Читать книгу The Complete English Wing Shot онлайн

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But the greatest value of sportsmanship is, after all, that idle man should be the more healthy an animal for his idleness. Consequently, when shooting parties are made an excuse for more smoke and later nights than usual, even if the shooting is not spoiled next day, less enjoyment of life follows, and lethargically apparent becomes the missing of that perfect dream of health, that reaction after great exertion ought to bring to those who have ever felt it.

It is often said that big bags have ruined the sporting spirit. That is not so: big bags are necessary proofs that the science of preservation of game is on the right lines, and their publication is also necessary on these grounds. At the same time, it is a fact that hard walking is not appreciated as much as it was thirty years ago, and ladies can now take just as forward a place in the shooting of game and deer as men can or do. This is not all because ladies are better trained physically, but because sports have been made much easier, than formerly they were. Bridle-paths enable ponies to traverse the deer forests with ladies on their backs, and where that can be done deer stalking is not quite what it was when a Highland laird declared that he saw no use in protecting the deer, since nobody could do them much harm. But the wonder to me is not that we do not like great exertion, but that we ever did like it for itself. But then I speak as a man in years, and one who has in the foolishness of youth killed a stag and carried home his head, cut low down, for sixteen miles, rather than wait for the tardy ponies to bring it in with the carcase.