchester 260 grain bullet with a half inch
hollow at the point. Now what are the faults
of this cartridge ? I consider them three
— First, the proportion of lead to powder
is excessive, giving comparatively high
trajectory ; second, the bullet (260 grains) Is
fully light for the larger deer, etc., and con-
sequently deficient In shock ; and, third, the
hollow at the point of the bullet Is too deep,
and is filled by a copper tube, which I know
from practical experience impairs its expand-
ing qualities, causing It to go right through
an animal, making a clean wound and little
blood.

"TRADE BULLETS" 119

In my cartridge (which I have ventured
to call the " Snaffle " cartridge) I have com-
bated these faults as follows : — The first
by increasing the powder charge by one-
eleventh and the lead by one-thirteenth, thus
lowering the proportion of the latter to the
former ; the second, by increasing not only
the weight of the bullet, but the length of
its solid base ; and the third, by leaving the
hollow at the point, now reduced to a quar-
ter of an inch, quite empty. The "Snaffle"
cartridofe can thus be best described as a
.400-120-280, whose bullet has a hollow a
quarter of an inch in depth at the point,
with a tapered case. Its advantages seemed
to me so evident that I had some loaded at
once, and am more than satisfied with the
result. Before coming to this I will tabulate
the loads, etc., of all the .400 bore rifle

I20

TRADE BULLETS "

cartridges made In England, with my own,
so that the reader may see at a olance the

J o

merits and defects of each.

Name of
Cartridtre

Powder Charge Bullet
in Grains Grains

Eley . . .80
Eley . . .110
Eley's Winchester 1 10
I'lio
Jeftery's .400-400 \ no

"Snaffle"

120'

260

400
280

Cartridge
Case

Bottle-shaped

do
Tapered
Bottle-shaped

do

do
Tapered

From the above table It will be seen that
In my cartridge there Is the heaviest bullet
with which the due proportion of powder to
lead is at all observed ; that the trajectory Is
low, that the shock is great, that the open
hollow must expand on Impact, leaving a

1 If preferred, to give still flatter trajectory, the loader
may be told to fill the case, which, leaving room for the
bullet, holds 123 to 125 grains.

"TRADE BULLETS" 121

heavy base to drive it home ; and that the
case Is tapered, not of the objectionable
bottle shape. Given all these advantages It
must, I think, be conceded that It Is the best
all - round cartridge yet designed for all
ordinary game.

After all, ''the proof of the pudding Is In
the eating," and here Is a representation of
the first " Snaffle " bullet ever fired at eame.

It was fired at a chamois, moving away at
about 130 yards distance. The tremendous
shock fairly knocked the animal forwards,
and after going a few yards it died. The
bullet struck between the ribs and hind-
leg, and w^as found by me under the skin of

122 "TRADE BULLETS"

the throat. As will be seen, It Is nicely
"mushroomed," with a o-ood solid base to
drive it through. I have not yet had a
chance to use these cartridges at anything
bigger than chamois, but It simply crumples
them up with an absolutely flat trajectory to
a hundred and fifty yards or so.

Since writino- the foreo^oino- I have made

o o o

arrangements whereby the "Snaffle" cart-
ridge (regd.) can be obtained solely from Mr.
W. R. Leeson, the well-known gunmaker of
Ashford and 29 Maddox Street, W., and as I
have no pecuniary interest in its sale, I may
say I hope some of my readers will give it
a trial.

XI

OLD COACHING DAYS IN THE
LAKE DISTRICT

A RECENT reference In a sporting
paper to coaching In the Lake
District, brings vividly back to my mind
the many jolly days I spent on the road
thereabouts during the seven years I passed
at Windermere College.

What a dear old place It was ! and how
many pleasant memories of boating, bathing,
birdnesting, skating, hunting (on foot),
cricket, and mountaineering does the name

124 OLD COACHING DAYS

bring back ? But it was principally the
last two that were connected with coachine
recollections. Cricket In those days was
the only idol of a schoolboy's worship.
There was no tennis then, and football,
which we played in w^inter, of course, was
not by any means the passion it has since
become in the north. The school boasted six
minor clubs, through which every boy had
to work his way to his final promotion to
"the Eleven." This was no mean one, for
in those days it could hold its own in the
north of England, and such clubs as the
Walton and Sefton were Mad to come from
Liverpool, and try conclusions with "the
boys," who, of course, except in school
matches, played their professional.

It was to many of our "out" matches that
our coaching trips were made. Burton-in-

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT 125

Kendal was one of these, and there we
played in Mr. Hornby's park, and he mostly
captained the Burton team. A still longer
drive was to Kirkby Lonsdale, where Lord
Bective was our host at Underley Park. A
sad memory is connected in my mind with
this, for about my last trip there, one of our
non-playing- comrades was drowned, while
bathino- in the Lune.

It was on these occasions I first had the
chance of handling a team. One or two of
our masters drove a bit, and we who were
used ''at home" (how the old schoolboy
phrases crop up ! ) to handling a pair,
generally got a chance of ''tooling them."
In fact, the driving was my inducement for
going on these occasions, for my cricket was
never up to "eleven" form. I generally
managed to go, however, as scorer, umpire,

126 OLD COACHING DAYS

or guest. These coaches were owned by
John Rigg of the W'indermere Hotel, who
then had, and I beHev^e still has, the
contracts for the mail coaches — of which
more anon. Our usual driver was an old
professional called Bell, a fine whip, but,
truth to tell, sadly intemperate, for which
offence he had been many times discharged
and afterwards forgiven by his master. I
well remember the episode which led to his
final discharge. A couple of coaches had
been chartered to take a lot of us to
Keswick for a climb up Skiddaw. At the
last moment the accommodation proved
insufficient to seat us all, and Rio-cr sent
down a pair-horse brake to take the rest.
Bell was the driver of this. While we were
climbing he was drinking. Coming home
he could hardly sit on the box without help,

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT 127

but he obstinately refused to give up the
ribbons. The lamps had been lit at Rydal.
I was on the second coach, the brake bring-
ing- up the rear. Not half a mile from
Ambleside we passed a waggonette returning
to Grasmere empty. Bell was on the wrong
side of the ro^id ; and, looking back, I saw
by his lamps that he was not pulling across,
in spite of the other driver's shouts. The
result was a smash, but, strange to say, the
two pole-heads met fair. Bell's shivered,
but no other harm was done. Of course, we
had pulled up, and, by the way, it was Bell's
son that was with us — one of the masters
driving at the time. The old man was
forcibly removed from the box and shut up
inside the son's coach. Finally they drove
off, leaving me to drive the brake home, for
which purpose they promised to send me a

128 OLD COACHING DAYS

pole from Ambleside. Some time elapsed
before It arrived, and though I sent the old
post-horses along, all I knew, they were too
tired to make much of a pace up the
Troutbeck Hill. When we reached home
the coaches were sione, and an ostler was
waitino- for the brake. As luck would have
It, Mr. Rlsfo' had noticed the lono- Interval
between the two arrivals, and came out to
question Bell. Of course, he noticed the lad
who was drivino-, and further Investio-atlon —
discovering the strange pole, and lastly
Bell himself, still snoring inside the coach
— resulted in prompt and final dismissal.
Otherwise, the matter would probably have
been hushed up, as the old man was a
general favourite, and his son, who I believe
Is still driving, a steady fellow and a smart
whip.

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT 129

In relating this episode I have rather
mixed mountaineering- with cricket. As has
been seen, several coaches used to take us
to the beginning of our climb — say Coniston
for the " Old Man," and await our return
to take us back, after a substantial tea. My
favourite trip was Helvellyn, for there the
coaches used to drive us to the Patterdale
side ; and, while we went over the Striding

o

Edge and down by Thirlmere, they used

to drive round by Ambleside to meet us

at Grasmere. My proceeding on these

occasions was to "stow away" and then,

reappearing on Bell's coach, drive all the

rest of the way to Grasmere. I have a

vivid recollection of one day's drive. It

was to Dungeon Ghyll — the mountains to

be tackled being the Langdale Pikes.

Before we reached Troutbeck, Bell had
9

130 OLD COACHING DAYS

given me the ribbons of his (the leading)
coach, and taken the brake seat.

Just before we reached Lowood Hotel,
a blind turn showed a wood-waggon half
across the road. The driver was away,
probably nutting, and the road on the lake
side was unfenced. We were coming
smartly down hill. '' Take his wheel off,
sir," quoth Bell coolly, at the same time
taking off the brake. W^ith a shout at the
leaders, I double-thonged the wheelers, and,
probably more by luck than anything else,
took his near hind-wheel just inside the felloe
with my off one. The shock was scarcely
perceptible to me, but, as Bell had calculated,
it was too great for the rusty old linch-pin,
and the wheel actually followed us some
way down the hill. The cart-horses only
gave one frightened movement, so I was

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT 131

told. Of course, these pleasure coaches, like
the mail ones, were old-fashioned, and very
strong and heavy. I shouldn't care to
make the experiment with a drag.

To return to our drive. After leavino-
VVaterhead, one of the masters, a young
fellow with spectacles, took the ribbons.
He succeeded in jamming his near-side
wheels against a stone dyke, which cleared
the coach-roof, sending most of us over the
wall into the field beyond. However, no
harm was done. I will say for the driver,
that a nastier road than this same Dungeon
Ghyll one was then hard to find. Our
troubles were not over yet. At the bottom
of this hill, the near-leader, a grey mare,
who was in use, started kicking, and some-
how broke the main splinter-bar. We
carried no spare ones, so all we could do

132 OLD COACHING DAYS

was to take her out and send her on by a
yokel, and finally I drove up to the Dungeon
Ghyll Hotel with a pIck-axe team. But
even this was not all. All we could borrow
to replace the broken bar was a plough one,
of course, without spring-catch. The open-
ing of this was secured with stout string ;
and so we started for home. Going down a
celebrated nasty hill, the name of which I
forget, the hook came out, and clown
dropped the bars right under the wheelers'
feet. Bell was fortunately driving, and
completed the descent without stopping,
keeping his leaders away in the most
wonderful manner. This was our last
accident that day.

My experience of the road coaches was
more limited. As far as I can recollect,
there were originally three, all annual and

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT 133

all hailing from the Windermere Hotel.
The first ran to Ambleside, Rydal, and
Grasmere to Keswick, an easy road. The
second ran by '' the highest inhabited
house " down Kirkstone Pass, a nasty
dangerous hill, to U lis water and Patterdale.
These two still run — at least, I drove the
latter during a flying visit to the old place
(no longer a school) in the Jubilee year.
The third, which may be run now, but was,
I fancy, at one time taken off, ran by
Bowness and, crossing Windermere Lake
by the ferry-boat, reached Coniston through
Hawkshead. This road presented no
difficulties, but the ferry required a steady
team. It was not a steam affair in those
days.

I have already described the coaches.
The horses were the pick of Rigg's posters,

134 OLD COACHING DAYS

heavy on hand, not too fast, or, perhaps,
too sound, but capital practice to drive.
Did I drive, or only hear of, one cele-
brated team there that had only three eyes
amongst them ? I forget.

What I do recollect was working the
Keswick return coach Into Grasmere one
day In time to hear the news of the
TIchborne claimant's conviction, over a
score of years ago.

XII

THE FINEST SPORT

\ QUESTION that has been put to me
-^^^ more than once is the following : —
" You have a good deal of all-round experi-
ence, what do you consider the finest sport ? "
And a very difficult question it is to answer.
In the smoking-room, of an evening, the
finest sport is generally that which we have
that day been enjoying, whether it happens
to have been a quick thing with the Blank-
shire, a big day at the rocketers, '' as high as
they make them," a productive tramp through

135

136 THE FINEST SPORT

the heather, a long and tiring grind after a
''warrantable stag" across the hills and
combes of Exmoor, hours spent, tiller in hand,
with one eye, so to say, on the mark boat
and the other on the leash of the strainino-
mainsail, or, no doubt, half an hour's struggle
with a 20 lb. salmon, though of this last only
I cannot speak from experience.

Some sports seem to single themselves
out for comparison, — for instance, pig-sticking
and fox-hunting, — a comparison which I,
personally, would never make, having a
perhaps weak - minded way of attaching
myself to my horses ; and though, no doubt.
It is a fact that we do risk our favourites a
score of times In a quick run, even over a
moderate country, still the risk Is not so
obvious as that from the grey boar's tusks,
and it was one that I could never bring

THE FINEST SPORT 137

myself to run for the flat and shapely legs of
my beloved Arabs.

The essence of sport Is to pit one's self
against those powers of defence with which
nature has endeavoured to protect the par-
ticular animal which we are endeavouring
to lay low. Thus, when we approach the
monarchs of the jungle, pachydermatous or
carnivorous as the case may be, within a few
yards, with only our trusty rifle In our hands,
—and grand sport that is too, I warrant
you, — we pit ourselves against their strength
and natural weapons, just as when we slip
our greyhounds at the flying hare, we pit
ourselves against her speed.

Now, at one period of my life I should
have had no hesitation in giving the sporting
palm to fox-hunting, and even now I have
great hesitation in dispossessing it from its

138 THE FINEST SPORT

pride of place, and If I do so It Is, perhaps,
really only because I have not tasted Its
delights for three whole seasons. I will,
however, make It this amends, that I un-
doubtlngly place It at the head of English
sport.

Before proceeding to examine It by the
canons I have already laid down I will add
one to their number, and that is that a
certain risk of life or limb Is necessary to
give flavour to sport ; and that a certain risk,
although If we are guided by averages It Is
an infinitesimal one, we have In fox-huntlno-.i
But does It fulfil the others ? In its original

^ Assuming that there are 160 packs of foxhounds in
England, that an average " field " with each pack is 40, and
that the average number of hunting days is 50 (all low
enough surely), we get 320,000 people fox-hunting during the
season. What is the proportion of fatal fox-hunting
accidents, and that of other accidents to this undeniable
underestimate ?

THE FINEST SPORT 139

form, the peep-of-day meet, the drag up to
the find, and the long slow pursuit, it did
perhaps do so, but nowadays we are rather
inclined to sacrifice everything to ''a gallop."
No doubt a good fast run is the acme of fox-
hunting, but at the moment at which hounds
are really brought to their noses, and the
cream of the thing for the houndman is
about to begin, how often nowadays are his
delights marred by a ''halloa!" Of course,
there are many occasions when this is right
and proper, such as when the pack is not
quite a first-rate one or in proper condition ;
or again, when a long-continued series of
bad scenting days has made the obtaining
of blood desirable, although I am much
inclined to doubt if the best hounds are not
those which don't require blooding at all.
Put apart from the bad effect on hound.s

I40 THE FINEST SPORT

of so often getting their heads up, 1 doubt
very much if this hunting a fox by the
assistance of halloas can be considered sport
at all. The presence of the halloaer is an
adventitious circumstance, on which the
huntsman has no right to reckon. What
should we think of a master who planned an
elaborate system of vedettes, so that his
indifferent-nosed towlers should be sure of
assistance when they required it ? Yet this
would be only carrying the system of going
to halloas to its legitimate conclusion.
Which of us has not seen some pack or
other where all day long the huntsman is
assailed by such cries as "There's a halloa
on, Jones," "There's a halloa back, Jones,"
" There's a man halloaing by Thicket
Spinny, Jones," or "There's a chap waving
his hat on Tump Hill, Jones." When we do

"WHAT THE DEVIL DID YOU ALLOA FOR?"
'"COS ISE PAID TO'

THE FINEST SPORT 141

hear this sort of thing we need not pity
Jones, the huntsman, for we may be sure It
is his usual practice to out horn and gallop
off to the distant bawler, regardless of what
his hounds may be doing at the moment.
The climax Is reached when the following
dialogue ensues.

Huntsman : *' Where did you see 'Im,
boy?"

Boy (after a long stare) : *' Zee wha-a-at } "

H.'. "The fox, of course."

B. (after thinking it out carefully) : "Ain't
seen narrun."

H. : "Then what the devil did you 'alloa
for.?"

B.\ "'Cos I'se paid to. I'se flaying
rewks."

( Tableau. )

The real huntsman, who merely acknow-

142 THE FINEST SPORT

ledges such Information with a quick "Thank-
ye, slr,"^ will soon find that he gets less and
less of It ; In fact, If anybody offers It, It will
be some old sportsman who knows as well
as himself that If the run Is to end with blood,
they must be lifted now.

Of course there Is the other extreme ; the
pack which no noise affects In any way, and
very exasperating they can be on occasion
also. But these are very rare, being in fact
limited to a few^ out-of-the-way Welsh packs,
of one of which the story has been told that
after a kill they would cast themselves round,
hit off the heelway, and run the line back
again to the covert they originally found in.

Still, no doubt, fox-hunting is facile
princeps of English sports. But there is

^ Pytchley men will know who was in my mind when I
penned this. Poor Goodall 1

THE FINEST SPORT 143

another sport which I am inclined to think
very nearly equals it in every respect, save
only that we neither have the music of the
hounds nor the delightful feeling of having
a well-bred horse under us — I allude to
chamois stalking. But for me it must not
be such chamois shooting as a good many
Englishmen are familiar with, as, indeed, a
well-known firm of tourist agents were ad-
vertising the other day — I mean that in
which the Hcrr is put under charge of
a forester, who takes his rifie and leads the
way for some hours, till at last, after peering
over a ridge, he beckons his panting, per-
spiring " Master," and says, '' The third from
the snow-patch is the buck ; shoot quick, or
they'll be off."

No ; if I am to have a companion, let it
be a four-legged one — a dog who will lie

J44 THE FINEST SPORT

down for hours where I tell him. Even he
win probably be a hindrance to me durlng-
the day. Let the first glow of sunrise find
me lying- with ready telescope, on some
rocky grat, in some recess of which I have
passed the night as best I may, rolled in a
blanket which the keeper brought up yester-
day, and which he will take away to-day,
together with the etna which made the cocoa,
which has just warmed my stiffened limbs.

There they are ! One, two, six, eight of
them. I needn't watch these, for it is too
early in the year for a good buck to be with
a herd. Presently the glass falls on a
second herd, then on two darker coloured
beasts, — bucks, no doubt, — but we will wait

1 It is only fair to Mr. Carl Zeiss to say, that since I became
acquainted with his prismatic glasses I have almost aban-
doned my telescope for them.

THE FINEST SPORT 145

a little, although keeping an eye on them.
Ten minutes later I catch slofht of another
and this time a short Inspection satisfies me
that he would rank as a Bartg'dms (an old
buck chamois, the hair on whose withers is
sufficiently long to make the much coveted
trophy for hats) two months hence. I watch
him carefully till at last he lies down. His
position is carefully chosen, for his back is
to a ridge of rocks hundreds of feet high,
and sheer ; and his eyes command the rock
and snow slopes before him. But there is a
blot on his plan of defence. To his right
rear the high rocks are broken down in one
place, and below this there is a gulf, the
couloir at one side of which is just accessible.
Once I am up that, I am above and within
a hundred yards of my artful friend. Is It
necessary to explain that on such ground the

10

146 THE FINEST SPORT

direction of the wind In the forenoon is
usually, If not Invariably, itpwards'^. All
depends on his not moving, for if he goes
even a little hicrher he will see and hear me
climbing up.

