"THE LOAFER IN THE STREET" GOES OUT SHOOTING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 145, 21 June 1877, Page 4

"THE LOAFER IN THE STREET" GOES OUT SHOOTING.

A humorous contributor to the Christchurch P/ess under the norn de plume of " The Loafer in the Street," thus wittily describes a day's pheasant shooting which he enjoyed in. company with two sportsmen both ot whom are well known in NeUon:~ In one of .Mr Whyte Melville's most charming books he commences a chapter by asking — *« Who delights ia levelling the deadly tubes?" If he were here — and I wiah he were, that 1 might thank him for the many pleasant hours he has given. me~l should say "'I do.* I took a license before the Ist. How I raised two pounds ten to pay a Government who allows no tick ia no affair of , yours; but I raieed it in a manner that induces me to inform you that genius is of no accoun f . Owing to eireu instances over which I have no control, I ! am unable to make myself notorious :by allowing my name to appear as a large subscriber to public charities, but-, we all like to achieve celebrity in eorae form; and there are worse ways of doing it than by advertising yourself as & shootist by walking down the street with a gun under your arm, and a cartridge bag slang around you. I rode Previous to starting, a sporting writer of this metropolis came round, picked my horse to pieces, said my stirrups were too short; my martingale too lougj that I looked like a tailor riding a horse for the first time, and that he hadn't seen any thing more thoroughl illustrative of a real cockney sportsman since he left Eoglaad fifteen years ago. And yet that man puts up to write about sporting things. He never even asked me to have a drink. I trettled his remarks with the despisery they merited, also with some of those brilliant flashes of silence which are daily getting more and more familiar to me, when I have no repartee oq hand. I slept at Biccarton, at the house of a friend with whom 1 have amicable relation, and at half-past six next morn- " ing another friend called for me in a trap. It was a hard frost, and while our well matched and excellently uppointed team of one (a good 'un though) was travelling up the road' towards the racecourse, I was reminded of Keats. I iaoaa the poet. Now I think of it what would journalists do without being reminded by their own context of quotations which are perfectly familiar even to Lord Macaulay's : oft-quoted schoolboy? Keats remarks as follows in reference to St. Agnes' Eve: — Ah! bitter chill it was. The owl, for all his feathers, was a-coid ; The hare limped trembling,, through the /frozen grass; . V.' . . And dioway was the flock in woolly fold. Keats must have been about in the cold some time to write like that. He died young. At the Race-course we found three sportsmen waiting j the party thus numbered five; but as Mr Cutts remarked that I couldn't shoot a flying haystack under the most favorable circumstances, it will perhaps be as well to make the number of guos consist of four. Mr A. Ward is answerable for the statement that a goak sometimes improves a comic paper. On this principle I fancy when a man writes on sporting subjects he should übq phrases appropriate to the occasion; and therefore when I say that we span merrily down the road at a clinking pace I faricy I'm writing pretty well en regie. We got to our ground in good time, and declining from our host hospitable offers of breakfast (I had eaten two ana my constitution is getting that beaten up that three is more than I ''cap manage now) we started. We had four doge, bnipe, the veteran setter, Grouse and Shot, two uncommonly nice pointers, and a puppy Mr Powell has in training. In the flm stubble field Snipe worked slowly *up to what was clearly a shot for some one. Keen aa flies round a keg of molasses we surrounded the shot. The bird, a nice young cock, rose and flaw away unhurt. Each thought the other was going to fire, and no one did. After a few minutes spent in a conversation which it's, scarcely worth while repeating here, we resumed work, and my partner drew first blood quickly, followed by Cutts. I never have any luck on these occaseions. I found myaeif ia the centre of a mob of ben pheasants, which ro3e, so to 'epeak, in clouds arouad me, Hal they been rooster birde, there would have been a scene of carnage on that stubble seldom if ever equalled iv the aunals of sport. We walked many mauy milea, the dogs working beautifully; aud the boys—self excppted— shooting well. I've studied shootiug a «ood bit? Here is a rule in refereuco to the wily lon<* tail: — *• When a pheasant rises be most particular. He rises nearly perpendicular. Wait a few moments until your eight Perceives his horizontal flight." I act up to this carefully, but the results are not in proportion to my observance of tho^rule. I either wait a few minutes too long, or else fail to perceive his hoiizontal flight. Catls says as a shot I have many equals, and thinkß many fortunes might be made by backing tho bird whenever I fire. Bo that as it mny, we" had twenty birds by 10 o'clock; 1 and when we halted, the most popular man of the party waa the one who carried a flask. None of them ever drank out ahootiog they said, but the way they ran their lips over the rioa of that old whiskey gourd was curious. We now took down a plain of tussock with indifferent results, and the long pause between the shots gave me time to admire the habits of tbe puppy, whose education was commencing. Probably

a dog more obedient to the command " Down Ctiarge," does not exist under the canopy of heaven. I took particular notice of this pup. He was yellow and thoughtful; very, very thoughtful. I am convinced that pup would lie and think for hours and hours, if no one iuterfered with him. Daj»s differ from human beings, who frequently thinks for -hours and lie afterwards, Subsequently we shot a nice plantation, where I killed a bird. The thoughtful pup flushed him under my feet, and a really grand shot from my barrel dropped him in four pieces within ten yards of my feet. I subsequently killed, in a belt of timber, with a beautiful snap shot, what must originally have been a really fine bird. I judge so from the remains of this well, built. pbeaßant, killed stone dead, as Mr Gordon Cumming would have . said, within seven feet of my gun. There's some pleasure in a neat shot, like that. We now, as the bag was once more getting heavy, commenced to retrace bur steps towards lunch. Crossing the tuaaoisky plain we had ehot over in (be early part of the day we met the owner, who kindly said he would have allowed us to shoot over it had. the, party been, smaller, but we were more, he said, like a regiment of soldiers than anything else. I was never taken! for a soldier — not even for a volunteer — before, but I forgive the insult for the sake of the kindly feeling of the gentleman. Mr Hepworth, our hostj now produced lunch. None of the party ever ate lunch, they said, but they violenced their usual habits, and went for it in a style I have seldom ever seen exceeded. The afternoon shooting was not good. We had good ground, and good dogs, but the birda were away calling on frienda. We could hear around the distant and random gun some sports were frequently firing, but our shots were few and far between, and I was juat getting my band in. We didn't do' so badly after all. Sixteen brace in,thobag, Ted Cutts and Sam Powell being answerable for the greater part. Thirty-three birda cleanly missed by myself. A lovely day, good aport in the morning, and dogs which to see work is a real pleasure. I hope to have come more days like it before the season is over; and though, a paper like ibis is not the place, for what Puff would call the puff collateral, I can recommend any one who has a good dog he wants well broken to send him to Sam Powell, who is certainly the best ot tutors. It maybe interesting to some of your readers to know that the hen pheasants seem far in excess of the cocka; aud that from what I can see, an amended Game Act is a lot required. On a future occasion I'll tell you why, but for the present the pressure on your space will of course preclude my going into particulars.