Identifier: kingedwardviiass00wats (find matches)
Title: King Edward VII. as a sportsman
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Watson, Alfred Edward Thomas, 1849-1922
Subjects: Edward VII, King of Great Britain, 1841-1910 Horses Sports -- Great Britain
Publisher: London : Longmans, Green and Co.
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
a good deal of the back part so as to facilitateyour shooting at birds which have passed flying low. In partridge driving, when standing up to a hedgeor wall, it is all-important that these should be ofthe right height. They generally require heighteningor lowering. Twigs or boughs should be bound downor raised in the hedges, and stones should be removedfrom, or replaced on, the walls, so as to insure a com-fortable screen for shooting. I also lay great stress on the importance of keep-ing quiet during a drive, as birds are wonderfullyquick at detecting any movement or sound. Peopleoften say to me, The birds seem to avoid me and flyover you. The reason is that I have kept quiet tillthe moment of firing, while my neighbours have beenlaughing, talking, jumping about, and really acting asflankers to me. This advice may appear to be of amost elementary nature, but it is remarkable how oftenthe simple precaution it advocates is disregarded. I will conclude these few remarks on the tech-^6
Text Appearing After Image:
Sandringham nique of shooting, which I proffer for what they areworth, with my favourite maxim : Aim high^ keep thegun moving^ and never check^ for it is one which hasproved immensely serviceable to me all through mylife. I cannot, however, dismiss the subject of shoot-ing altogether without alluding to that side of it whichappeals so strongly to every true sportsman, and thatis the close contact into which it brings him withnature. To be really interested in shooting means aknowledge and study of woodcraft^ of the habits andways of bird and beast. The legislation which islevelled against the owners of land is doing its bestto destroy the old type of country gentleman inwhom the love of sport and nature has always beenindissolubly united. To him the crow of the grouseas he speeds along the purple heather, or the gutturalnote of the pheasant as he flies across the crimsonsky on a winters afternoon, bring with them a senseof joyous exultation ; and the moors, fields, hedge-rows, and woo

Note About Images