The next step is to climb down the grat
I am perched on, and then I strike a long
valley, mostly snow - covered. Two hours'
walk and climb, mostly over snow and shaly
slopes, brings me to the bottom of my
couloir. Then I take the climbing-irons out
of my ruck-sack, buckle them on, and com-
mence the ascent. It has to be done
carefully ; and the best part of a third hour
has passed before I crawl out on a flat rock
at the top, pushing my rifle before me. My
alpen-stock, ruck-sack, and climbing-irons I
left ten yards back, together with my nailed
shoes.

THE FINEST SPORT 147

The first careful reconnaissance produces
no result ; but just as I am beginning to fear
my solitary friend has shifted his position, I
see a movement which proves to be that of
his head, everything else being hidden by
the rocks. As I have no intention of lying
here till he rises, which will probably not be
till the sun Is sinking, I reach out for a loose
piece of rock and place It cautiously near my
right foot. Then I get myself into position,
and push It over the edge of my rock.
Down It clatters.

''Whew!" As I calculated, the buck
springs to his feet with a whistle of alarm,
and then stands like a statue, his head
turned In my direction. He probably cannot
distinguish my recumbent and motionless
figure, but this is not a question that I await
for time to decide. The bead covers the

148 THE FINEST SPORT

fatal spot where the lines of the fore-leg and
belly meet ; and I press the trigger. What
a bound ! But his legs fail him as he alights,
and he rolls over and over down a snow-
slope. No fear of his rising again.

As soon as I have recovered my shoes
and other impedimenta I follow him, and put
the tape on his horns. Ten inches and an
eighth ! Well worth the trouble they cost
to get. I should not care to eat him, but
the foresters do, so I gralloch him, and mark
the spot as best I can for the man whom I
shall send for him this evening.

This is the baldest description of a stalk,
and one, too, of the simplest and safest kind.
I have not dwelt on the natural beauties of
the ground we encounter in this sport,
although it is not too much to say that if
from our hill-top we fail to find our game,

PUT THE TAPE ON HIS HORNS.

THE FINEST SPORT 149

the view alone will repay us for our climb.
Then there are the hairbreadth escapes from
dangers caused in a hundred ways, but,
above all, by fog ; the disappointments, and
even the misses which give variety to the
sport. One last thing, the author of SJiort
Stalks says he never recollects having a
totally blank day's chamois shooting, i.e.
without his seeing game, and my limited
experience confirms his extensive one. We
both shot, be it remembered, on unpreserved
ground.

XIII
ROUND THE BOUNDARIES

A GOOD many owners and tenants of
shootings are, It must be confessed,
bond slaves to their gamekeepers. But even
amongst those of us that are not, there must
exist some natural sympathy for the feelings
of "Velveteens." I take it that there Is no
way more calculated to outrage these than
by disturbing the coverts between the end,
say, of October and the first " shoot " of the
season. Keepers are not, though they are
so often depicted, men whose only idea is

150

ROUND THE BOUNDARIES 151

the "tip" which they look to receiving after
a successful day s sport. Generally speaking,
they take a proper and honest pride in
showing a good head of game, furred and
feathered, to their master and his guests.
What can be more disheartening to a man
who feels like this, than to be obliged to run
spaniels through his coverts and disturb some
scores of pheasants, for one or two guns who
cannot possibly get shots at one-half of them,
and who very likely don't bag one -fifth?
No ; the coverts par excellence should be a
sanctuary until that winter morning, when,
with his guns scientifically posted, and his
stops at their places, the keeper enters them
with his smock-frocked myrmidons, to send
the feathered citizens exactly where they
ought to go.

But we can't be always hunting (don't

152 ROUND THE BOUNDARIES

hunt, indeed, some of us), or golfing, or even
smoking. Some days there are when we
feel we must " o-q and kill something."
Then we wander out to the eun-room
after breakfast, and tell the keeper we will
"just take a turn round the boundaries."
W hereby we get him on the soft place.
The boundaries, especially in a small
shooting, are ever a sore point with him.
He has a deadly hatred (veiled in a
thoroughly Christian but somewhat patron-
ising manner) and contempt for the keeper
adjoining. He even suspects him of that
exceedingly unsportsmanlike device, putting
down a " cage " in a boundary woodland.
He knows him to be guilty of raisins, and
he even resents the (quite legal) appearance
of the other's spaniels on his side of the
boundary fence. He believes the other

ROUND THE BOUNDARIES 153

keeper incites yokels to purloin his pheasants'
eggs, and even his ant-hills. He openly
accuses him to his own master of vulpicide,
thereby it may be veiling his own delin-
quencies. Apart from this, he knows, of
course, that the game on the boundaries is
no man's game. He cannot be sure of
leading those plaguy old cock pheasants,
which are foolish enough to prefer hips and
haws and grubs to his corn, back home ;
therefore master had better have them than
anybody else. So without a grumble he
goes to the rack and takes down a gun.

'*No; the twenty," says the master; and
down comes the litde favourite — than which
there can be no better weapon when there is
much walking to not very much shooting.
Then the keeper fills a cartridge-bag, which
he balances with a ofame-bao- on the other

154 ROUND THE BOUNDARIES

shoulder, takes his stick, and is ready.
His three -score years sit Hghtly enough
upon him, for he is, indeed, a man with '' Hfe
experience " ; and, truth to tell, he can walk
down some younger men in a long day in a
rough country. Meanwhile the master has
gone for his hat, and they meet at a side
door of the house. The master is accom-
panied by a couple of favourite dachshunds.
The keeper used to turn up his nose at
these at first, but now he admits them to
be useful though ''desperate hard-mouthed."
A quarter of an hour sees them clear of the
lodge gates, and down a hill through some
cottages ; but, though they are past the
boundary, they trudge on, and turn off up
a right of way through some fields on an
adjoining property. But this path touches
the extreme corner of the shooting, and it is

ROUND THE BOUNDARIES 155

with the object of circumventing an outlying-
covey, which frequents that corner, that this
roundabout route has been taken. Once
over the wall, the master takes the sfun and
a handful of cartridofes, and loads. Then a
quiet advance is made ; the dogs, though
eager, obedient to the signalling hand. Not
half-way up the field, in which the brown
bracken grows freely, whirr ! up gets the
covey. A brace fall ; and at the double
report a hen pheasant rises fifty yards on
and tops the boundary fence. But our
sportsmen are following the covey with their
eyes, till it drops in a high gorse cover
above. That gorse is full of pheasants, as
both know, so the partridges are left in
peace ; the fallen birds are gathered, and
on they go. The field holds nothing more
but an outlying rabbit, which is not wanted.

156 ROUND THE BOUNDARIES

Meanwhile the sportsmen have crossed the
fence Into an open oak grove. By jumping
the ditch they disturb something. Flap!
flap ! — Down ! The first cock of the season.
One must look at it. It is still alive. The
beautiful eye is fortunately quite inexpres-
sive ; there is nothing to show agony,
though pain there must be. The head
droops ; it is over. The ground runs to
a point here, and at the very end up gets
a cock pheasant ; and gets away safely, too.
Well, one must miss sometimes. But that
was a bad one. The rest of the northern
boundary is blank, save of rabbits, which
are not shot at.

Before going on, our pair turn back
through some fields, to where a litde covert
lies between an orchard and a meadow. It
is not near the boundary, but it has been

ROUND THE BOUNDARIES 157

planted for days like this, and runs out at
rio-ht aneles to the bio; wood. Master stands
out in the meadow, and keeper, ratding his
stick on the fence, runs the dogs through
the covert. A brace of young pheasants
rise simultaneously, and flop ! flop ! they fall
on the grass. Truth to tell, it was rather
an easy double shot.

From here their way runs up a disused
hollow lane, but though the dogs find
several birds, they run into their own or
the neighbour's coverts and give no chances.
At the top is a mere strip of woodland
against a large wood— " Another's," as the
despairing lover says in melodrama. Master
o-ets on to the end, and keeper and dogs
work it through. Up get two cock birds.
One o-oes down, and the other is not shot
at. Keeper gathers the bird, with a broad

158 ROUND THE BOUNDARIES

o-rin, which becomes broader than ever
when at the next turn they meet the other
keeper peering out to see " who's arter
his birds." The poHteness of his "Good-
morning " is most crushing. A couple more
birds are seen as they coast the southern
boundary ; but nothing is done till they
reach the edge of a bit of low cut cover.
Through this the dogs are run. A dozen
pheasants rise and go on unfired at ; but one,
who Is audacious enouo^h to rise hlorh and
try to sail back towards a wood over the
march, is collapsed with a broken wing.
Marked down he is, of course, missing, but
the dogs draw up the line. Keeper follows,
and two hundred yards up the cover he finds
the dead bird.

" I feel I could do some lunch," says
master, and off they go homewards.

ROUND THE BOUNDARIES 159

An hour or so later they start again.
The shooting this time Is In the opposite
direction. Master presently disappears to-
wards a railway visible below. A little
covert lies between a turnpike road and a
deep cutting. Keeper and dogs enter this
with the result of sending a brace "very
hicrh " over master standlno^ on the line.
One falls with a crash on the very bank of
the river which adjoins the line, and as the
sportsman goes to get him, a hen rises from
some brambles, and starts off to cross, too,
but death meets her in the air. Into the
water she goes splash. Fortunately, a boat
is moored just below, and before the keeper
can get down the hill both birds are laid
together, and his master is looking for a
possible duck in a bushy backwater. Duck
there is none ; but keeper kicks out a hare

i6o ROUND THE BOUNDARIES

in the rushy field, and off go the dogs in
pursuit. As master scrambles up the bank
he meets puss almost face to face, turning
her sideways, when she gives a safe shot
and rolls over.

Then for a lonor time nothinor is done,
conscientiously, as a series of gorsy grass
fields, borderinor a huoe wood, are worked
out. They hold nothing but rabbits. The
sportsmen pass between two well-stocked
coverts (of the keeper's own) and strike the
high road. Here the shooting is only a
strip of grass, but the dogs feather and
scramble through the hedge. Forty yards
on they put up a cock pheasant, who, rising
and gathering height and way, comes best
speed for his sanctuary — the covert. A
sporting shot, and well killed, as the thump
on the ground attests.

ROUND THE BOUNDARIES i6i

"Try the long hedge, sir?" asks the
keeper.

Receiving affirmative answer, they go,
one on each side, down a thick fence all the
way to the river. A litde brook skirts it,
now one side and then the other. Two
pheasants are added to the bag, and at the
very bottom, where the meadow is marshy,
scape! scape! up gets a snipe, and is neatly
grassed.

Then they go home throuorh the g-atherino-
gloom.

II

XIV
COACHING IN CEYLON

Ye gentlemen of England, who sit at home at ease,
How little do ye think upon the perils of the seas —

wrote one of the gallants of Charles the
Seconds court when tumbUng about in
Monk's squadron off the Doggerbank. I
might paraphrase him, and say, how little
the British coaching man, comfortably en-
sconced on box or brake-seat of the "Old
Times" or ''Comet," thinks upon the
miseries which the so-called coaches in many
of our colonies inflict upon their unwilling

162

COACHING IN CEYLON 163

passengers. From time to time one sees
accounts in the papers of coaches and
coaching in America or Australasia, but
I do not think that I have ever seen
Ceylon coaches referred to. As, from a
long and regrettable acquaintance with
these vehicles, I have acquired some right
to speak of them, I propose to try and
give the reader some idea of the way in
which coaching is carried out in the land
of spicy breezes.

At the time I write of there were in
Ceylon six regular lines of coach traffic.
Firstly, came the Galle and Kalutara coach,
which for many years was the most im-
portant of all, connecting, as it did, the mail
port with the railway to the capital. Since
the new breakwater has enabled the great
steamship companies to call direct at the

i64 COACHING IN CEYLON

capital, it has lost all its importance, and
very likely has ceased to exist. In connec-
tion with this coach there was a short line
from Galle to Matara, a journey of about two
dozen miles. From the capital, Colombo,
there was one coach only, which ran to
Ratnapura, and had an unenviable reputation
for accidents. Much of this road was under
water after heavy rain. From Gampolla
Station a coach ran up the tremendous
Ramboda Pass to Newera Elliya, the sana-
torium, which is seven thousand feet above
the sea. The iron horse has now run this off
the road ; and the same remark applies to the
Kandy and Matale coach, which ceased to
exist in 1880. Finally, there was a coach from
Polgawhela Station to Kurnegalla, the capital
of the North-Western Province. All I know
about this coach is that a friend of mine

COACHING IN CEYLON 165

travelled by it and was upset twice,
down two separate embankments, in one
morning.

The main roads in Ceylon are probably
unequalled in any country in the world, and
are, I believe, kept up by forced labour —
that is to say, every able-bodied male in-
habitant has either to do so many days' work
on the roads, or to pay a substitute. Near
the sea-coast the roads are repaired with
cabook, a disintegrated coral, and are practi-
cally all dead level. The inland roads ascend
terrific hills, but the gradients are as
scientifically arranged as possible. The old
Kandy and Colombo road, which has long
ceased to be a coach road, even goes
through a tunnel. Anent this I may be
allowed an anecdote. There was an old
prophecy about a certain hill near Kandy,

i66 COACHING IN CEYLON

that " when a bullock cart was driven
through the hill, the Kandyan kingdom
would come to an end." After the final
capture of Kandy by the British, the road
was made and the hill in question tunnelled,
thus singularly fulfilling the prophecy to the
letter.

The Ceylon coaches are of uniform
pattern, and very unlike our idea of a
coach. The main body consists of a very
broad '* coach-inside" to accommodate three
on each seat. In front is a low driving-seat,
which affords room for one passenger, or
sometimes two. Behind, facing to the rear, is
another seat, which is very uncomfortable,
and always occupied by natives. On the
footboard of this the guard squats. The
roof is merely supported on iron stanchions.
Curtains of American cloth hang from this,

COACHIXG I\ CEYLOX 167

and they can be lowered to exclude the sun,
or raised to admit fresh air.

Now I come to the horses, and here I
am fairly nonplussed as to what to say.
Perhaps I can best give an idea of them by
saying that the price paid for them, in a
country where good horses cost more than
in England, was, as a rule, fifty rupees —
then worth is. 8d. each. Seventy rupees
(under £6) was quite a top price. As very
small horses, or cripples, were no use, it
followed that a great percentage of the
horses used were incurably vicious. Two
horses only were harnessed to the coaches,
which were heavy enough when loaded with
a dozen people, and luggage on top as
well as some swinging underneath. The
horses were invariably stallions, except
in the rare cases when a " Waler " was

i68 COACHING IN CEYLON

condemned to the coach for incurable buck-
jumping.

Perhaps I can best give an idea of the
way the Ceylon coaches are worked by de-
scribing a drive I once had from Kalutara
to Galle. It was neither my first nor my
last, but has, nevertheless, remained in my
memory. Wlien we arrived in the train
from Colombo we found the Galle coach
waiting at Kalutara Station. Amongst the
inside passengers were a couple of English
ladies. I had the box seat to myself At
this time I was new to Ceylon coaching, and
examined all I saw with curiosity. The
horses, two grey Indian country-breds, each
held by a native, were simply harnessed with
collar and traces only, like London 'bus
horses. No doubt to protect us from kicks,
the leather dashboard was supplemented

COACHING IN CEYLON 169

with a stout wooden one, and the space
between the two was filled with rolls of
stout coir rope as thick as one's finger. The
use of this I was yet to learn.

At last the luggage and passengers were
"all aboard." The driver, a native of
course, dressed in dark-blue serge, gathered
up his reins, while the guard, who was
similarly dressed, except that in his case
knickerbockers and bare legs took the place
of trousers and boots, blew the bugle strung
from his shoulders, and we were off. The
starting teams are always the best ; but on
this occasion we had not crone far when the
horses caught sight of each other. Forth-
with they neglected their business of pulling
the coach, and began a regular fight. The
guard rushed to the rescue, and they were
induced to give up their amusement. Mean-

I70 COACHING IN CEYLON

while the driver, a man of resource, handed
me the reins, and, taking- one of the rolls of
coir rope, got down. In a couple of minutes
he had extemporised two stout side reins.
These prevented the brutes from seeing or
biting each other, and they finished the stage
well enough. The stages were short ones ;
about seven miles Is the average.

After the greys had been taken out, the
near horse was harnessed, but there seemed
to be some delay about the other. At last
he appeared. Directly he saw the coach he
stopped, and nothing, as far as I could see,
would Induce him to move. I was not then
acquainted with the resources of Ceylon
horse-keepers. First a twitch went on his
nose, then one on each ear. A rope was
even passed round his fetlock. These In-
ducements, together with a volley of kicks

COACHING IN CEYLON 171

and blows, brought him at last to his place,
and he was harnessed. Then he refused to
start. After various modes of persuasion
had been attempted in vain, a local genius
(there are always half a dozen natives assist-
ing on these occasions) slipped a piece of
coir rope under his fore-arm. This rope is
very rough, and he sawed it backwards and
forwards. Flesh and blood could not stand
this ; the brute plunged into his collar. The
near horse had been pulling for some time.
The horn sounded, and that stage was soon
left behind.

The next change introduced us to another
variation. The near horse was harnessed as
before. They generally pair them so — one
quiet horse, one brute. The other was got
to the pole-head, but obstinately declined to
approach nearer. There he stood, facing us.

172 COACHING IN CEYLON

The pole-chain was connected, also his
inside trace, while the guard held the outer
one. Then the driver whipped up the near
horse, three or four natives manned the
wheels, and the coach started. We ''over-
took " the off horse ; he swung round into
his place, and was galloping by the other
long before the guard had secured his off
trace and regained his own seat.

Whilst our coach is rapidly rolling over
the next stage or two, let us take a glance at
a Ceylon low-country road and its surround-
ings. For the most part these roads are, as
I have said, dead level, and rarely out of
sight of the white breakers tumbling
incessantly on the coral reefs which fringe
the coast. For nearly the whole distance,
too, they run under overhanging cocoa-nut
palms, the great leaves of which clash and

COACHING IN CEYLON 173

hiss as the damp, warm wind sways them.
Frequently we pass native huts built of mud-
like conglomerate, and roofed with thatch
made of palm leaves. These are generally
surrounded with the bright green foliage of
the plantain or banana. The natives one
sees at work are either engaged in fishing
with long seine nets or employed in some of
the hundreds of forms in which the cocoa-nut
is useful to man. Here and there a bullock
is slowly revolving round a stone-crushing
mill, in which the kernels are being crushed
to yield their oil. Again a dozen natives
are splashing about in the filthy tanks, where
the husks are being rotted to facilitate the
removal of the fibre, or women are collecting
it, drying it, or making it into matting or
rope. Lastly, here and there natives can be
seen in the tree-tops, plucking the nuts, or

174 COACHING IN CEYLON

removing the pots of Intoxicating ''toddy,"
which have filled durino- the nio-ht.

