The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-20 00:00:00

less fortunate persons whose experience in a hunting
field has been limited to Epping on an Easter
sportinguch
t tarea,ravers
e a
and who
never someored,such
likely o are grouseo
mountain; in fact, so far as personal comfort is con-
cerned, I have found an occasional day on the
Yorkshire moors or the romantic wilds of Dumfries-
shire anything but according with my limited views
of sport and pleasure ; and I limy assure the writer
in question that hardship and fatigue, which he
so strongly recommends, are the common lot of the
vast majority of our Anglo-Saxon race, who would
cheerfully yield their supposed advantages for other
more genial comforts. Grant hardship and labour
to those who can appreciate such things as luxuries.
The country gentleman may pursue his wheat
threshing with a flail, or break stones on his own
roads for pleasure, without marring his own enjoy-
ment when he controls the task rnester • for my own
part I prefer another kind of life altogether.
It appears from our author that there are " two
distinct and widely different classes amongst men
who are fond of recreation with the gun. By far
the most numerous type are mere shooting-
machines." And then he goes on to explain in an
article devoted to sea-fowl-shooting in the Firth of
Forth the difference between the two. Destroying
wild sea fowl in their breeding seasons seems to me
mere wanton cruelty, and so, doubtless, would the
" countless array of guillemots, razorbills, sea
parrots, cormorants, and grebes" think, supposing
they could understand " pleasure" as pursued in the
estuary of the Forth. Probably my readers have
never heard the names of several of the above, and
I am quite sure most of them will have some
trouble in even guessing what " marrots, tommy
nories,
,nettle ducks, toll-the-cannle-wicks, and
Letter o' Marques" mean. It seems from the nar-
rative " that eiders were plentiful, and had begun
to seek the nestling islandsaiu the Firth:;" and the
sportsmen soon sighted several snowy drakes with
their russet feathers, but the birds were " fidgetty"
and " fretty ;" no doubt, and quite natural too.
Then is elaborately described the trouble taken to
get on a rock immediately above a tiny bay, where
" there were about a dozen ducks and drakes diving
and sporting in joyous security." A couple of the
former were booked without any difficulty, and
after many mishaps a like number of the latter.
Speaking of "Deer driving in Mull," a large stag
cautiously waded into a stream, " crack goes the
rifle, down came the deer on his knees, recovered, and
began to hobble across the current ; a shot from
the second barrel, and he toppled over in mid
stream." To show the acme of fine shooting, thedeer
was examined. " There were two marks through
the brisket on the opposite side to the shooter, but
only one on the near side ; it was therefore appa-
rent that both balls had entered at the same hole."
There was nothing like a mull about this.
There are some capital and exciting articles on
trout and salmon fishing, both in sea and inland
locks and rivers. This is an amusement or pursuit
more congenial to my taste : by it we obtain the
best specimen of the finny tribe, and the occupation
is useful and profitable, and the " Sporting Days"
give abundant and reliable information to the tourist
who may have courage to try his luck in salmon or
sea-trout fishing. To the quiet roach or gudgeon
angler of the Lea or Thames no doubt the descrip-
tion would appear to savour of the marvellous,
but he can take the book and try his hand,
and so may any one of our Southern
riflemen indulge in deer stalking and bag
bag his own venison, always assuming he is lucky
enough to get permission from some great territo-
rial personage, and finds the deer stationary as a
butt at Wimbledon. In Hampton Court Park the
animals are quieter and easier to secure without
venturing so far as the northern wilds, where civi-
lised beings can scarcely exist ; but whether supe-
riority of pluck and endurance is really the charac-
teristic of the hardy mountaineer, I am not in a
made a great and soMers Ica trcitasnrant
streets with short pipes lighted up and black kid
gloves. This is a great national sport or pastime—
nothing else ; immense benefit has accrued to trades
of many kinds, razor makers and barbers only ex-
cepted; for whereas the volunteers of 1804, when
invasion was really within the range of possibility,
on paper, did not consider it necessary to increase
their facial decoration, and were not less brave on
that account—a clean-faced Englishman within the
last few years has been the exception, most persons,
young and old, being desirous of imitating what
within the memory of men were designated " dirty
foreigners." lam a hearty well wisher to sporting
of every useful and beneficial kind, where either
profit or pleasure results, and hope the tight little
island will continue to afford healthful recreation
in profusion long after the excitement of reform and
limited liability shall lifte passed into the pages of
history, and when better times will enable the mul-
titude to join the upper ten even in the lochs and
forests of Scotland, or yet further away in the pure
mountains and waters of Norway.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.