"Perhaps the reader may derive some amusement from a notice of a keen and excellent old sportsman whom I met with by chance in Norfolk about the year 1804." "I found Mr. Girdlestone very agreeable and particularly well-informed on all field sports. I was much struck with his countenance which was weather-beaten and deeply furrowed by old Time. His eyes were of a light blue, lively, intelligent, and with a peculiar cast in one of them; the nose aquiline and forehead prominent. He might be about five feet six or seven in height, square built, strong and muscular."
Col. Hamilton subsequently went to stay with Zurishaddai Girdlestone at Kelling Hall, and went out shooting with him. He continues, "I was not a little surprised to see him with a single-barrelled gun, apparently the size of a soldier's firelock of that period, and a barrel at least a foot longer than those of my own gun, the bore as large as one for shooting wild fowl. The stock had been made by a London gunmaker, and the lock, which was particularly well finished, by the same. Mr. Girdlestone told me that the barrel came from Berlin . In the first field we came to the dogs pointed, a strong covey rose, I shot a bird, but my companion did not fire ; he said the birds were too near. Shortly after, a single bird rose at about thirty yards; I fired both barrels and missed then the old squire coolly put up the great gun to his shoulder, and brought the bird down as dead as a stone. The distance from where we stood to where it fell must have been at least seventy yards. He gave me a triumphant look and said, 'This is my system of partridge shooting; you have now had a specimen of what these German barrels can perform' ; adding, 'it is now several years since I have shot with your double-barrelled pop-gun.
"Mr. Girdlestone had been brought up to the bar, was an active magistrate, but was considered an eccentric character, living in a very retired way. The family of the Girdlestones had been long established in Norfolk. The magisterial room of my friend might be considered as the model of a sportsman's apartment. On the walls were wooden racks containing single and double-barrelled guns, in other parts, rods for trolling and fly-fishing, with all their appendages; in the corners of the room, landing nets, a small casting net, and fishing krails. On a table might be seen a stuffed martin cat and a variety of foreign birds. The Squire's library was not large, but displayed his predominant passion for field sports, with some law books and works on agriculture. This sanctum sanctorum looked into a small but well-arranged flower garden."
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