Of tropical animal life we see little, unless
it be a troop of monkeys among the trees.
When we pass the open rice fields, or thick
pieces of jungle, barbets, golden orioles,
kinorfishers, and other brlo^ht-coloured birds
are to be seen. Aorain, at times huo^e
iguanas, as big as small alligators, shuffle off
the road, hissing angrily.

A staore or two further on we made the
acquaintance of a typical Ceylon coach horse.
There appeared, squealing at the sight of
the coach, about the most repulsive-looking
specimen of the equine race I have ever set
eyes on. In colour It was a pale dun, with
white main and tail, Its nose and underparts
pinkish, and the eyes distinctly green. I
will pass over struggles lasting nearly half

COACHING IN CEYLON 175

an hour, and suppose it harnessed. The
wheels were manned, the other horse pulHng ;
but the dun hung back so from his collar
that his hind-quarters began to slip under his
outer trace. I stopped this by standing on
the trace, and then he tried the other side,
and actually got pardy under the pole. The
jabber of the natives, the shrieks of the
ladles, and the curses of the driver can be
imagined. At last the latter ordered the
horse to be removed and sent back to
Kalutara. Another horse, probably one of
those which had just done a stage, was
fetched, and we were at last under way.

Always being anxious to learn, and
thinking they probably had some local
means of ''Rarefying" such brutes at the
terminus, I asked the driver what would
be done with the dun on his arrival

176 COACHING IN CEYLON

there. '' Now good shoot," was the laconic
reply.

The rest of our journey was marked by no
greater excitement than a pair of horses
which reared and then dashed so violently
into their collars as to smash the traces.
Although this happened twice during the
stage, we still had plenty of coir rope left,
but at the end of our journey we had used
the entire supply.

At last we rolled round the green
esplanade and through the old Dutch gate,
and pulled up at the Oriental Hotel, then in
the zenith of its prosperity.

I am afraid the vice displayed by Ceylon
coach horses is not at all due to '* original
sin." Natives are horribly cruel to animals.
I do not say it is the case in the mail
coaches, but in some of the others it is simply

COACHING IN CEYLON 177

physical pain which causes them to jib. On

one occasion I missed the mail, and travelled

from Matara to Galle in a so-called '* coolie

coach," a long waggonette full of natives, and

drawn by two wretched cobs. I got down

at a halting place and was horrified to see

the off horse zuas raw from shoulder to

shoulder. A dozen miles from anywhere, I

could do nothing. I fear that, even in the

mail coaches, sore shoulders are the rule

rather than the exception.

It was on one of these "coolie coaches" I

saw the most amusing change of horses I

ever heard of E , who at that time was

" Grain Commissioner " for the island, heard

I was going from Galle to Colombo on a

certain day, and kindly offered me a seat in

his dog-cart, to save me the coach drive.

He had his own horses stationed at intervals
12

178 COACHING IN CEYLON

on the road. I gladly accepted. His plan
was to sleep at Bentota — as famous in
Ceylon for Its oysters as Whitstable Is In
Eneland — and drive the same horse on in
the morning to Kalutara railway station.
As far as Bentota all went well ; but,
unfortunately, during the night there our
steed was badly griped, and quite unfit to
proceed next day. We were, how^ever, able
to fall back on a " coolie coach," a waggonette
full of natives, of which we had the box seat.
As the ponies were very small, I could not
help asking the driver when we had got half-
way to Kalutara if he were not going to
change horses. He replied that he was,
about a mile further on.

Accordingly, in about twenty minutes'
time the coach stopped. I saw no fresh
horses nor stabling, not even a native hut

COACHING IN CEYLON 179

by the roadside. However, the driver and
guard got down and unharnessed their nags.
At the end of two or three minutes the
unfortunate animals were again brought up
to the vehicle and "inspanned," the only
change being that the previous off horse
was now the near one, and vice versa.

Before E and I had finished laueh-

ing at this most original change we were
off again, and duly caught our train at
Kalutara.

Coaching accidents are almost unknown In
Ceylon, except perhaps on the Ratnapura
and Kurnegalla coaches. The low-country
mails owe their immunity from accident to
the fact that, as before said, the roads run
through dead-level country — on a level,
moreover, with the road, which Is not
ditched. So If the coach does leave the

i8o COACHING IN CEYLON

road no harm is done. Up-country coaches
are better horsed and driven. I recollect a
curious accident happening to one of these.
The place selected for change of horses was
on a slight hill. One day the old team had
been taken out, and all the passengers had
got down. The horse-keepers, however, had
entirely neglected to scotch the wheels in any
way. Presently the abandoned coach started
slowly backwards, and before anyone could
intervene, its rapidly Increasing momentum
carried it over the edge on the other side of
the road, down into the coffee plantation
fifty feet below. There I saw It some time
after, and I daresay it lies there still, for
the work of extrication promised great
difficulties.

It will be seen from what I have already
said that "coaching," as we understand the

COACHING IN CEYLON i8i

term — that is, driving four horses — is
unknown in Ceylon. Tandem-meets, on the
principle of "you've got a horse and I've
got a horse, and Smith's got a pair of long
traces," were common enough in my day,
and I daresay they are still, though I doubt
if anybody has since then driven a tandem
of ponies ten hands and a half, as I did one
year.

There w^as once, however, a drag in Ceylon,
and the story will perhaps bear repeating.
Wild horses shall not drag from me the
name of the owner of that coach. Suffice
it to say he is my very good friend, and an
influential member of the Badminton Club
Committee. Well, he imported a drag from
England, horsed it, and drove it. The
drives, however, were of a secret nature, a
mere rehearsal of what was to be the crown-

i82 COACHING IN CEYLON

ing glory — its appearance at the Colombo
Race Meetlncr.

The first day of the races came. Expec-
tation was on tiptoe. The drag arrived.
The proud owner, with elbows squared, and
whip scientifically caught, pulled up and
deposited his load of "fair women and brave
men" at the entrance to the stand. In fact,
the drag was quite the feature of the meet-
ing, and all agreed that Sandown or Ascot
could not have seen the thing better done.

On the second day the coach created less
attention, although everything went as well
as ever. Scarcely, however, had the horses
been removed when the notes of a second
*' yard of tin " drew everybody's eyes towards
the road once more. This is what they
saw.

A "palanquin carriage" (the ordinary cab

COACHING IN CEYLON 183

of the place, resembling a demoralised
growler, with Venetians instead of glass)
had been aptly fitted with an extemporised
dickey and coach-seat facing it. Between
these was an enormous lunch hamper. On
top of this " coach " were a wild crew of the
most notorious practical jokers of the com-
munity. In smartness of get-up, frock-coats,
white hats, and blue veils, they were in no
way inferior to the load on the drag which
had preceded them. The imitation article
was, however, "horsed" with a team of the
big grey bullocks which come from Southern
India ; and these, stimulated by the whacks
and shouts of their drivers who ran beside
themi, rapidly approached the stand amidst
the yells of the natives and the roars of
laughter of the European population of
Colombo. Lest the laughter should not

i84 COACHING IN CEYLON

have been sufficiently Homeric, the whole
incident was cleverly sketched by a young-
civil servant, and the sketch being photo-
graphed brought the laugh home to every
bungalow in the island.

But we were to have another lauorh over
that drag yet. Not very long afterwards
the owner decided to send it home. But,
mindful of the fact that freioht is charored
by bulk, he decided to economise part of
the expense by packing it full of other
luggage. Unfortunately, this is probably the
one strain no coach-builder has ever con-
templated. The result was that, as it was
bein^ swun(jf from lighter to steamer, the
bottom of the drag fell out !

Here it is surely best to draw a veil.

XV

POOR PUSSY!

I "HERE are few more painful spectacles
than the British public In one of Its
periodical fits of wrong-headedness. It must
be admitted that It was during one of these
that, the Ground Game Act was placed on
the Statute Book.

When we consider this Act, not for the
moment by the light of Its working, but
calmly and dispassionately by Its contents
alone, nothing, I think, strikes us so forcibly
as its utter tyranny. As a rule, a landowner

185

i86 POOR PUSSY!

knows what he is about, and certainly a
farmer does. But the law, forsooth, steps
in and says to those two men, *'You are
neither more nor less than children, and
incapable of managing your own affairs.
You (to the landowner) are such an ass
that you keep up such an absurd head of
game that no farmer will take, or stay on,
your farms ; and you (to the farmer) are
such a fool that you will actually rent, or
remain on a farm on which the stock of
ground game is so excessive as to eat up
all your profits. Therefore it is necessary
for me to step in and put matters right."
Will anybody maintain that if a circular to
this effect had been sent to all the land-
owners and farmers in England they would
not have resented it ? Now we can only
resent the effects of the Act, and this we

POOR PUSSY! 187

do — nearly all the landlords and the best
class of farmers too.

The fact is ( I am really ashamed to put so
obvious a set of facts before sensible readers)
this was exactly one of the things which
correct themselves. The only estate where
it was ever brought to my knowledge that
an excessive head of game was kept up was
one in Shropshire, belonging — I write under
correction on this point— to the late Lord
Forrester. I speak of the early seventies.
Well, what was the result ? The result was
that, as my informant put it, "they can't
keep a tenant." An uncle of mine had an
estate in Galloway. '' Look at this corn-
field," he said to me one day. It was indeed
a sorry sight. " I believe the infernal fellow
does it on purpose," he continued. ''You
notice it is surrounded by coverts on three

i88 POOR PUSSY!

sides. The result is that I have to pay
him for a top number of bushels per
acre, and straw ; and he saves the costs
of harvesting." It was on this estate
that a deputation of tenant farmers once
appeared in the laird's room. '' What
is it.^" he asked. " Weel, laird, it's
just this. Yon rabbit-catchers fra' Leever-
pool pay you twa houndred pounds the
year for the right to kill and take the
rabbits. Now, as it's we that feed the
rabbits, we jalouse that it's we that ought to
have the benefit." ''Oh, is that it ? " quoth
my uncle; "there certainly seems reason in
what you say. The rabbit-catcher's agree-
ment is, as you may have heard, a yearly
one ; and so I shall not renew it. After
this year the rabbits are yours." Exit
deputation wreathed in smiles,

POOR PUSSY! 189

Not two years had elapsed when pretty
much the same party appeared once more in
my uncle's study.

" What can I do for you now ? " he asked.
'' Weel, laird," was the spokesman's answer,
''it's this way. We're just fair eaten up wi'
the rabbits." '' The rabbits ? But you've
got the remedy in your own hands. Why
don't you kill them down .'^ " "We canna.
What wi' one that hasna time, and another
that doesna ken how, they're eating us up."
"Well, what can I do .'^ I've been sparing
them, thinking you wanted them ; but I'll
have a shoot or two, if you like." " It isna
that, but — but, laird, if ye wad be so guid
as to send for those men to Leeverpool,
and just tak' them into your own hands
again."

This was ultimately done. I need hardly

190 POOR PUSSY!

say this was years before the passing of the
Ground Game Act.

But so far I have spoken principally of
rabbits ; and bunny can look after himself.
Except In a few odd places, he Is neither
exterminated, nor likely to be. I plead for
the hare, which Is fast disappearing In many
places. The recent Act forbidding the sale
In summer months may do something, but I
have only heard It spoken of, as a rule, as
"the thin end of the wedo-e." This Is a
mistake. We must not think we shall get
half the Ground Game Act repealed. That
question has unfortunately been made too
much a party question. Nor, I think, shall
we, without a lot of trouble and without
causing much ill-feeling, get a proper close
time for hares such as pheasants have. The
spirit of to-day Is towards decentralisation,

THE FOX IS SAFE ENOUGH.

POOR PUSSY! 191

and the present working- of the Wild Birds
Act must serve as our model. I want
sportsmen throughout England to consider
the advisability of a Wild Animals Act — a
permissive Act giving County Councils the
power to legislate for a close time for any
animal that is good for food. The fox is
safe enough, and the otter is getting more
protected daily. Nor do I think the badger
is in any need of protection. Anyhow, it
would be absurd to try for a law to protect
noxious animals, thouoh not so lone aeo,
in an Austrian sporting paper, I saw an
enthusiast clamouring for a close time for
bears, which, by the way, make a very
good one for themselves by disappearing
into their gaiiras from October to April.
County Councils, presumably, know their
own business ; and I have little doubt

192 POOR PUSSY!

that most, if not all, of them would within
a very few months fix a close time for
hares — a thino- I have so often urcred — not
because of the threatened extinction of the
animal, not because a breeding hare is
worthless for food, but from common
humanity, to stop the too-frequent practice
of to-day, of shooting the doe and leaving
the helpless leveret to die of starvation.

Next in order among animals which would
be affected by such a law come our native
British deer — the red-deer and the roe-deer.
Here it Is desirable that the power of Councils
should extend not only to species, but also
to sex. With hares, of course, this Is
impossible ; but In Germany and Austria
the stag and roe-buck get (very properly)
quite a different close time to that of the
hind and the doe, which last, In nearly all

POOR PUSSY! 193

English counties, would want a year long
close time for the next half a dozen years,
at least.

Lastly, the Act should empower Councils
to protect useful animals, not actually
British, such as the fallow-deer (which is
so common now that it will almost surprise
some to hear that it is not a native deer),
and the Japanese deer {Cervus sika), also to
be found in many parks nowadays. I have
a great affection for this latter litde animal.
It is very handsome, and its anders, if
small, are at any rate a good deal more of
a trophy than those of the roe-buck. Also,
like that animal, it is essentially a woodland
deer, and would never be likely to lead to
an outcry among the farmers. As to the
roe, I had better refer the interested to my

chapter on '' Roe-shooting," which appeared
13

194 POOR PUSSY!

in Gun, Rifle, and Hound. The red-deer,
on the other hand, is a destructive brute,
and will soon play "old gooseberry" with
standing corn or potatoes. But the mere
fact that it would be the County Council
who would lengthen or shorten his days
of grace is a sufficient guarantee to the
farmer.

XVI

A DILIGENCE DRIVE IN AUSTRIAN
TURKEY

- A USTRIAN TURKEY" is, I venture
to think, a short and convenient way
of designating the two provinces officially
known as " Bosnia-Herzegovina," since, as
a matter of right, they belong to Turkey,
and as a matter of fact to Austria ; and
it was in these provinces the drive I
am about to describe took place. The
point of departure was the pretty little
Government hotel at Jablanica, in the

195

196 A DILIGENCE DRIVE

Herzegovina. At this point the gorge of
the Lower Narenta is at its grandest, and
the bare and towerinor mountains surround
the beautiful gardens of the hotel on every
side. No district in the Herzegovina
contains so many chamois as this, which
for years has been a sanctuary, but is now
to be divided up into rented shootings.
The week after I left there were two un-
successful bear-drives in the Prenj district on
the opposite bank of the river, from which
came sad complaints of slaughtered beeves.

At eight o'clock, on a fine summer
morning, I found my diligence drawn up
at the hotel gates. I may say "my
diligence," as I was the only passenger,
and had my choice of four seats — rather
straight-backed — In a roomy landau, or of
two in a coupe, stuck up In front behind

IN AUSTRIAN TURKEY 197

the driver's seat. This last was so low
that it seemed inconceivable a team could
be driven from it, and the length of the
driver's whip made it appear incredible
that he could possibly hit the leaders,
which, like the wheelers, were somewhat
leggy but well - bred - looking Croatians.
The immensely high boots, shiny hats,
and curly horns one naturally associates
with a diligence were conspicuous by their
absence, driver and guard being dressed
in a simple uniform far more suggestive of
a steamboat than a coach.

The stationmaster bowed, the gendarme
saluted, I took off my hat in reply, and
we were off. The pace at first was
decidedly moderate, as numerous wooden
bridges over affluent streams had to be
crossed, and this must be done at a walk.

198 A DILIGENCE DRIVE

Our way ran up stream, generally between
railroad and river, but we crossed the
former once or twice. At last we reached
the spot where the Rama enters the
Narenta. This spot is memorable as the
place where liv^ed the last Bogumiles —
that strange sect which opened the way to
these provinces for the Turk. Here we
parted company with the railway line.

The traveller who is not familiar with
some of the less accessible beauties of
these provinces, the Sujeska Valley, the
Drina, or the Upper Narenta, may well
doubt if they can show anything to sur-
pass the Rama Valley, along which our
road now lay. At the end of an hour
or so we stopped at a wayside trough to
water the cattle. This was done by first
letting the leaders drink, and then taking

IN AUSTRIAN TURKEY 199

them out while the wheelers took their
turn. A bucket would have saved five
minutes at least, but time is not of much
value in these provinces. It must be
said, however, that the diligences and
post-carts show a rate of speed infinitely
superior relatively to the disgraceful per-
formances of the local railways. In fact,
they go about half as fast as the latter.
Presently we passed a new church of large
size — not yet finished indeed ; and picked
up a passenger, whom two jolly friars
had come to see off. He did not go far,
though, for he left us about half an hour
later at a han, where we stopped for ten
minutes. The staff consumed beer ; and
I had one of the excellent pots of black
coffee one gets everywhere in this country
for a penny. Then we went on again.

200 A DILIGENCE DRIVE

and at last we left the Rama Valley, and
entered upon an almost endless winding-
road, which led up to the ruined watch-
tower which o-ives its name to the
village of Prozor [Look Out). As we were
coming up it seemed the end of every-
thino", but as we entered the villao-e we
cauQ;ht siofht of further heio-hts above
it.

At Prozor we stopped an hour, and I
had an excellent lunch, with a bottle of
sound w^ine, and coffee after, for a shilling
— a pretty clear proof of being a long way
off the ordinary tourists' track. Then I
lit my pipe and walked out to find a fresh
team waiting, and a fresh passenger in the
shape of a young priest, who, however,
preferred the coupe. We crossed a plain
and began another series of serpentine

IN AUSTRIAN TURKEY 201

windings which, for the first time, brought
us from a trot to a walk. The whole
hillside was scored with old roads, and
one could plainly distinguish, first, the old
native track ; secondly, a rough Turkish
paved track ; then a steepish military road ;
and, lastly, the one we were on, visible for
miles above and below us. At last we
reached the pass — a signboard in it show-
ing an elevation higher than any mountain
in England — and plunged merrily down
into a narrow and wooded glen, succeeded
in its turn by a fertile plain all the way
to our journey's end. In a largish village
we rested and drank coffee. The old
woman who kept the han spotted my
nationality at once, and asked me if I
were not the son of General B. I re-
gretted I was not, but was able to tell

202 A DILIGENCE DRIVE

her that General B. (who is unmarried, by
the way) was at that moment in the
Pyrenees. Although I never met the
gentleman in question, he seems, like
myself, to have a fancy for travelling off
the beaten tracks ; and I seldom go any-
where without being asked, " Do you
know General B. ? " We now followed
the Vrbas stream (which I was destined
to see again, almost a river, and receiving
the magnificent Falls of the Pliva), and it
finally led us to Bugoijno. Our eight
hours' drive was over.

Next morning at five o'clock I heard
the horn. Yes, a yard of tin this time,
but curled round and round, and slung
round the neck of a guard. My convey-
ance this time was officially styled a
postwagen, not a diligence, and therefore

IN AUSTRIAN TURKEY 203

we were only treated to a pair of horses.
The conveyance consisted of a sort of
char-a-banc. On the first of its seats sat
the driver and guard, the second was
available for passengers, and on the third
(back to back with the latter) was seated
the escort, an infantryman armed with
rifle and bayonet. Considering that,
besides his curly horn, our guard was
armed with a short sword and a revolver,
and that the country is as absolutely
safe as Middlesex, it occurred to me
that the " Tommy " might have been
dispensed with, which would enable
four passengers instead of two to be
carried. But on this occasion it was
immaterial ; I was the only candidate for
a seat.

For a while our road lay along the

204 A DILIGENCE DRIVE

level, and very cold I found it ; for I was
but lightly dressed, and the canvas walls
and roof of the concern provided but little
shelter against the nipping air. As a rule
I daresay the road w^e were following is
as lonesome as most others in Bosnia, but
it was quite otherwise this morning, and
every few minutes our sober vehicle had
to pull into the ditch in obedience to the
frantic shouts of the Turkish driver of
some ramshackle conveyance taking a
cargo of sportsmen to Kupres races.
Before long they had all left us behind,
and the ascent of a steep pass brought
our team to a walk. I jumped out and
walked on a bit till I had set my blood
in circulation once more ; and, alternately
trotting and walking up the serpentine
curves, we reached the top of the pass

IN AUSTRIAN TURKEY 205

at last. Kupres lies high though, and
descent there was but Httle till we reached
the town, which presented an air of un-
usual gaiety. It is little more than a
village, and this is the day of the year
here. With difficulty I resisted pressing
and hospitable invitations to stop, con-
tenting myself with inspection of the
elaborately decorated schoolroom, in which,
after the races, it was proposed to dance
through a long and hot afternoon and
evening. On the wall was the programme
of the day containing such items as
''Czardas" and " Kolo." Somehow the
latter evoked irrelevant memories of J.
L. Toole. " You should see me dance
the Kolo " ; nor was it till long after I
remember that " Bolo " was his little
game.

2o6 A DILIGENCE DRIVE

By this time fresh team, driver, and
escort were ready, and we continued our
drive. Crossing the Kupres tableland
we caught sight of the bright-coloured
crowd waiting for the races to commence,
and then plunged Into an ever-winding
descent, depending, of course, solely on
the screw-brake. At Sulda we changed
horses again, and down, down, down we
went to the great plain of LIvno, and
drew rein at the post-office of that town.
Here my kit-bag was weighed and
charged for, and then I was free to
seek out the not altoo^ether uncomfortable
hotel.

From LIvno two lines of post-carts run,
one Into Dalmatia, connecting as far as
Spalatro, and the other to Glamoc. This
latter was my goal ; but, as a matter of

IN AUSTRIAN TURKEY 207

fact, I chartered a ladder-waggon to get
there, and thence plunged into wilds
where nothing but a Bosnian saddle-horse
will go.

XVII

MY MOOR

A /T Y moor is not in Scotland, nor yet In
Yorkshire, nor even In Wales. Nor
Is It a " Tommlebeg" — much rent and little
game — for, as a matter of fact, I don't pay
any rent at all for It. I wish I did, as will
appear hereafter. Nor Is It a grouse moor,
though It may once have been. There are
not even black game on It, though old men
have told me they shot them there In their
youth, say seventy or eighty years ago, for
1 speak of men who were old when I was a

203

MY MOOR 209

boy, and who have long since been laid in
the village churchyard. It lies some three
miles from, and perhaps six hundred feet
above, my old home, and forms part of the
glebe of the adjoining parish, by the permis-
sion of whose rector I shoot over it. I wish
I were the only one to do so, but the same
privilege is extended to others, and that is
the reason I cannot rent it. I daresay I am
the most zealous of those who may go there,
for I think I get the most of the shooting.
It is not all, strictly speaking, moor, for a
good bit at its south-west corner is woodland,
— stunted oak cover, with some fir and larch,
and much birch, — but the rest is not by any
means all heather, for there is much gorse
— too much, indeed, for dogs to work it
fairly. Lastly, there is a bit of some fifty or

sixty acres which fire has destroyed within
14

2IO MY MOOR

the last year or two, and which is only bare
black soil, with twisted gorse stems and a
few dead trees. All, or nearly all of it, is let,
though I never dared to ask the parson how
much, or rather how little, a man could
afford to pay for such stuff. Still, a few half-
starved cows and ponies are sometimes to be
seen there. In old days they dug out stone
for millstones there, and left a number of
nasty holes, which are apt to bring one to
grief among the high heather, gorse, and
fern. As it is no one man's shoot, it is left,
of course, to stock itself, and produces every
year two or three nides of pheasants, as
many coveys of partridges, and a fair number
of stout moorland hares and rabbits. But it
is the visitors I value most highly. Wood-
cock seem to affect it particularly, and
although there are not so many snipe as one

MY MOOR 211

would expect from the nature of the ground,
they are sometimes to be found there. On
such ground, of course, a bag is not to be
expected ; half a dozen head Is a good day's
work, even In September, for the par-
tridges often go out of bounds, being mostly
bred on the northern edge of the moor,
where it adjoins cultivated land.

One bright mornlnor not longr aeo, R. and
I, with a beater and two dachshunds, arrived
at the corner of the ground about ten o'clock.
The first bit to be beaten is the edge nearest
us — oak covert. I take the outside, and R.
a ride in the wood, the beater and does
working between. Before long there is a
yap ! yap ! Three pheasants rise right in
the fence, and I bring one down with a
shap-shot as he swings round a young tree.
R.'s gun is silent ; they have passed him out

2 12 MY MOOR

of ranee. The rest of the wood Is blank.
At Its end is a dismal-looking alder-grown
swamp, which holds two woodcock. Both go
away wild, and R. gives them the customary
salute. Now comes another bit of oak
cover. I am on the high road outside, when
a hen pheasant sails over and goes away
untouched. As 1 reload my two barrels, a
jolly farmer's wife drives past me In a gig.

'* Saved his life this time, sir ! " she says ;
and I feel scored off.

That Is the only pheasant there, but at the
edge where the covert Is lower R. secures a
hare. We now turn to the moor Itself. For
some time we see nothing, till at last we
approach a boggy stream and change our
cartridges.

Scape! scape! — Bang !— and R. has him,
the only snipe there to-day. A little further

MY MOOR 213

on, and the dogs get very busy. Whirr !
Up gets a covey. Alas ! I have still a snipe
cartridee in the ricrht barrel, but can and do
bag one with the left. The covey goes out
of bounds. In the next bottom we cross, R.
gets another hare, and as we go on we see a
covey of partridges come over and settle in
a hio-h eorse ridit before us. We had a
dead mark, but can do nothing. The dogs
work about, and presendy give tongue, but
continuously. For twenty minutes they
push their quarry through gorse nearly three
feet high and very strong, till at last it (a
rabbit) breaks cover across the high road
and gives an easy shot to me, who am stand-
ing on the bank. By rolling bunny over I
much startle a couple of lovers, who are
strolling arm in arm along the road a score
of yards on, wrapt in one another, and who

214 MY MOOR

consequently had not noticed us. This Is the
end of the moor, so we turn back on a
parallel higher beat. Presendy, R. walks
right into the remains of a covey — three
birds — and neatly grasses two. The third
goes on, and we find him in the next little
valley, but too wild to do anything with, as he
is off as we appear over the ridge. Well, we
are not going in pursuit of a solitary par-
tridge, so we sit down to lunch by a purling
moor-rlll. Never does ten-year-old whisky
taste better than mixed with the moor water,
does it ?

Lunch despatched, and the post-prandial
pipe smoked, we walk on over the burnt
ground, and work a lot of oak scrub ; but, as
we all have to go in, all we do is to hear
an occasional yapping, and the rise of several
pheasants. I see one of the dachshunds

MY MOOR 215

work about and push out a woodcock almost
with his nose. But, though It is not six
yards from me, I only hear the flap ! flap !
and see nothing. I know what it is, though,
and If I didn't the dog would tell me ; for
these dogs, though clamorous on pheasants,
are mute on cock. A little further on,
another, or perhaps the same one, rises in
a clearer spot, and I pocket him with much
satisfaction.

At last only a little piece of covert is left,
so we two go on quietly to the end and have
it brought up to us. It is blank, though, for
these wild pheasants are bad to drive.
When the dogs reach us, they become very
busy, however, and presently up jumps a
fine hare between us, and I miss her, or
perhaps not quite, which is worse, for she
gets away. Then we turn to our right, and

2i6 MY MOOR

go down a swampy dell with birch covert —
just the place for a blackcock, if blackcock
there were. There are none (alas !), but as
I go along the far side a fine old cock
pheasant rises wild before me and goes
rockettino- across the s^len. I follow him
with my eye, till all at once he collapses
and falls heavily on the other side. Well
done, R. ! Towards the bottom the dogs
bustle out a rabbit, which I secure, and then
we knock off. A brace of pheasants, a leash
of partridges, a couple of hares, a couple of
rabbits, a woodcock, and a snipe — eleven
head — is a red-letter day for my moor, and
the variety is charming, making up, to my
mind, for much.

All days on the moor are not so good, but
we generally get a few head. This was my
worst day this season : Began by shooting

MY MOOR 217

a hawk (I should have said I was alone) ;
then dropped a pheasant with a very long
shot, and lost her in thick gorse ; another
got up in oak scrub, and I missed it with
both barrels ; flushed four woodcock without
getting a shot ; then put up a hare in low
covert, and, just as I pulled at her, my
favourite dog jumped out of the scrub right
in line, and got about two dozen shot in her.
Then I thought it was time to leave off.
Result : No bag (for I forgot to tell the keeper
to pick up the hare), and eight and sixpence
to pay the vet. However, the dog got over
it, so I suppose ''it's all in the day's work."

XVIII
ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT

^ I "HE edge of the Great Indian Desert
does not hold out any great Induce-
ment to the lover of the shot-gun. I mean
that no one would think of visiting It with a
view to shooting, unless It were for the
excellent wild-fowling Its tanks provide In
winter. But those, whose duties call them
there, can sometimes amuse themselves on
an off-day nevertheless. A few years ago
I was one of these ; and In this paper I
propose to describe such a day. " Half-

218

EDGE OF THE DESERT 219

day " would, perhaps, be a more correct
expression ; for a cloudy late autumn day
had more than half passed before my tonga
came to the door. (A tonga, I should
perhaps explain. Is a low two-wheeled dog-
cart drawn by a pair of ponies, and capable of
traversing the roughest of ground.) My wife
took the ribbons, I sitting next her with the
twelve-bore between my knees, and off we
rolled. For about three miles we stuck to an
excellent road, and then turned off to bump
across the plain for two more. These plains
are mostly sandy and undulating, the higher
ground being rocky. The principal vegeta-
tion consists of thorn bushes, and cactus.
Here and there, surrounding a well from
which they are Irrigated, are clumps of cultiva-
tion, mostly cotton or maize. On our way
we passed several great flocks of blue rock-

220 ON THE EDGE

pigeons, feeding unconcernedly at a few
yards distance. I resisted the temptation to
"brown" these, even though one contained
what I had never noticed before — an albino
bird. These pigeons roost in the wells,
where they are easily caught by the natives,
who, having quietly thrown a net over the
mouth, make a noise, whereat the birds fly
into the meshes. In this way the regimental
pigeon-shooting club is easily and cheaply
supplied. We also saw a couple of the
little desert foxes trotting unconcernedly
along. Although they are little bigger
than rabbits, they afford rare sport with
greyhounds, and are consequently sacred
from the gun.

At last we reached the appointed place,
where my shikari and a coolie were awaiting
us. Posting them and the pony-boy in an

OF THE DESERT 221

extended line, of which the tonga was the
centre, we proceeded to beat the ground
before us. Before long a signal was made
from our flank. I got out and walked to the
man, but only to have a cobra pointed out to
me, lying on the sand with half-erected head.
I know no more devilish-looking brute than
a black cobra. This one was dark as jet,
and a good six foot long. I promptly blew
his head off, and returned to the trap.

The next signal was from the shikari, who
pointed out several partridges running before
him. I followed quietly till they went to the
right of a large clump of cactus, when I sent
him after them, taking the left myself. By
walking smartly I met them face to face at
the end, just as I had calculated ; and they
rose, enabling me to get an easy right and
left. The grey partridge is said to be a

222 ON THE EDGE

scavenger, but some people eat them never-
theless.

The next shot, some time afterwards, was
out of the trap, the ponies being used to this.
A covey of sand-grouse got up just before us;
and one of my tw^o shots was a kill. The
plumage of these birds matches so exactly
with the colour of the sand they sit on that it
is practically impossible to see them on the
ground. Except for their feathered legs they
look more like a pigeon than a grouse.

The next proceeding was to beat a cotton
patch that lay in the line, for which purpose
I got out, and we walked through it. It only
held a hare, which jumped up a yard in front
of me and dashed back. I let her go far
enough and then rolled her over.

So the afternoon wore away. I had
more shots, successful and otherwise, at

OF THE DESERT 223

partridge, hare, and sand-grouse. The
prettiest of these was one at a sand -grouse,
which, put up at the end of the Hne, came
straight over my head, high and fast, but
did not save himself on that occasion.

We beat one or two maize fields. Some
yielded a hare ; some only a jackal ; at
which nobody, I should think, would shoot.
The men were beating one of these fields to-
wards me, when, almost on its near edge, a
large bird got up with a bustle, and came
down with a thump. It was a florican, not
uncommon in the rains, but a prize so late
in the year. The great bustard, which is
also excellent eating, is found in these
parts, but must be stalked with a rifle.
So must the huge sarus crane, of which,
by the way, we saw a few solemnly walking
about this afternoon. Of ''small deer" we

224 ON THE EDGE

also saw a mongoose, a Maftzs or scaly
ant-eater, a tortoise, and some huge lizards,
— all common objects of these plains. The
uninitiated would not believe what a noise a
small tortoise makes. When driving big
game in this part of the world I have
been deceived into expecting deer by a
tortoise coming along. Pig, which we did
not see, as they spend the day in the
thickest covert on the low hills, are also
common, and do much damage at night.

Just as we were beginning to think of
knocking off, I espied three cliinkara
(gazelles) some way ahead, and determined
to try a drive. For this purpose I crept
along a nullah, and reached a cactus
patch beyond them and skirting a de-
pression along which I thought they would
come. When they had given me sufficient

MAKING SURE OF HIM.

OF THE DESERT 225

time the beating line with the cart moved
carelessly on, not towards the animals, but
diagonally across them. This sent them
off; and by degrees they worked towards
my ambush.

I, of course, could form no idea of what
was going on ; and had very nearly con-
cluded that the hindobitst had failed, when
I heard the rattling of stones, and the
animals filed past, the buck bringing up
the rear. I kept very quiet till he was
close ; and then, making sure of him with
my only No. 2 cartridge, I had a snap-shot
at the doe with my right (cylinder) barrel,
which was loaded with ball. She turned
a complete somersault to the shot, but
before I could get to her, was up and off
like the wind, after her offspring, which I
ought to have said before, was nearly as

15

226 ON THE EDGE

big as herself. Otherwise I should not
have fired at her.

On examining the spot I found no blood ;
but, some twenty feet on, I found a horn,
cut off nearly at the base, which accounted
for the performance, and proved what a
remarkably bad shot mine had been. Still,
it should take a pretty "tall" performer
to put a bullet in the right place on a
galloping chinkara with a smooth bore !

However, the buck was all right, and
was soon gralloched and secured to the
trap.

This ended the day's shooting, and we
drove on to an old tower, erected once
in order that the then lords of the soil
might shoot tigers in safety from its top.
There are as many tigers in Epping Forest
now as there are in that district. Here

OF THE DESERT 227

our Arabs were waiting ; and, mounting,
we cantered off homewards. Before we
reached the cantonment we heard '' Retreat"
blare out. The sun had disappeared behind
the purple western hills, which divided us
from the desert.

XIX
ENGLISH AND GERMAN SPORTSMEN

C^ OME half a dozen years ago I wrote an
^^~-^^ article with this title for the Field,
which I do not reproduce bodily here for two
reasons. The first Is that then I only knew
North German sportsmen, whereas I have
since then become acquainted with those of
Southern Germany and Austria. The
second, which Is even more important, Is
that during these latter years I have become
sensible of a rapp7^ochenient in their methods
towards ours In several ways, and In ours

228

GERMAN SPORTSMEN 229

towards theirs In at least one, and this I look
upon as too important a matter to pass over
in silence.

In that article I remarked, and truly, that
**the days of curly horns and hunting-knives
in Germany are gone " ; and went on to say
that '*in his dress the German sportsman
would hardly be remarked at an English
shoot, except perhaps for the cut of his
waiters." Now this Is true of North Ger-
many ; but in the South and in Austria it is
not so. There the sportsman sticks to a
sort of grey-green tunic with horn buttons,
bright green facings, and a stand-up collar,
and never fails to ornament his pudding-
dish-shaped hat with a bunch of black-
cock's feathers, or a tuft of hair from the
chamois' withers. Very often a brooch
set with fox's or stag's teeth secures this.

^30 ENGLISH AND

This dress is not confined to any rank
or class, like the German Emperor's hunt-
ing uniform. Emperors and kings wear
it, it is true, but so do the humblest
sportsmen.

The next few paragraphs of the article
referred to seem also of universal application,
so I quote them in extenso. " The German
sportsman's gun, however, would at once
single him out by the sling. Here I am
inclined to think he has the pull over us.
Having tried it, I may say I consider it is
never a drawback, while it has many advan-
tages. Unless his gun is at the ready, or
over his arm, he always carries it slung on
his shoulder, nearly always the right one.
Should he want to fire, he seizes it with the
left hand, and it at once falls into what the
drill books call 'the ready position.' When

GERMAN SPORTSMEN 231

there Is no chance of a shot, he sometimes
slings It on the left shoulder, or even muzzle
downwards. As a result, I do not think I
have ever seen, at a German shoot, a gun
pointing at another sportsman. When slung.
It either points straight Into the air, or down
to the ground. I cannot say that all my
English reminiscences recall equal freedom
from danger.

" Again, every German sportsman, except
at very big shoots, carries a game-bag.
This Is a more or less gorgeous affair, gene-
rally fringed with string lace, and of consider-
able dimensions. Well, there Is a reason for
this too. It Is not the custom of the
country to give shooting lunches, con-
sequently each sportsman carries his own.
The bags are generally divided, so that a
bird can be put In separate from either lunch

232 ENGLISH AND

or cartridges. Then there Is a pocket for
game Hcence and any small articles.

"In the matter of cartridges, there Is also a
great difference between English and Ger-
man sportsmen. An Englishman put his
cartridges into his bag Indiscriminately, and
they are all generally one size shot, probably
No. 5. A German, on the other hand, has
to provide for various contingencies ; I am
now alluding to covert shooting. He can
never tell that he will not see a boar or a
roe-deer, and In some parts a stag too. His
principal game Is hare, but he may meet
with woodcocks or hazel - hens. Conse-
quently, he Is generally provided with half a
dozen kinds of cartridges, ball and buckshot
for pig or stag, Nos. 2 (or 3), and 4 for hare,
fox, and roe-deer, and 6 for woodcock. The
usual charge Is 4 In the right barrel, and 2

GERMAN SPORTSMEN 233

(or 3) in the left. Should there be any pig
about, he at once reloads with buckshot in
the right, and ball in the left ; and if a cock
is flushed and marked down, in goes No. 6."
Most of the rest of the article relates to
roe-deer shooting with beagles, and I omit it
because I have so often and often had my
say In print on this matter. Moreover, an
excellent account of the sport as practised In
Scotland appeared last year In the Badmmton
Magazine, from the facile pen of the Hon. A.
E. Gathorne Hardy (who, by the way, writes
me, " I have been shooting and watching roe
for the last thirty-five years "), and also, anent
an old favourite Idea of mine, a Roe-deer
Preservation Association.^ " I shall be

1 An association of landowners and sportsmen interested
in the preservation of roe-deer. Landowners to undertake
to turn down and preserve roe, others to promote legislation,
etc., etc., for their preservation. Whilst quite agreeing with

234 ENGLISH AND

very pleased to join such an association
as you suggest, but my experience as
a leo^islator suo-oests a doubt whether it
will be easy to pass a measure for the
protection of roe through the House of
Commons."

But to return to our sportsmen, and speci-
fically to the points in which we are drawing-
together. Well, of course, one point is the
very heavy drafts the Germans have, in these
later years, made upon our pointer blood.
We, on our side, have made oreat advances
in the matter of retrieving pointers and
setters, and surely this is adopting the
German idea, that to keep a pointer or

Mr. Gathorne Hardy's anticipations of legislative difficulty,
I think I have to a certain extent met the case in my paper,
" Poor Pussy,"' in which it is suggested that Parliament be
only asked for a Wild Animals Act, giving County Councils
similar powers as they now have in the case of wild birds.

GERMAN SPORTSMEN 235

. setter, and a retriever, is to keep two dogs
to do the work of one.

Several things that seem ancient history
to us are making their way but slowly into
Germany. Such are the hammerless gun,
nitro-powders, and shot-and-ball guns. On
the other hand, some deer-forest owners here
are beginning to see that to systematically
shoot as many of your big stags as you can,
and the biggest for choice, before the rutting
season, is to certainly deteriorate your stock
of deer. The German shoots his stags in
the rutting season, and consequently many
do not die till they have left their mark
amonor future venerations. Many Scottish
forests are let with the reservation : ''No
stalking after October 15," whereas in my
opinion, "No stalking before October i,"
would really profit the owner more, and

236 ENGLISH AND

perhaps not hurt the tenant, who certainly
would get no heads partly in velvet. The
present system makes for meat, no doubt,
but what stalker would not rather kill a
royal than a six-pointer twice the weight.
Perhaps some day Highland landowners will
see this, and also see how the stock of
black game benefits by the spring shooting of
cocks only in Germany.

Here asfain is a orreat difference between
us. The German's gun and rifie are hardly
ever idle, and yet he shoots essentially as a
sportsman, i.e,, for the good of his game. In
autumn and winter he shoots as we do. In
spring he shoots woodcock, as they pass
northward, blackcock, and cock capercailzie.
May only sees him idle ; in June the roe-
buck's horns are " clean," and he begins stalk-
ing them. In July his flappers (earlier than

GERMAN SPORTSMEN 237

ours) afford him amusement, and in August
the quail, and in the south the partridge.

The most astonishing conversion to
English ideas is perhaps contained in a letter
I received the other day from an Austrian
friend, who says, "Everybody here is
o-ivino- up their i6-bores for 12's. I am
going to myself."

My original article contained a comparison
of the position of the fox in England and
Germany. But in these last half-dozen years
it has become manifest that in many English
counties Reynard is tottering on his throne.
Still we are a long way from German
methods with him yet. The remarks with
which I ended it are as true in my experi-
ence then as now, so here they are.

" In conclusion, there is one point which I
must not omit, even though it tells against

•238 GERMAN SPORTSMEN

us. Even nowadays, an Englishman has
only to live in a country neighbourhood in
Germany for a few weeks to get as much
shooting as he wants. Not only will he be
readily asked everywhere by all classes of
sportsmen ; but a place of honour in the
beats, on a favourite game pass, will be
assigned to him, and all will express regret
if he does not get a shot. If he does, he is,
of course, expected to hold straight. The
conditions of English country life are differ-
ent, but certainly a German might live long
in an English country town before anyone
would offer him a day's shooting, unless he
had introductions. It is true he would be
free and welcome to hunt with the local
hounds now and a^ain, after which the
secretary would probably be down upon him
for a subscription."

XX
IN ALBANIA

" A RE you game for a couple of days
at the pig, next week?" asked H.
of me one January afternoon, when we
happened to meet on one of the muddy
Corfiote roads.

'' Why, certainly," I answered; and accord-
ingly we made preparation. There was
considerable difficulty that winter about
shooting permits for Albania ; but this was
then mostly at an end. The weather —
incessantly wet since the middle of November

239

240 IN ALBANIA

— was as favourable as could be, as the
marshes were bank full, and the pig con-
sequently driven to the hills. The only thing
against us was the fact that an American had
been harassing the game pretty continuously
for the past two months or more, not only by
fair driving (to which nobody could object),
but by serving out a number of pistols to his
beaters. The row they made with these, no
doubt, gave him every chance of a shot, but
also inspired the average pig with a strong-
desire to shift his quarters, especially when
it had been pretty frequently repeated. In
countries where shooting is free, and many
men shoot, especial consideration should be
bestowed on other sportsmen, and one
should be guided by the unwritten laws of
sport. In default of enacted game laws, as
I think I may say all those who shoot In

IN ALBANIA 241

Ladakh or Baltlstan are. I have drawn
attention to this point for the benefit of
those who may take an Albanian trip in
the future ; and will now return to my
subject.

All arrangements being- made, the Olive,
the crack ship of the well-known VVoodley
fleet of yachts, cast off her moorings about
three o'clock one Wednesday afternoon,
having for passengers, H., myself, and wife.
Wind there was little or none, and dinner
was over long ere the anchor was let go in
the litde roadstead of Tre Scoglie— so called,
for no very clear reason, because there are
really yfz;^ islets.

Next morning, H. and I, with Lorenzo, the

skipper of the boat, who was also to captain

the beaters, landed in the dinghy about nine,

and half an hours walk brought us to our
16

242 IN ALBANIA

stands, which were pointed out by old
Kollio, the Albanian, so well known to all
who have shot here. The beat was a short
one. For a moment we had hopes, but the
shouts were only due to the successful
attempts of a deer to break back, and all
that passed the guns was a fox, whom H.
very properly spared. We now started
back towards our landing place, and in
a bottom Kollio posted us again, H. in
a thicket, and myself in an open glade
beyond.

By this time I had seen a good deal of the
ground, and practically made up my mind
we were on a wild-goose chase. It was not
without some experience of the matter that
I thus expressed myself in a recent work : ^
"The boar loves quiet, and is assuredly not

^ In the Land of (he Bora^ p. 370.

IN ALBANIA 243

to be found where flocks and herds wander."
But true as this Is of the boar of Northern
Europe, local conditions have quite altered
the habits of the animal on the Albanian
coast. Throughout the day we were sur-
rounded by live stock : the infernal din of
their bells spoilt all my pleasure in most of
the beats, and yet seven or eight pig were
forthcoming. But I anticipate. This time,
finding my glade gradually filled with horses,
donkeys, sheep, a man talking with a boy,
and an enormous white dog of sinister
appearance, I gave it up, and, as the beaters
were still out of earshot, I went back to H.
and Kolllo, which latter posted me in a
glade, not very open, on the other flank of
H.'s position. The beat was long, and
appeared somewhat straggllngly performed.
First a spaniel came to me, but I stoned

244 IN ALBANIA

him back into covert. Then came a hare,
and then a roe. I walked quietly to the left
when this appeared, but could not get a
clear shot, and withheld my fire. Herein
I was right, for very soon after the shouts
of a shepherd on the hill drew my atten-
tion to a stumpy black body going best
pace outside the upper edge of the cover.
I ran on to meet the pig, but, unfortun-
ately, I did not know the ground. All I
saw was a black shadow through the
thorn bushes, when five yards further
would have given me a certain shot. By
this time it was pouring, and I was
glad to get into my cape and make my
way back to H.'s stand to lunch. Here
I heard that several pig had broken
back, and also that the beaters had come
on a fine dead boar, shot about a fort-

IN ALBANIA 245

night before, of which the tusks were
produced.

Our first after-lunch beat resulted in a
comical error. I quite misconceived the
position, being in a narrow ride between
two patches of thick covert. I faced to
windward, of course, and, in fact, was
smoking, when suddenly the beaters
opened behind me, and at once their
yells and the dogs' notes announced "pig
on foot." Of course, they (there were two)
broke back; and I am convinced that this
was only one of many times on which Kolllo's
dispositions failed, from his neo-lectino- to
consider the wind. However, we were
both posted in a hollow road so narrow
that it would have taken a first-class rifle
shot to make sure of a pig. For the
rest of the short beat, woodcock kept flap-

246 IN ALBANIA

ping over my head In a lazy and tempting
manner.

After lunch, we had to walk some little
way to our positions, which, being on an
open hillside, would have been excellent
for shooting, but, unfortunately, the beat was
entirely blank. After this we did little more
than turn round whilst the men beat a belt
of thick covert running down to a lakelet
with marshy banks. Unfortunately, this side
of the hill w^as much more covered with
thorn bushes. The beat was approaching its
end when I caught sight of a boar passing
some hundred yards below me. I could see
little more than the withers, but there was
little chance of a better view, so I took a
snap-shot, the only effect of which was, as
the tracks subsequently proved, to increase
his pace ; but the shot was followed by ear-

IN ALBANIA 247

plercino- shrieks from three girls gathering
brushwood three hundred yards away. As
one of them was on the ground I naturally
w^as much alarmed ; but when they had
scored off me sufficiently they gathered their
bundles and walked off.

Shooting here requires great care. I
subsequently discovered three horses In the
direct line In which I had fired. The next,
a short beat, blank of all but woodcock,
brought us back to our landing place, and
then we proceeded to beat the covert that
ran down to our posts In the first after-lunch
beat. Doofs and beaters were soon In full
cry, and by the sound of the former, the pig
must have crossed within fifty yards of me.

Directly after I heard a shot from H.
The beaters were silent, and, thinking the
beat was over, I walked down to the sea.

248 IN ALBANIA

A minute after, the doo-s we had broucrht
on the yacht opened, and as I turned to the
covert a roebuck broke. Foro-ettine that
my right barrel was loaded with slugs (in
which I have at any time little faith), and
consequently useless at a range of nearly
a hundred yards, I fired it. The deer
chanored his course, oivino- me a broadside
shot for the bullet, and then disappeared in
the thicket. Presently I cauo-ht sioht of him
going up the wooded hillock, and, detecting
an abnormal movement, I ran after him and
found him Ivinor dead. The 20-bore shot-
and-ball gun had done its work well, the
wound was just behind the shoulder. H.
now joined me. He had run on to where
I was originally placed in the second beat,
and the pig had crossed the open glade but
one hundred and fifty yards from him, and

IN ALBANIA 249

at that range his smooth-bore was naturally
ineffective. My roebuck — a small one —
was, of course, in velvet.

Next morning we started for a long pull
in the gig through cold driving rain and
over a rough sea. H., who is a first-rate
swimmer, kept explaining what he would do
if we were swamped. As I am better on
land than in water, I felt this conversation
the reverse of cheering, especially as I could
not light a pipe. Fortunately, we landed
safely below the monastery which gives the
point its name, and climbed the hill to the
shore of the great Butrinto Lake. The day
was too thick for the scenery to be at its
best ; but every now and then we caught sight
of snow-clad mountains and of masonry-
topped hills ; but which of these latter was
the ''lofty Buthroton" of Homer, I canno

250 IN ALBANIA

venture to say. The first beat only produced
a roe, which broke up over the ridge unshot
at, passing right through a line of wood-
carrying women. The lake was covered
with duck, who well know they are safe
there. For the next beat we crossed over
to the sea, and came on the same roe in
doing so. I snapped at him, but fruitlessly,
at about one hundred and fifty yards ; and
nothing but this roe was found in the beat,
when, needless to say, he broke back. All
that passed me was a wild cat, at which, of
course, I did not fire. Then followed a
small and unpromising beat, which was quite
blank. During this our party was reinforced
by a sulky-looking zaptieh, who had not
even a good-day for us Christian dogs,
whose two francs he would, however, have
pocketed at the end of the day had we not

IN ALBANIA 251

got rid of him by a stratagem. For the
fourth beat we had a \oivj[ and rouMi walk
along the lake, but, not long after we were
posted, shouts were heard, and we were
requested to move towards the sea, an
enormous solitaire havinof been seen that
way. He had moved off, however, and we
ate a somewhat depressed lunch. For the
last beat we had a long walk on the rocky
shore and then across to the lake again. In
this beat there were nine pig, but all broke
back ; and we w^ent to our floating home
disgusted.

Saturday was as unpromising a day as
any other. E. accompanied us, and we
landed at the nearest point and walked off
to the lake again, the first beat being a
continuation, so to say, of the last of the
night before. A fine fox canie down to the

252 IN ALBANIA

rocks bv me, and I let him o-q, but mv for-
bearance was not rewarded. The only pig
In the beat, as usual, broke back. Most of
this beat took place in driving hail, and it
was bitterly cold. The next beat up to the
ridge was quite blank ; all I had to look at
beinof a swan flvino- over the lake. The
third was the same as the fourth on the first
day. Hardly were we posted than two
jackals passed me. I was bloodthirsty by
this time, but missed one at short range,
and, rightly or wrongly, put It on the slugs
— seven of which form a charge, and con-
sequently cannot be expected to do much
in the way of a pattern. In the next beat
there was again a jackal, at which E.
snapped with her Derringer. I had heard
much of Albanian "jacks," and their large
size, but these were no bigger than our

IN ALBANIA 253

Indian friend, but more yellow. The fifth
and sixth beat we had already taken the
first day, and both were blank, save of
woodcock.

Next day's daylight saw us under way for
Corfu, unanimously agreed that we had had
the worst of luck, but conorratulatino^ our-
selves at having, at least, no discreditable
misses to own to.

Now, at the risk of being told that every
fool is born a critic, may I be allowed to
point out the reason why we failed, and
why everyone is likely to fail who goes to
Albania boar-shooting, and puts himself un-
reservedly in the hands of the natives.
First, it is almost unnecessary to say (as I
have said it in print before) that, with the
sole exception of the wolf, the boar is the
most difficult animal to drive ; and yet there

254 IN ALBANIA

is hardly any (Jther method of bringing him
to the oun. The best of all, the bavino- him
with a dachshund, and creeping in for a
shot, however successful in German forests,
would not ever succeed in Albanian thickets ;
although that development of it, when one
sportsman posts himself on the opposite side
to that on which another tries to steal in,
possibly might. Given, then, that driving
Is a necessity, how should it be conducted ?
First, and perhaps most important of all, the
greatest attention should be paid to the wind
In posting the guns. Secondly, there should
be no admixture of dogs and men ; the
former, perhaps, running a hare or fox half
a mile ahead, and actually turning back pig
that the beaters have started In the right
direction. Of the two, and only consulting
my own taste, I would prefer working the

IN ALBANIA 255

coverts with two couple of slow musical
hounds (such as bassets a jainbes di^oiies,
with one man 'to hunt them) to any number
of beaters. Thirdly, if beaters are to be
used (and few will have hounds with them
in Albania to avoid this necessity), let them
leave their dogs at home and go silendy.
The occasional tap of a stick or a whistle
will move the pior fast enough. In urg-ino-
this, I am only repeating a sportsman's axiom
which applies to all sorts of game, but the
result of its application in Albania should
be phenomenal. I firmly believe that every
pig along its seaboard knows that fiendish
yells, shouts of Dai^ramos, and yelping of
curs, simply mean danger in front, and
breaks back if he can. Lastly, of course,
a sufficient number of guns to cover the
ground should form the party, the nature

256 IN ALBANIA

of the ground often preventing one from
covering fifty yards. By only being two,
we lost three distinct chances the first
day ; In fact, all the pig that came forward
at all.

XXI

SHOOTING-LADIES

T F I am old-fashioned enough to think

the fair sex much more In their place

by the fireside on our return from hunting,

than scratching their faces, spoiling their

complexions, and risking limb. If not life,

by our sides in the field, I am just

enough to admit that there is something

to be said on each side In that case.

Fishing, again. Is a sport, against the

participation In which by women It Is

difficult to say more than that they might
17

258 SHOOTING-LADIES

be better employed. When we come to
the gun, however, I must say I cannot be
so moderate. Of course there are posi-
tions which, with some guns, do away
with the idea of ''kilHng" and suffering.
We all know men who stand out on the
covert side and kill their pheasants bird
after bird dead, so that the animals meet
an instantaneous, and, as far as we know,
painless death in the air. We are not all
like that, and sometimes we must own to
a bird off "with a leg down," or a
" runner." Now, we men don't trouble
to devote much thought to the feelings
of that *' runner," as, having gained some
hedgerow or similar shelter, he watches
the retriever approaching him with his
unerrinor nose on the line ; or that of the
other bird, which has cowered when he

SHOOTING-LADIES 259

alighted with one or both legs broken
throughout the long winter night till the
next noon, when the keeper comes round
with his dog to look for "lost birds."
Nobody expects a shooting-man to make
a fuss about the hare he was a "little
behind " on, and when he picks up the
squealing animal his only idea is to put
her out of her pain without unnecessary
delay. We have a comforting theory,
which may be right or may be wrong,
that "the lower animals don't feel like we
do." I hope we are right, but anyhow
man's primeval occupation was the chase,
and I don't think anyone will be likely
to couch lance against us sportsmen if
we follow our sport In a sportsmanlike
manner — as old Bishop Sineslus said,
''because it gives us endurance, prompt-

26o SHOOTING-LADIES

ness, courage, self-control, as well as
health and cheerfulness."

Now, some of the above-named qualities
are no doubt most desirable in women,
but I venture to think they are to be
obtained otherwise than with the gun.
Endurance and courage (other than
moral) we don't expect in our wives and
daughters. Self - controlled, healthy, and
cheerful women we meet daily, who
neither hunt nor shoot.

But if I don't like shooting for women,
there is one form of it which especially
raises my bile. I refer to deer-stalking.
Every autumn we read in the papers how
Lady A., Mrs B., or Miss C. has "bagged
a royal," or "grassed a nine-pointer."

Now, I consider a man but half a
sportsman whose joy is not tempered with

SHOOTING-LADIES 261

regret as he leans on his rifle beside the
monarch of the glen ; and it seems to me,
a feminine (as distinguished from a female)
mind should feel the regret but not the
joy. And then the butcherly details. I
suppose the ''fair riflewoman " does not
assist in the gralloch ; but are there no
such things as the life-blood running from
the wounds caused both by bullet and
stalker's knife — the painful last contrac-
tions, the dying limbs, the glazing eye?
I think such sights are not for women ;
and to show that I am not alone in my
opinion, I will quote one scene from
memory. It is nearly ten years ago, and
the Devon and Somerset Staghounds have
set up their stag in a small pond, tra-
versed by a flight of rails, at Barnsworthy
Farm, near Fairfield, on the Quantock

262 SHOOTING-LADIES

Hills. A rope is quickly thrown over
the animal's horns, with which he is
drawn up to the rails, and Arthur's ready
knife is thrust into his broad chest. The
blood rushes out in a great stream, but
the poor stag makes no sign but a
moaning bellow of pain. Silently most
of the sportsmen turn their horses round
in the lane, and move off to empty flasks
and Vi'Ait cio^ars farther off For several
minutes, I am told, the poor beast stood
so, his legs gradually beginning to shake,
till he fell down with a crash. Through-
out this time a young woman remained
quietly sitting on her horse, and looking
on, within five yards of the animal.

"Did you ever see anything so sicken-
inor as that crirl's conduct ? " said one
sportsman to another in my hearing.

SHOOTING-LADIES 263

"Never in my life," re[)lied No. 2.
And every man present agreed with him.

Women of England, think of this before
you submit yourself to like criticism.

T

XXII

SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF SMALL
FREEHOLDERS

^ H E question, from a sportsman's point

of view, of the shooting-rights of
small freeholders is not equally burning in
all parts of England. In my old west-
country home it is, and I believe it is so
in Wales, while in the eastern counties
it hardly enters into the list of game pre-
server's unpleasantnesses. Still, I take it,
it would be difficult to find many parishes
in England and Wales where there are not

26:1

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 265

one or two cottager freeholders, so I may
fairly consider it a matter of general
interest.

Now, I should like to begin by saying
that I am the last man in the world to
attack any vested interest, or to make
what may be called a class distinction
between landowners. Therefore I maintain
that unless I can show that the sporting-
rights of small freeholders are (i) pre-
judicial to the community in which they
live, (2) honestly useless and even in-
jurious to themselves, and (3) contrary to
the wisdom of other countries, gained by
experience, I am not justified in raising, as
I did in the Field a couple of years ago, and
as I do here to-day, an outcry for the legal
abolition of those rights. I will now take
these heads in order, but before doing so I

266 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

will just glance at the position and the line
of conduct of a good many small free-
holders— those, in fact, whose action has
served to point out the objectionableness
of their existence as owners of sporting-
riohts. A. B. owns rather under one acre
of land, inclusive of that on which his
cottage and pigstye stand. It is, of course,
o^arden o-round. One side of it skirts a
road, but everywhere else it is surrounded
by Mr. C.'s pheasant covert. Now, gardens
contain many things dear to a pheasant's
palate, not to speak of the little patch of
buckwheat we so often see in such places,
which tells so plain a tale. Now, by the
law of England, A. B. has exactly the same
rights as the squire. He can, provided
he take out a game certificate, shoot, wire,
or otherwise take every pheasant he may

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 267

see in his little garden, however unfairly
(mark this) he may have attracted them
there ; and even if each bird has a wire
rine on its leo^ to show that it was bred and
brought up at great expense by Squire C.
and his keepers, for the pheasant is fei^cs
naturcE. Well, this is his right, and we
must respect it. But who does not know
the oft-repeated story ? A market is found
at the village pothouse for an illegally
wired bird, illegally, because A. B., of
course, never takes out a game certifi-
cate.

'' Cawn't ye get us a few more ? " says
the game receiver. "'Ere, I got summat
in the cawrt." And he hands over to
A. B. a quart or two of damaged raisins.
"Chuck a 'andful over the fence," he is
told, "for a day or two, till the birds begin

268 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

to find 'em. Then put the rest in your
gawrden. Nex' day put down the wires,
on your own land, mind, and look out
nobody sees you take 'em up. I'll be 'ere
agin Monday." Very likely the keeper
fences In the covert ; but the netting is
always getting trodden down. " I dunno
anythink about It," says A. B., who Is fast
becoming a professional poacher. Even if
it isn't, I need not tell the reader pheasants
w^ill stray, even over netting. There Is
only one thing to be done. Every attempt
is made to keep the birds away from that
part of the wood. The keepers are always
running dogs over It, or sending old women
to gather dead wood. Perhaps the desired
result is obtained ; but Squire C. loses the
shootinor of a score of acres because A. B.
has that of a half one. What does the

H

'■^Hb^^h '^J

FAST BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL POACHER.

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 269

latter do then ? Perhaps he gives it up.
Generally, though, he has got a taste for
easily earned shillings, and follows the
pheasants. He is caught at last — again
and again. The option of a fine is at last
not o^iven, or he is cauo^ht at niirht.
Imprisonment follows — the community is
put to expense. He comes out worse than
he went in; ready for any crime. ''A
dangerous fellow ! " says the squire, and
he is right.

The keeper has another case — almost
worse, he thinks. D. E. owns an acre or
so right in the heart of another covert, and
has a right of way thereto. He takes out
a ten-shilling gun licence, and, gun in hand,
walks down through the wood under the
keeper's nose every morning. Within ten
minutes a shot is fired. The keeper hurries

270 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

down, and finds D. E. beginning solemnly
to "get up 'taters."

"Yes, I shut," he replies. " Quest ^ It
was. I missed un, thouoh." Now what
Is the keeper to do ? He Is pretty certain
the man's quick eye caught sight of a
pheasant running out of the potato patch,
and that this bird now lies dead amonorst
the potato haulms, probably with a shovelful
of earth over him. Kllllna- orame without
a licence, no doubt. But a search would
be fruitless, as would be an examination
of the first basket of potatoes taken up.
If he waits, the bird will remain till it rots,
If necessary. Besides, how can he wait ?
If he goes. It will go up to the cottage,
perhaps by the wife who brings the dinner.
Besides, he may be all wrong. D. E.

^ Woodpigeon.

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 271

would certainly shoot at a pigeon if it
crossed his potato patch. The keeper has
a shrewd idea that the bird, besides being
one of his own rearing, was shot on the
squire's ground as D. E. came down the
path. What can he do? He cannot
devote his whole time to one man, nor
escort D. E. every time he passes through
the wood. Only one remedy ; drive away
the birds, and here, the wood beino- all
round the garden, a good deal more must
be sacrificed than in the previous case.
These two are authenticated cases within
the writer's experience. Now let me go
back to my premises. I maintain that the
existence of such a state of things is pre-
judicial to the community, not to speak of
the cost of law proceedings, the expense
of poachers' imprisonments, the moral de-

272 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

terloration of the rising generation. I
know places where the existence of scores
of such landowners (save the mark !) makes
preserving Impossible. The gentlemen's
houses stand empty, — for those who want a
country house like some shooting, — and
does this mean nothing prejudicial to the
community ? Ask the butcher, the baker,
and the farmer. Ask the poor !

That such rights are honestly useless to
the freeholder himself no one can deny.
What head of game can a man have on
an acre, two acres, five acres, ten acres ?
Will It ever be worth his while to pay
three ©ulneas for a irame certificate to
legally take his own ? Answer : No ; not
even Including other people's, which will
fairly {i.e. without feeding) stray through
the fence. That this right Is Injurious to

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 273

such men, the career of A. B., as above

sketched, proves. But even say the man

does not turn poacher, that at the most he

only illegally takes a pheasant or two in

the year, and pops them in the pot for

his own supper, how much better the

feeling, as he ^^shoo's" them out of the

garden, '' I needn't feed ye, anyway,

though I do get paid for ye. There's a

tidy few birds about. Shouldn't wonder

if we got two shilling an acre next letting,

let alone the money for beating."

At this point I can fancy the reader

putting down this book with the remark,

''The man must be mad. Who on earth

would pay two shillings an acre for cottage

garden shooting, which proverbially holds

nothing.^" The figure is high, I admit,

but the shooting is good when every
18

274 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

freeholder is a gamekeeper. " What the
d— 1 ? "

Let me explain. England is practically
the only European country where the
small freeholder has any sporting rights.
In Germany no owner of less than two
hundred acres has ; in Austria it is one
hundred and fifteen acres ; in France, eighty
acres. France is a bad country to imitate
in other respects, as far as game laws are
concerned. Let us take Austria, with the
proviso that as far as the general law goes
that of Germany is similar. Here the
land must be in one parish [gemeinde), or,
if in two, then contiguous. If divided by
a highway or river, the divided halves
must in some degree face one another, so
that a man could not say, " I've got thirty
acres here, and the rest five miles down

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 275

the river, but only the river divides
them."

All lesser properties are lumped with
the communal {i.e. common) lands, and
the shooting over all these is let by auction
every five or seven years. The money
obtained therefor is taken by the commune,
i.e. goes to reduce the local taxation.
Therefore, every taxpayer (not only every
freeholder) has a direct interest in the
game preserving, because the more game
killed the higher price the shoot will fetch
next time, and the lower will be the local
taxes.

Now, this is the system I want to see
introduced in E norland with certain modi-
fications. I would bring under this system
all land (other than garden or ornamental
grounds) possessed by any person whose

276 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

property in that parish, or in an adjoining one
(the land being conterminous in this case),
did not exceed one hundred acres. The right
to shoot over all these small freeholds and
copy-holds should be vested in the parish
council (or meeting). It should be put up to
auction every five years, and sold to the high-
est bidder, who would bind himself to leave a
reasonable head of game on the land, and to
submit to arbitration the question of damages
to crops from the keeping of an excessive
head of game. It would, I think, be too radi-
cal a measure to make such a system com-
pulsory at once, but I think local option might
be given in this matter to parish councils.
The good such a system would work in many
parishes Is incalculable. The result of the
communal system abroad is that the casual
poacher has ceased to exist. There is no

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 277

chance for hini where every peasant pro-
prietor is an amateur gamekeeper, as this
system makes him. Some years ago the
writer had brouoht to his knowledore the case
of a peasant in Germany who had shot a
hare on a communal shooting. Although
the rent received by this commune was only
something like three pounds, which went
into the parish funds, there was not the
slightest sympathy shown with the poacher,
who, by the way, was reported to the author-
ities by a neighbour. In suggesting a limit
of a hundred acres, I should point out that it
might be permissible for any landowner to
hand over shooting in the parish to the
council to any extent, and no doubt many
would avail themselves of such a permissive
clause. One hundred acres seems to me a
good minimum, but on this point I am open to

278 SHOOTING-RIGHTS OF

conviction. The money received may be ap-
plied to reduce the parish rate, but I suggest
that it be paid to the freeholders direct, and,
moreover, that the auction should be at per
acre, purchaser to pay the cost of the dis-
tribution, advertising, etc., so that every
cottager who has two acres would know,
if the shooting let at a shilling, he would
have to receive two shillings, free of any
deduction whatever. He would have some-
thing, however little, tangible and honestly
come by, to show for his right. This, if it
went into parish funds, he might not realise.
Lastly, let us remember, if we are
inclined to deal too tenderly with the small
freeholder, that he Is generally a repre-
sentative of thieves or receivers. Either
he Is descended from those who In past
days "squatted" on other people's land,

SMALL FREEHOLDERS 279

or from those who bought It from such
squatters. His right Is good In law, but
he never paid for It, hke others, by
''yeoman service In the wars," or in hard
cash.

XXIII
DEAD WEIGHT

1 .^OR years the question of reducing the
weight the sportsman, and especially
the stalker, has to carry, has been one which
I have been trying practically to solve.
This is the result of my experiments: — He
must carry In the pockets — handkerchief,
knife (with cartridge extractor on it), money,
shooting permit or licence, and, in my own
case, spectacles. (A watch Is only necessary
to those who cannot judge the time roughly
without, but it is Indispensable in driving,

DEAD WEIGHT 281

when it should be compared with the head
beater's, or with one lent to him.) On the
belt, leather pouch holding ten cartridges
and hunting - knife. In a small waterproof
rucksack on the back, packet of ten
cartridges, rifle- wiper, food (I recommend
hard - boiled eggs, cheese, apples, and, of
course, bread and salt), spirit flask (or, if in
a waterless country, a bottle of cold tea).
To these add, in a country where rain is
possible, a thin waterproof cape ; in a rocky
country, a pair of jute-soled shoes for the
actual stalk ; in a strange country, a
compass ; if you smoke, your pipe, tobacco,
and matches (the last always useful) ; if you
contemplate sleeping out, a spare pair of
socks. It is almost impossible that you can
want all these together, but even if you do,
you should not feel the weight thus disposed

282 DEAD WEIGHT

of ; and how often does one have a native, to
whose shoulders the rucksack can be trans-
ferred ? Over the riorht shoulder is slune
the indispensable telescope ; and over the
other the rifle. This leaves the hands free
for the alpenstock. I am going to come
back to the question of weight directly, but
here I just wish to refer shortly to the
question of dress. Harris tweed, or cord
coat, showerproof; flannel shirt, and woollen
waistcoat (all wool, back as well), which can
be transferred to the rucksack on a warm
morning, are Items nobody will quarrel with,
but when one comes to leg-covering, every-
one has different ideas. I, personally, swear
by the kilt. One never gets too warm In a
kilt, yet it keeps you warm on a cold day if
you tuck It tight round your thighs ; most of
the rain runs off it, too, and It soon dries.

DEAD WEIGHT 283

At night (and every real sportsman has
experience of nights in very rough quarters)
take it off, lay it lengthwise over your legs,
tuck in well, and you have a warm blanket.
Moreover, it forms a soft dry seat, and there
is a lot of sitting about, sometimes very
hard, and sometimes disagreeably soft, in
stalking. Last, but not least, it practically
never wears out. But whether kilt or
comfortable breeches, which do not chafe
or strain you anywhere, are preferred, I
equally recommend as a leg -covering a
footless stocking coming down two or three
inches outside the top edge of the boot.
With this a pair of socks makes a change ;
if you wear a long stocking, you must carry
the whole thing twice, or be without a
change. Besides, you must wear anklets or
some form of leggings, or else earth, small

284 DEAD WEIGHT

stones, or sticks will get into your boots,
and you will have to be continually taking
them off. The Indmn puUies, or bandages,
are good, but take time to put on, and must
be removed to get the boot off. Whatever
sort of hat or cap you affect, for comfort it
should have a brim fore and aft.

Now, where can we reduce the weiorht?
In the telescope it has been lessened of late
years by substituting aluminum for brass.
Nothino- more can be done here. In the
rifle ? For a long time I could not see how.
Hollow the stock .'^ No, because that must
spoil the balance. Reduce the thickness of
metal in the barrel ? Not to be thought
"of, as the only result would be to unduly
weaken the barrel. Shorten the barrel ?
Yes ; here, perhaps, something might be
done.

DEAD WEIGHT 285

Thirty inches is what we may call a
standard length of barrel, in England at any-
rate, though most modern rifles are made a
bit shorter, say twenty-eight or even twenty-
seven inches. If six or eight inches could
be taken off this standard length without im-
pairing general sporting efficiency, much would
be gained, namely — Firsdy, the rifle would
be lightened by the actual weight of the
metal removed ; secondly, there would be a
corresponding lightening of the stock in
making the weapon balance ; thirdly, half a
dozen inches of useless metal stickino^ out
when the rifle is slung for a climb up a
thicket - covered hill, and catching every
branch which the head Is bobbed under,
would be dispensed with ; and, lasdy, the
effort of steadying the weapon in standing
and snap-shots would be greatly reduced.

286 DEAD WEIGHT

At the time I made the experiments
necessary to my purpose I was greatly
handicapped In various wa)s. In the first
place, I was abroad, and In a place where I
could neither consult any printed or living
authority on rifles. Secondly, though I had
a fair amount of experience with them, I
had no practical knowledge concerning the
making or altering of these weapons. But,
as Surtees tells us, there are two kinds of
knowledge, the one the knowledge that a
man has, and the other that which he knows
where to get. This last I had ; and accord-
ingly wrote a series of questions to the
sporting papers. Among those who replied
to my queries were a well-known firm of
gunmakers, who said that In their opinion
the practical sporting efficiency of a rifle
would not be Impaired by making the barrel

DEAD WEIGHT 287

twenty-four or even twenty-two Inches only,
but that the sights would be so near together
that an orthoptic behind the hammers would
be necessary. Another correspondent sent
a table of velocities of different lenijth
barrels, from which I extract the following,
roughly converting centimetres In the length
of barrel Into Inches, and metres In the
muzzle velocity Into feet : —

/ Centimetres 80 jo 60 50
Length of Barrel < , , , ,

( Inches 31 27.5 23.6 19.6

(Approximate — slightly under)

Muzzle Velocity in Feet 2145 2105 2046 1996

(Approximate — slightly over)

The first thing I noticed about this table
was that the velocities throughout were very
high — In fact, about those of the United
States army weapon — and certainly obtained
with a nitro-compound powder. A table of
velocities in these lengths of barrel In an

288 DEAD WEIGHT

ordinary sporting rifle would have been
much more use to me, but still I thought
that proportionately these would be similar,
and that therefore I might take it that If the
loss of velocity between a barrel of thirty-
one Inches and one under twenty was under
one hundred and fifty feet — say one-four-
teenth, It might also be taken as hardly
worthy of consideration In a sporting rifle.
Now, although I laboured under certain
disadvantages, as I have already explained,
I also had a considerable advantage, which
was that I had to my hand a weapon on
which I was prepared to experiment. This
was a .400 express rifle of American make
but stocked to my measure in England.
The barrel of this was thirty inches long
and perfectly cylindrical outside from breech
to muzzle. The foresight was one inch from

DEAD WEIGHT 289

the muzzle, and the backsight seven Inches
from the breech. They were thus twenty-
two inches apart.

Being In Greece at the time, I enlisted the
services of a military armourer, and told him
to cut eight inches off the muzzle end of the
barrel. When this was done — and by the
way very well done — I made him replace
the sights, foresight as before one inch from
the muzzle, backsight two and a half Inches
from the breech. They were consequently
eighteen and a half Inches apart, and the
backsight was four and a half Inches nearer
the eye than before. I had given the
armourer half a dozen cartridges, with which
he reported that the altered rifle shot well ;
but subsequent experience showed me that
if he had tried it at all It must have been at

an absurdly short range. I found some
19

290 DEAD WEIGHT

difficulty in procuring a suitable range
myself, but at last picked out a pretty good
hundred yards, though across a gully.

I may remark that I had already found
out that the altered weapon handled and
balanced beautifully, which with the long,
heavy barrel It had been very far from doing
previously. The target used throughout the
trials measured twelve Inches by seven.
This first day I began at a hundred yards,
but only hit the mark once in six shots. On
going to examine, I found the other five
could be covered with the hand, but these
were quite eighteen inches below the bull.
It was obvious then that my solitary hit was
a "bob." I finished the packet of cartridges
at sixty yards, and here again all four struck
close together — all just below the target.
This trial conclusively proved that the rifle

DEAD WEIGHT 291

was undersighted, or in odier words that the
result of my having altered the relative
positions of the sights to one another, or to
the eye, involved a considerable increase in
elevation. This, of course, I had not the
technical knowledge to foresee. The only
thing to be done was to have the sights
altered, and for this purpose I adjourned the
trials. I decided to have the backsight
raised, which, of course, was the easiest
thing to do ; but if I had it to do again, and
were in England at the time, I think I would
rather have the foresight lowered, for the
reason that the hioher the siorhts the greater
the error if the weapon is inadvertently held
in the least degree crooked.

The original vertical heio["ht of the back-
sight above the barrels was exactly a quarter
of an inch; the new one was .325 inch.

292 DEAD WEIGHT

Therefore there was a difference of .075 Inch
only between the two, which, however,
proved ample.

Unfortunately, when I arrived at my
"range," I found the proprietor had dug up
the vineyard on which I had originally lain,
and, worse still, given It such a slope
downhill that I could not cover the target.
All I could do was to make a heap of vlne-
clipplngs, which abraded my elbows, and
formed but an unsteady rest. Added to this
there w^as a bright sun glinting on the sights ;
and, to crown all, I was conscious of a distinct
" personal error " In the shooting. However,
with It all, I managed to put on fifty per
cent, of hits on the lltde target, and few. If
any, of the shots would have missed a small
deer.

Being, however, one of those not to be

DEAD WEIGHT 293

satisfied with a doubtful result, I had another
trial two days later on a fresh piece of
o-round. Of my first six shots at a hundred
yards, five struck the small target, and of
these four were within six Inches. As this
would be a satisfactory result with any rifle
fired (by me) without a rest, I did not
consider It necessary to continue the
experiment.

The following week I took the rifle on an
Ibex-shooting expedition, In which I had
certainly more hits than misses, nor can I
lay the blame of the latter on my weapon.
Since then I have used It successfully for
chamois, etc., at distances up to 130 yards,
and also at the target.

At the longer ranges the results have
been less satisfactory, but this I am satisfied
is due to the sights being so near together,

294 DEAD WEIGHT

It has never been in England since, but I
have now sent for it in order to have
an orthoptic fitted, which I am convinced is
all that is required. If I am right, it is clear
that a great opening has been made for
sportsmen and gunmakers to reduce the
weight of rifles, and consequently the
stalker's burden. Especially will this be
the case with high velocity weapons burning
smokeless powder.

How many chances have been lost to
sportsmen by the rifle being, at the moment
when an unexpected chance occurred, in the
hands of a native ? And why ? Simply
because it was so heavy. I, personally,
never part with my rifle, and am sure mine
is the best plan ; but those who think with
me are all the more interested in the
question,

DEAD WEIGHT 295

I do not contend that short-barrelled rifles
would be equally effective at, say, five
hundred yards range. But in my experience
more bio^ crame is killed at under a hundred
yards than over. Two hundred yards is all
the sportsman wants. Disregarding tele-
scopic sights and similar dodges, I find that,
at over that distance, it is not possible to lay
the rifle on the proper spot, because the
'' bead " covers too much of the animal.
Experience shows me that my gunmaker
correspondent is right : except at short
ranges, a hundred yards and under, an
orthoptic is necessary with a short barrel.
But this is no objection. They^ are almost
universally used by American sportsmen,
and said to be quick and handy, even for
running shots. At all events, I am not too

^ Lyman's Patent.

296 DEAD WEIGHT

dogmatic to try them ; and If they make
my shoothig with the 22-Inch barrel as certain
at two hundred yards as It Is now at a
hundred, I shall be more than satisfied.

XXIV
JAPANESE DEER

'T^ H E fact of recently having seen in the
^ Shooting Times a short paragraph
about that handsome Httle animal, the
Japanese deer {Cervus Sica), has reminded
me that this is an animal undeservedly
neglected by British sportsmen, of whose
attention it is, in my opinion, more worthy
than the indigenous roe-deer, an animal,
however, whose cause I am never tired of
pleading. That the Japanese deer is
eminendy suited to acclimatisation in Great

297

298 JAPANESE DEER

Britain has been triumphantly proved by
Lord PowerscoLirt, who started at Powers-
court in i860 with three does and a buck,
and in 1884 had over a hundred, in addition
to many which had been shot or given away.
Writing under correction, I think the Shoot-
ing Times said that there were now no
Japanese deer at Powerscourt, so that the
herd must have recently been dispersed or
sold. There is (or was when I was hunting
with the Grafton a few years ago), however,
a large herd at Whittlebury Park, Sir G.
Loder's place near Towcester. But it is
not as park deer that I wish to bring the
animals to the notice of the English
sportsmen.

The antlers of the Japanese deer have
nominally eight points, viz., brow, tray, and
two on top of each horn, but the anterior

JAPANESE DEER 299

tine, or top, is considerably longer than the
hinder one. In summer they are spotted
with white, but the winter coat of the adult
deer is dark brown, almost black. Lord
Powerscourt writes: ''The Japanese are a
most satisfactory little deer ; the venison,
when dressed, is about the size of Welsh
mutton, and very well flavoured. The little
stags, with their black coats and thick necks,
like miniature sambar, are very picturesque
and ornamental, and I think they are a
decided addition to our varieties of hardy
park deer. Some of them are always to be
seen in the Zoological Society's Gardens,
but these give no idea of the beauty of the
animals when in a wild state. They have
also a most peculiar cry in the rutting season
— a sort of whistle, varying sometimes into a
scream." The Japanese deer has been

300 JAPANESE DEER

almost, if not quite, exterminated on the
larger island, but is pretty plentiful on the
northern one. Unborn fawns are considered
by the Japs an especial delicacy — a fact
which accounts for such wanton destruction
of does. They are also found in Northern
China, and from the same country come the
allied Manchurian deer, and Dybowski's
deer. Another relative is the deer of
Formosa ; and lastly we have the Caspian
deer, about w^hich very little is yet known,
which completes the group.

Japanese deer are always on sale at such
places as Cross's and Jamrach's, but can
probably be obtained cheaper by application
to the head -keeper of such parks as they are
kept in. The very qualities {i.e,, their stick-
ing to the woodlands) which cause them to
give such poor sport in their native countries

JAPANESE DEER 301

make them invaluable to English shooting-
owners and tenants. Like the roe, they will
rarely if ever stray beyond the covert,
especially if a few bundles of hay are thrown
down in the rides in very severe weather.
Still, if possible, I would select a well-fenced
covert with no root fields bordering it.
They will, of course, do damage to young
trees, but (alas!) timber is worth so litde
now in England, that this will be well
compensated for by a close stalk on a late
summer evening, or a day's driving later on.
The best fun would be driving them to the
o-un with beao-les, but this must only be
practised on large estates, as the probable
result will be a shift of quarters to the next
covert ; and for this reason a woodland
where hounds often come should be avoided.
A covert with open glades or with under-

302 JAPANESE DEER

growth of different ages, of about a hundred
acres and traversed by a brook, will be
found the most suitable. Another reason
for avoiding a hunting country, if possible, is
that the foxes will have to be looked after
pretty sharply at first. But if plenty of shot
rabbits are left about, the fawns will be pretty
safe.

I shall be much interested to hear of any
sportsman's experience with either Japanese
or roe-deer on these lines.

XXV

ROBERT S. SURTEES— AN
APPRECIATION

^EVEN or eight years ago a reviewer
*^-^ (who I venture to suppose was then
but young at his work), having to notice a
new edition of Handley Cross, contempt-
uously remarked that this class of work had
had a certain vogue a score of years before,
but might now be considered as quite out
of date, so that the object of reprinting
them was difficult to understand. This
dictum caused quite a stir in the sporting

303

304 ROBERT S. SURTEES

world. An old sportsman said to the writer,
"They'll be saying the same of the Bible
next " ; and I believe the remark was made
in all seriousness.

" Jorrocks" was, however, soon vindicated.
From all parts of the kingdom, indeed I
believe from all parts of the world, came
letters to the editor which conclusively proved
that the "vogue" of Surtees' works was
perhaps greater than ever. I propose in the
following article to inquire into the causes of
that lasting popularity, although I am con-
siderably handicapped by writing at a time
and place at which I am unable to refer to
any of the works In question.

One reason which might occur to the most
casual observer Is that, In those books which
are most generally before the public, Surtees
had the Immense advantage of co-operating

AN APPRECIATION 305

with no less an artist than John Leech.
Indeed, it may be said that in some cases the
letterpress was written up to the illustrations.
In one edition of Handley Cross, not illus-
trated, and which I believe to be the original
one, there are many variations from the well-
known text. For instance, the horse which
declines to be led over on Mr. Jorrocks' first
day is Xerxes, and here it is obvious the later
text was altered to suit Leech's famous
picture (perhaps the most famous of all),
'' Come hup, you hugly brute." Again, only
a few lines of 'Miary" are devoted to the
"■ Cat and Custard Pot Day," but it is not clear
whether we really have to thank Leech's
drawings for the existence of what is probably
the very best account of an average run with
foxhounds that was ever written. Certain

it is that the five books to which Leech
20

3o6 ROBERT S. SURTEES

furnished illustrations are far the best known
of Surtees' works. Hawbuck Grange, which
Browne ("Phiz") illustrated, though published
in the same series, is far less well-known, but
it is only just to say that it is probably the
least amusing of Surtees' works. Not long
ago I saw it appreciatively quoted by the
late Lord Suffolk, who, like many another
sporting writer, often and often made refer-
ence to Hundley Cross and others of our
author's books. Hillingdon Hall, which was
republished some years back, is far less well-
known than it deserves to be. Jo7'rocks
Jaunts and Jollities, as far as I know, has
never been illustrated, and a new edition is
badly wanted. It is very unequally written,
but parts of it are inimitably funny. The
humour of the trip to Paris, at the commence-
ment of which Jorrocks, wishing to " sink

AN APPRECIATION 307

the shop," describes himself as "Chasseur,"
but ultimately signs the proccs-verbal of his
abortive duel as "John Jorrocks, Grocer
(and Colonel in the Army when I'm in
France)," will not be soon forgotten by those
who have read it. The descriptions of sport
with fox and stag in Surrey, again, are quite
first-rate ; but the accounts of the Cockney
humours of Margate are really only interesting
to the students of life in the early Victorian
days. To some editions of this work a life
of the author has been affixed, but it is a very
jejune one, possibly for the reason that little
or nothing was really known of the man — as
distinguished from the writer. One fact of
some importance, however, it does contain,
and that is a statement that he never revealed
the original from which he drew the portrait
of the inimitable sporting grocer — indeed

3o8 ROBERT S. SURTEES

denied that there was any prototype. If
this is so, it cannot be denied that Surtees
achieved that in which so many writers fail,
and brought before his readers a living
reality, and possibly a more vivid one than
Thackeray ever drew, or even Dickens.
Of Jorrocks it may be said that w^e know all
about him, and can even foresee how he
will act on any particular occasion. His
honesty, hard-working habits, and thrift are
blended most perfectly with his love of the
bottle, devotion to hunting, and, it must be
added, to the fair sex. In depicting his
hero's knowledge of mankind Surtees fairly
let himself go, and wrote what he himself
felt, though he conceals it often under such
semi-honest actions of old John's as sticking
a horse into a friend at double the price he
had just paid for him, or showing himself

AN APPRECIATION 309

well experienced In such " tricks of the trade"
as showing sugars on " witey-brown paper."
Surtees, probably more than any other
writer, had the trick of Interesting his reader
in an anything but fauldess hero. We all
love Jorrocks, though we should probably be
rather aghast to see him In our own houses.
Sponge, rogue as he Is, he wins our
sympathies at last none the less, for
throwing all his fortune-hunting schemes to
the winds to marry the portionless girl of his
choice. Romford again, whose manners and
appearance would have been quite against
his obtaining a groom's place In any decent
household, gains our affections by his bold
horsemanship and thorough sporting char-
acter, as evinced by his treatment of Mrs.
Watklns bagman, and we only wish we
might have been by his side the day he

3IO ROBERT S. SURTEES

hunted Mr. Stanley Sterling's fox. In his
later books (at least, I suppose them to be
such), Ask MammUy Plain or Ringlets, and
Hawbuck Grange, there may really be said
to be no hero, for nobody can take much
interest in Fine Billy, Bunting, or even John
Scott. In Hillingdon Hall we have an old
friend, Jorrocks again, Jorrocks older if per-
haps not much wiser, Jorrocks glorified, J. P.,
and at last even M.P. Underlying the light
humour of this latter work is a purpose, how-
ever ; it is throughout the work of a country
gentleman who foresees the ruin to agricul-
ture the Repeal of the Corn Laws is to bring
with it. It is also a scathing commentary
on those townsmen who think they can teach
farmers their business, but really all Surtees'
books are more or less of the nature of a
country gentleman's vade mecum. Take

AN APPRECIATION 311

As^ Mamma, for instance, and see how much
can be learnt on estate management from Sir
Moses Mainchance and Major Yammerton.
But in Hillingdon Hall Surtees may be said
to give himself up almost entirely to this
matter. Jorrocks, who seems to have learnt
less about country life in his hunting days
than most men, goes down to manage an
estate he has bought, and although he lets
his tenants see that he cannot distinguish an
oat crop from wheat or barley, he lectures
them on agriculture, till his career is at last
checked by Pigg's telling him that they are
practically adopting the most ridiculous ideas,
such as making drain-pipes with sugar, with
which Jorrocks (unknown to Pigg) has filled
their heads. But the book contains much
''brave foolincr"; and the letter in which
Jorrocks accepts a J. P. -ship, *' I will not

312 ROBERT S. SURTEES

say nolo beakopaiH, etc.," is an instance that
Surtees himself has probably never beaten.

My own reference to James Pigg reminds
me of another character, who, both in
Handley Cross and Hillingdon Hall, is
almost as prominent as Jorrocks himself,
and perhaps equally popular with sporting
readers. The great point, however, of this
conception of our author's is the admirable
foil which the "Scotch huntsman" (as Mr.
Jorrocks insists upon calling the Northum-
brian) forms to his master. As a rider he is
as bold as the grocer is timid ; in fact, the
only points they have in common are their
love of hunting, drinking, and the sex.
Pigg can perhaps hardly be spoken of as a
regular huntsman, but he is the only one,
with the exception of Jock Haggish, whom
Surtees depicts as worth his salt. Which of

AN APPRECIATION 313

us would care to have Dick Bragg, Find-
later, Lotherlngton, Boggledike, or Swig in
his service ? Frostyface is perhaps better ;
but in the Flat Hat Hunt it is after all the
Master and his double who seem to show
the sport. Even Jock Haggish, though he
can find and kill a fox, cannot ride to his
hounds. Altogether, Surtees seems to
appreciate professional huntsmen but little.

Another of the points which must strike a
reader of these books is the author's con-
tempt for the titled aristocracy. In none of
them do we find a nobleman we should care
to meet. The Duke of Donkeyton is an ass,
the Duke of Tergiversation part fool and
part rogue, Lord Ladythorne a vicious fool,
the Marquis of Bray a fop, and Lord
Scamperdale a miserly scarecrow. Nor dc
the baronets fare better. Sir Moses Main-

314 ROBERT S. SURTEES

chance is a Jewish rogue, Sir Harry Scatter-
east a sot, Sir Archy Depecarde a leg, and so
on. But if Surtees could not depict a
gentleman with a tide, who could better
draw one when he wished — without — as
witness Stanley Sterling of Rosemount, or
Jovey Jessop of Appleton Hall. But it
must be admitted a lady was beyond him.
Belinda Jorrocks was perhaps the nearest he
got, but she is quite colourless — a mere out-
line. His notion of women was that their
one idea was to capture a husband, and in the
book [P/ain 07^ Ri7iglets) that is most con-
cerned with the adventures of one, we leave
the heroine with no regret ; indeed, our author
rather congratulates Bunting on having
escaped the noose. It must be admitted
that we should neither choose one of Surtees'
noblemen for a friend, nor one of his women-

AN APPRECIATION 315

kind for a wife. He shared both these fail-
ings with Thackeray ; and as Thackeray
unwillingly interested the reader in Becky
and Beatrix when he meant us to like
Amelia and Lady Castlewood, so it must
be confessed does Surtees in Lucy Glitters,
whom he himself describes as " tolerably
virtuous." But he at least drew no paragons.
''Did you see Notre DaineV' asks Nimrod
of Jorrocks when they foregather at Calais
after the trip to Paris. *' No," is the
hero's reply; "but I've seen some werry
naughty dames all the same." But if we do
meet some "naughty dames" in Surtees'
pages, they will do us no harm. Even poor
Lucy's shortcomings are touched upon with a
very light hand. No boy or girl will be the
worse for reading these books, and few of them
will fail to appreciate. That is the charm of

3i6 ROBERT S. SURTEES

Surtees ; everybody appreciates him. The
writer has put his works Into the hands of the
most different people, young ladles with rather
a prepossession against sport, London literary
men with a positive dislike to country life,
foreign naval officers in no sense sportsmen,
and all have equally enjoyed them. This
goes far to prove their reality ; the characters,
if indifferent honest, must be real, and this is
why there Is so little "go" about Plain or
Ringlets, although it contains far more about
''Admiration Jack" than the lady whose
locks It Is supposed to turn on. But if his
women are of lltde interest, his men are, as
has been said above, r^^/ enough, and full of
variety. Besides those already alluded to,
who can forget Captain Doleful, Bill Bowker,
the great O' Dicey, Jack Spraggon, Jawley-
ford, Squeaky Stotfold, and dozens of others,

AN APPRECIATION 317

to some of whom pages are devoted, while
others are sketched in with a few feHcitous
lines ? Surtees sometimes repeated himself
in incident,^ but never in a character. Each
one stands apart. Sponge is a hard-riding,
underbred, sporting rogue. Romford is a
hard-riding, underbred, sporting rogue. But
no two men could be more unlike than
Romford and Sponge. Willy Watkins is
a rich man, anxious to conceal his ante-
cedents, and trying to ape the country
gentleman. Marmaduke Muleygrubs is a
rich man, anxious to conceal his antecedents,
and trying to ape the country gentleman.
Yet no individuals could in other respects

^ E.g.^ that of the man who asks a bystander at a meet,
" Have you seen my fellow ? " and receives the answer, " No,
I'm d — d if ever I did," which will be found in Hajtdley
Cross^ in Mr. Romforcfs Homids^ and, as far as I remember,
in Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour.

3i8 ROBERT S. SURTEES

present less resemblance to each other than
Watkins and " Grubs," as Jorrocks calls him.
The epithet one sees oftenest applied to
Surtees' works is " Rabelaisian." I do not
think it is well applied. Surtees is sometimes
coarse, and some of his coarseness does
suggest Rabelais. On the whole, however,
and not going by one or two carefully selected
extracts from each book, 1 cannot admit the
justness of the comparison. Even where
coarse he is not Rabelaisian, for Rabelais
had an object in his filth, which was to veil a
hidden or esoteric meanin^r. Surtees is all
on the surface, and he cannot be described
anywhere as filthy. The fact is, that he is a
writer stci generis ; before him there were
none like him, and since him there have but
been imitations. If we want to know what
the sporting writers of Surtees' own day

AN APPRECIATION 319

were, we can turn to his own portrait of
'' Pomponius Ego" — not really a very highly
coloured one. To that class of writer Surtees
put an end.

Judging by the condition of his principal
work, for such we must take the books relat-
ing to Jorrocks to be, sustained and continued
effort was probably distasteful to Surtees.
From the fragments of the Jaunts and
Jollities we come to a continuous narrative
lasting over some months (from the middle
of one hunting season to the beginning of
the next) in Handley C^^oss. But of his
hero's doings during at least the latter half
of this time we learn indirectly from the
account of the two lawsuits which, at least
the latter of them, are almost a blemish on
an otherwise delightful book. The proceed-
ings of the Lunacy Commission contain, it is

-.20 ROBERT S. SURTEES

o

true, some bits we would not like to have lost,
but they are almost buried in a heap of
irrelevant and uninteresting matter. Finally,
we leave Jorrocks beginning his second
season with his hounds ; and in Hillingdo7i
Hall we find him some years older, and no
longer a M.F.H. How many years we
are not told, but Stobbs and Belinda are
married and do not appear, and Pigg is
reduced to cattle-droving. Benjamin, how-
ever, is still a boy, but it would appear that
Surtees meant us to take Jorrocks as a good
deal older. The fact is, that Surtees took
no trouble to connect the two works. It is
much to be regretted that he did not, and
also weave the Jatcnts and Jollities into a
connected volume, forming as it were a
Jorrocks Trilogy, instead of writing some of
the later books, of which, for instance, Plain

AN APPRECIATION 321

or Ringlets seems only to have been inspired
by the wish to give Leech a chance to draw
young ladies. Yet we would not willingly lose
Jock Haggish, or Jovey Jessop and his Jug.
Some people look upon these books simply
as caricatures ; and so in some respects they
may be, for it is hard to believe that Surtees
wrote always of his contemporaries seriously :
instance, the absurd and exaggerated way he
dresses many of his characters. Neverthe-
less, they contain an undercurrent of what is
by no means caricature. There is nothing
impossible about Jorrocks, Pigg, Sponge,
Leather, Jawleyford, or in fact the bulk of
Surtees' characters. In Romford we admit
there is exaggeration — not in the fact that
such a man should be, but that an English
county should receive him. The lesson the

author meant to inculcate was obvious ; in fact,
21

322 ROBERT S. SURTEES

he gives it verbally — to point out what people
will stand from a man merely because they
suppose him to be " somebody " and rich.

We venture to think it is not as caricatures
that these books live, but, on the contrary,
because Surtees knew and described Jmman
nature ; and that is the reason why when our
modern reviewers wish to bestow their high-
est praise on a sporting novel, they say the
author reminds them in places of the man
who conceived John Jorrocks, grocer and
master of fox-hounds.

XXVI
RACING IN CEYLON

'' r DO not know," writes a contributor In
a recent number of Baily, '' If racing Is
carried on anywhere In Ceylon or not."
Now, as there may be a good many more
people In the same state of blissful Ignorance,
I think It may be of Interest if I note down
a few memories of the turf In Ceylon : not,
indeed, as it Is, but as it was in the eood
old days of the seventies, when I played
some little part thereon myself, premising
that (as I believe) things remain very much In

324 RACING IN CEYLON

the same condition, with the sole exception
that those thick-and-thin supporters of the
royal sport In the land of the spicy breezes, the
planters, are now as prosperous on their ever-
increasing output of tea as they were then
the reverse on a continually diminishing pro-
duction of coffee. With Improved finances,
no doubt the quality of the racing has also
improved, but not I daresay the good-fellow-
ship of the old Impecunious days, when we
nearly all lived on advances, obtained with
difficulty from the old Oriental Bank, who
were then de facto the owners of pretty well
every ''shuck" coffee estate In the Island.
One has a feeling of regret, too, to think
that the old concern failed to weather the
storm, especially when one reflects that
these same worn-out, worthless estates now
grow the finest tea In the world. But this

RACING IN CEYLON 325

has nothing to do with racing, except as
regards the very important part the greasy
notes of the old bank played on setding-
day. In spite of the bad times, racing
went on as before, if the added money did
decrease a bit and fields ruled smaller. In
those days there were two regular meetings
— that of the Colombo Turf Club and that
at the Sanatorium, Newera Elliya. To
these a third, at Kandy, was subsequently
added, but it was not a great success. In
addition to the regular meetings, there were
an uncertain number of district and minor
meetings, conducted in a more or less
scratch manner — generally more, but some-
times, as at Blackwater, carefully and
intelligendy managed. The Metropolitan
Meeting was, of course, the race meeting
of the year. The Colombo Turf Club

326 RACING IN CEYLON

provided four days' racing (sometimes five,
If I remember rightly), but the ''days"
began when the sun got low (about 4 p.m.),
and lasted till dark. Into this time four or
five races were compressed.

In those days the horses were divided
into "classes," and there was a complicated
scale of "weight for age and class" — the
idea being to bring together In one race,
say an English three - year - old, an aged
Waler, and a five - year - old Arab. Of
course, this was a failure, and, practically
speaking, each class raced by itself, as did
the Galloways and the ponies. Any horse
wa.s " first-class " if not otherwise entered,
and all second-class horses were liable to
be claimed at auction for 1000 rupees (then
nearly ^85). The principal races were the
Merchants' Cup (ist class), the Planters'

RACING IN CEYLON 327

Cup (2nd class), and the Arab Derby.
Perhaps the greatest betting race was the
Champagne Stakes, a handicap T.Y.C.
scurry, with selling allowances as low as
£2^. It brought out all the patched-up
cripples in the place, but as it was nearly
all on the turn, the result was generally, in
such a bio- held, a fluke. There was also a
hurdle race every day. Practically the
betting was done by means of lotteries,
and ran into biggish sums at times.

The racecourse at Colombo is nearly a
perfect oval, just a mile round, and would
not be a bad course if unfortunately the
apex of the ^gg were not the home turn,
the "straiorht" beino^ about three furlono^s.
This sharp turn could not be banked, for
a main road ran through it, and consequently
the turn was a dangerous one. Of course,

328 RACING IN CEYLON

the road was covered deep In sand, and
would of itself have been no s^reat draw-
back, except that Its presence sometimes
induced a bolt. The grand stand was the
club-house, open at its upper storey to all
the "alrts that blow," and most convenient
for seeing the racing, as there was not
another tree or bulldino- on the course to
intercept the view. All the Europeans
congregated there, while the natives, In
every description of vehicle and on foot,
crowded on the ropes of the run - In.
Among the supporters of the meeting from
a distance were generally some Southern
Indian stables, and for a number of years
the late Maharajah of Johore. He had
some good horses, but the only one of
his I recollect was rather the reverse —
Peter Simple. A cousin of mine originally

RACING IN CEYLON 329

picked this animal up out of a batch for 400
or 500 rupees, and won several races with
him, including a very sporting and heavy
betting match. The Maharajah, or rather
his agent, took him over at a long figure ;
but when they got him home, they found
him so useless that he eventually found his
way into harness. Among the local owners
were John Baker, the sole remnant of
the famous '' Baker colony," who always
had English horses ; Beauchamp Downall,
Johnstone of Annandale, Arthur Mercer,
whose classically named Protos often acted
up to his name ; and, in later days,
Dumaresq Thomas, the Farquharsons,
Murray Robertson, Captain Mills, and
many others. The professional jockeys
of those days were Tingey, Mitchell,
Ryder, Donaldson, and others whose names

330 RACING IN CEYLON

I forget ; but, as a rule, they were better
trainers than race-riders. The amateurs
were, of course, more conspicuous by their
number than by their capability, but I
remember one who made a great impression
on me by winning a desperate race with his
whip. I think he was on a chestnut gelding
called Brushwood. I was, with other better
judges, standing in the enclosure between
the stand and the judge's box, and we all
remarked how, every time the whip
descended, the horse was exactly in such
a position that It could not "knock him all
abroad," and, as a matter of fact, it was the
animal's response to three or four of these
scientifically applied cuts, In combination
with perfect '' riding " with the left hand,
that obtained a neck victory. Such a dis-
play of horsemanship I have never since

RACING IN CEYLON 331

seen on the part of any amateur ; and, If I
may say it with bated breath, I have often
thouorht that there are not a few of our
professionals who would be better without
the •' flail " when it comes to a ding-dong
finish. The youngster in question, whose
name was Duncan, had learnt his riding in
Australia, to which island he soon afterwards
permanently returned. It would be interest-
ing to know if he has since made his mark
there.

Strange to say, the Arab Derby, which
was a weight-for-age race, two or two and
a half miles, never attracted the interest
which, from our proximity to Bombay,
might have been expected. Three or four
was an average field. On one occasion I
remember there was a strong competition
between the Ceylon cracks and three horses

332 RACING IN CEYLON

sent down by the 14th Hussars from
Secunderabad. I forget which of the lot
they backed, but I distinctly remember one
they did not — a very big Iron-grey maiden
called Tarlan. I fancy he was only put In
to make a pace, but the result was that this
horse was ridden by a " gentleman of
colour," jumped away with a good start, and
led the field such a dance that they never
got within a dozen lengths of him, and he
won very hard held. I recollect that, liking
the animal's looks at exercise, I had bought
his chance In a lottery for a trifle, so I was
better satisfied than the stable, or Indeed the
jockey, whose fee on this occasion was paid
with an ash-plant. Strange to say, next
time I saw the horse he was waltzing on his
hind-legs in Wilson's circus, which reminds
me that that sportsman had a cut at us one

RACING IN CEYLON 333

year he happened to be performing at
Colombo. He ran two or three horses,
but they were in no condition, and though
a trick jumping- horse, called Bob, was
rather fancied for a hurdle race, he failed to
earn his brackets.

For most of us small fry, however, the
principal interest of the meeting centred in
the Planters' Cup, a mile weight-for-age race
for maiden second-class horses. At first it
was practically confined to those picked on
their looks out of the "batches" that came
up from Western Australia by sailing-ship,
and was consequendy full of interest ; but
later on it was rather spoiled by different
syndicates importing a horse with a character
on purpose for the race. I never owned or
rode the winner, though it was won very
easily by my old horse, Evenlight, before

334 RACING IN CEYLON

I bought him. This chestnut was one of the
biggest thoroughbreds (he was by Oliver
Twist out of a Kelpie mare) I ever saw,
and on his first appearance he won seven
races (flat and hurdle) out of eight starts,
only being stopped out of the Forced
Handicap at the end of the meeting by
something like thirteen stone being put on
his back. Unfortunately, like many another
good horse in Ceylon, he was attacked by
what is known there as "a stroke of the
wind," which is, in fact, an incurable paralysis
of some of the lumbar muscles. His hurdling
days were over, but even with this affliction
he could always do his mile in two minutes
untrained. His end was curious. I left
him behind with a brother officer to sell
when I came home, and he went into native
hands, only to reappear when some planter

RACING IN CEYLON 335

(in all innocence, I believe) swept the board
with him as a maiden at some up-country-
meeting! Strange to say, he was not re-
cognised, and it was only when he again
appeared at another Sky-races, that some-
one objected to him for not carrying his
cumulative penalties on being entered as
'Mate Evenlight."

One Planters' Cup is vividly impressed on
my memory. A planter, whom I will call
H. T., had a mare which he fancied could
gallop, and asked permission to send her
down to me to train and ride. I even forget
her name, but I remember a nicer-tempered
beast I never had through my hands. T.
backed the mare heavily, whilst I did not,
for I never thought her so good as he did.
Then he eot over-anxious, and asked if I
objected to her being put in a professional's

33^ RACING IN CEYLON

hands to wind up her training. Of course
I said no ; but, in my opinion, she got too
much fast work the last week, and came to
the post with her ears back — a thing I had
never seen before in her. The race that
year was reduced to a match, so the start
presented no difficulty, but as I rose in my
stirrups to the mare's first stride, *' heaven and
earth suddenly came apart," and the result of
this, my first experience of an Australian
buck-jump, landed me " sejant " in front of my
mount. As I had retained hold of the reins,
I had a leg up before the stars had ceased
whirling before my eyes, and saved my
distance ; but T. would not object, although
there was little doubt the second flag, if
indeed the first, was not down when I "dis-
mounted." The only injury was to my
amour propre, especially as I recollect there

RACING IN CEYLON y^j

was a fair being in the stand arrayed in
my colours (sky-blue and pale pink) ; but,
looking back a score of years at the occur-
rence, I don't think anyone could have been
blamed — in a two-pound saddle, too ! I
have sat three honest runnlncr-bucks in a
hunting saddle since then, but, strong as I
was in the saddle as a youngster, I think, if
there had been a fourth, I or the girths must
have gone. That settling-day broke poor
T., who had "gone for the gloves" over
the race.

I don't recollect that my good friend G. C.
(I mustn't mention his name, for he very
likely is Merchants' Representative in Council
now) ever won this race for the dangerous
syndicate he trained for. I recollect his
having a horse, satirically christened '' Deer-
foot," but known to us all as "Soup-plates,"

338 RACING IN CEYLON

from the enormous size of his feet. He
had tried the animal good enough to win a
welght-for-class race, In which D. W. H.
Skrine (a pillar of the Ceylon turf I forgot
to mention) had a thoroughbred (English, I
fancy) engaged. The two met at morning
exercise one day, and their talk turned on
these races.

''All bosh," said Skrine. "What weight,
I ask you, could bring a horse like this and
one like that too^ether ? "

C. agreed. In the race he rode the stable
pace-maker, and finished in the ruck In a
most unorthodox manner, waving his cap
and yelling, "Go it. Soup-plates!" As they
returned to the paddock, he addressed the
discomfited Skrine —

" Now, I ask you, what weight could bring
a horse like that, and one like Soup-plates,

RACING IN CEYLON 339

together ? " — Deerfoot, needless to say,
having- won in a common canter.

But I must not suppose that all our little
coicps and mystifications will interest the
reader. The Galloway races (14 hands
and under) were inferior in interest to the
pony races (13.2 limit). For some time my
old Indian pony, Fuzee, who came from
the 1 2th Lancers, ruled the roast in the
latter class ; but his nose was put completely
out of joint by specially imported Australians,
and subsequently English ponies.

The finale of the Colombo meeting was
always a so-called "Arab race," in which
the competitors were really Cabulee horse-
dealers. This race, barebacked, was run in
heats, and the " leo^s and wintrs " finishings
of the riders were indeed a sight. To this
succeeded a three-furlongs race for native

340 RACING IN CEYLON

trottino- bullocks in harness. The band
played "God Save the Queen," and we
had thirty-six hours to make up our books,
and, some of us, to raise the wind before
Monday.

The Newera Elliya meeting was held in
the hot season, when the Governor-General
and other swells had left us to stew down in
the plains. It was, however, a colourless re-
production of the previous August's Colombo
performance, as new horses were invariably
reserved for the heavier stakes and lotteries
then. The other meetings were in a de-
scending scale, ending with some district
sky meetings, where the best part of the
course was cart-road, i.e., unmetalled estate
road, with ruts perhaps six inches deep.
One year they got up a steeplechase meeting
at Colombo. I was away, but heard after-

RACING IN CEYLON 341

wards that it was a complete farce, not a
single horse clearing the water-jump, and
the winner finishing alone in the big race.
Be this as it may, the steeplechases never
were repeated.

XXVII
THE END

f ^HE first of February was fine and
bright with us — quite a summer day.
It happened to be a busy one with me, too,
and I had no chance to empty my gun. In
fact, it was not till afternoon tea time that
it occurred to me it was the very last chance
in the '97-98 season to kill a cock pheasant.
The hens (birds being none too plenti-
ful with me) had been sacred for some
weeks.

Tea being over, then, I went and got

342

THE END 343

down the 20-bore, not forgetting first to
light my pipe, and sallied forth — to the
astonishment of my better half at the
unorthodox hour — with a couple of dachs-
hunds at my heels. Where to try? It
must obviously not be too far. The
shrubbery behind the orangery is generally
good for a bird, but it is overhung with
trees, and apt to become dark early.
Not a hundred yards from the house
is a long gorsy field of about a score of
acres, surrounded by high wood. The edge
of those woodlands should do. So I put
my best foot foremost, and reach the top
edge of this field soon after five — quite light
enough to shoot. A hundred yards on, the
doe beoins to feather on the o^rass between
two thorny patches of dry bracken. Query,
rabbits ? Both are busy now, but silent.

344 THE END

See the bitch sniffing up on that pointed
stone. It Is not rabbits. I walk quietly on,
close to the eager dogs. Something runs
behind that bramble bush — and rises. I
suppose I was (the old fault !) a bit under
him with the right barrel, but as he tops
the hedge, the full-choke doubles him up
at fifty yards or thereabouts. Just as I
"break" my gun, a second cock rises from
behind a bush to my right, but I am not
ready in time. So there is nothing to do
but to walk on to my mark. As I peer
over the hedge, I look right down upon my
quarry, in the little bitch's mouth. What a
picture ! The bird is very nearly as big as
the dog, but she holds him (albeit tenderly)
for fear he may develop running powers.
Jumping over, I take him from her, but,
having no other means, must fain carry

THE FULL-CHOKE DOUBLES HIM UP.

THE END 345

him In my hand. A two-year-old cock, in
magnificent plumage, and turning the scale
at three pounds and a quarter — very good
for a rinof-neck.

At the end of this field is a brake of some
score years' growth, and in a minute the
doofs find. But this time it is a rabbit,
and loud - mouthed they go straight down
to the old breeding earth. This does
not interest me, so I walk on, and enter
another lot of fields below. Not far on a
cock partridge is calling loudly, but ceases
as he becomes aware of the panting dogs
rejoining me. As I go, a cock pheasant
rises with a tremendous fuss in an adjoining
field, whereas the other two had got up
quied), almost like hens. As I come to the
gate by the brook, something runs up the
field and then rises — a hen pheasant. But

346 THE END

I walk steadily on, and before I reach the
shrubbery gate the owl hoots loudly in the
copper beech. So for seven months for all
of us, and for ever for some, it is The End.

PRINTED BV
MORRISON AND GIBB I.IMITEP, EDINBURQH

No. LXXVIII.

m. Zbackcv a. Co.,

Xonbon.

2

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LIST OF AUTHORS,

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Tracker's Industries of India,
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1«