Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/861

Rh S H O S H O 835 As the least touch of shot brings a snipe clown, it is very unlikely to have passed out of range before the direct line of flight is assumed. This is the only sport followed on land "down wind." Shot No. 9 or 10 should be used. Although greatly different in character, black-game and wood- cock may be well coupled together as being eccentric in their move- ments. The former are most easily shot very early in the season, especially over a steady old pointer, when the broods are yet on the more open ground, under the maternal charge, like so many domestic chickens ; but, when they have broken up the family ties, congregated, and betaken themselves to the coppices, they become so irregular in their habits and uncertain in their mode of taking llight that no exact rules can be laid down for their pursuit. The sportsman, using one steady old pointer and a retriever, had best be guided by an experienced attendant, who should take care to beat out any bird lurking in a thick bush from the opposite side and towards the gun. A few shots may also be got at the dawn of day on the edges of stubble-fields ; but black-game shooting is generally disappointing. The female birds, "greyhens," are not shot at ; the young males, which greatly resemble them, are dis- tinguished from them by the white feathers in the tail. A solitary blackcock may often be seen to take up a prominent position, usu- ally in the centre of one of the small fields to be found on the side of hilly ground, where he maintains a vigilant watch. With some experience in shooting matters, the present writer knows no pursuit more interesting and invigorating than stalking such a bird : with- out causing undue fatigue, it exercises one's patience, vigilance, and coolness of nerve. Shot for this purpose should not be of a smaller size than No. 4. Woodcock newly arrived may be readily killed, especially near the sea-coast. After recruiting, they frequently betake themselves to heathery moors if there are such near at hand, where they frequent the sides of rivulets and gorges. There they may be readily brought down ; but in woods they have a knack of twisting, as it were, round the younger trees, in the branches of which they are mostly found, and so disconcert the aim. Being of nocturnal habits, their eyes are weak in the full glare of day, and they are fond of the sheltering shade of thickly foliaged trees, such as the holly. The only advice that can be given on this sport is to risk the shot at the merest glimpse of the bird through the branches, and trust to the spread of the pellets to kill, for the woodcock, like its congener the snipe, will fall with a touch, and even (apparently) through mere fright on being fired at, without being touched at all. The best shot to use is No. 8. Ammunition. In former times sportsmen carefully adjusted their charges of powder and shot to suit the weather (which affected the strength of the former) and the sport in hand. Now, almost everything is left to the purveyor of cartridges, which are usually charged on average proportions. The sportsman should be careful, therefore, to ascertain the charge best suited to his weapon, and to have his cartridges so loaded. When a gun recoils the charge of shot not of powder, as is generally supposed should be reduced ; and it is always safer to use a light charge of shot. Breechloaders require large-grained powder, Messrs Curtis & Harvey's No. 6 bein the typical size. Pyroxyline explosives, of which Schultze powder' is the normal type, are now largely used, especially in the first barrel, the other being charged with black powder. For almost all regular sport No. 6 shot is the best size ; and it is better to use No. 7 in a smaller quantity than No. 5 for grouse and partridges. For pheasants and black game use No. 5, but of oz. in weight, with a somewhat reduced charge of powder. One oz. or at most l oz. of No. 6 is ample ; the former will travel with marvellous and far-reaching velocity. Any excess of shot merely falls to the ground, as may be seen by firing over a sheet of smooth water. For duck-shooting (for which the barrels should be of "10" gauge and 32 inches long) No. 4 shot is a good size ; and for this sport it is well to reduce the weight of the shot and increase very considerably that of the powder, velocity being everything. Eifte-shooting. The propriety of shooting with both eyes open oting. is, if possible, more imperative in rifle-shooting than in shooting game, if rapidity is valued, as it must be. Firearms immediately followed the long bow and the cross-bow, 'and it has never been supposed that the archer discharged these with one eye closed. With both eyes open the "back sight" virtually becomes transparent, and forms no obstacle to the aim, while with one eye closed it cer- tainly does, for, as the head and eyes must be kept fairly up in firing a shot gun, they must be kept well down in firing a rifle. The "express" rifle is the chef-d'oeuvre of modern weapons, and when properly made will throw its bullet up to 200 yards without perceptible curve from one sight. This result is attained mostly by 1 This explosive is the invention of Colonel J. F. E. Schultze, of the Prussian artillery service, and was introduced about 1866 into the United Kingdom by Mr J. D. Dougall. It is now being manufactured in Great Britain as well as on the Continent. The advantages claimed for it are that it does not require any special loading, such as hard ramming, there is a smaller recoil than with black gunpowder, and it has great propulsive power, with little or no fouling of the firearm. an inordinately large charge of powder to a light and partly hollow bullet (see GUNMAKING, vol. xi. p. 282). The "pull" on the trigger should rather be a pinch than a direct backward pull, i.e., the trigger should be pinched between the forefinger and the thumb which grasps the handle of the stock. If the sportsman has the presence of mind to inflate his chest with a long inhalation he will shoot all the better. There is a popular opinion that a single- barrellod "express " shoots more truly than a double-barrelled one. This is quite a mistake, unless the barrel of the former is made so thick and heavy at the muzzle (to prevent the metal quivering when the bullet leaves it) as to destroy the balance. In double- barrelled rifles the one barrel braces up the other, and they are also so adjusted as to shoot parallel. This common error has prob- ably arisen from confounding " express " with long-range match rifles, which are quite another thing. The '450 calibre is best adapted for deer and antelopes, '500 for mixed shooting, and '577 for dangerous animals. But for these and the great pachyderms a " 12 " gauge, throwing an explosive shell, is the most effective of all firearms, the larger " area " of the wound telling at once. All really useful information on the subject of shooting is contained in J. D. Dougall's Shooting, its Appliances, c. (London, 2d ed. 1881) ; General W. N. Hutchinson's Dog-breaking (London, 1876); and W. Scrope's Deer-stalking (London, 1846). (J. D. D.) SHORE, JANE, mistress of King Edward IV., would have been unknown by name even to the studious antiquary but for the events which took place after the death of her royal paramour. She was the first of three concubines whom he described respectively as the merriest, the wilyest, and the holiest harlot in his realm. A handsome woman of moderate stature, round face, and fair complexion, she was more captivating by her wit and conversation than by her beauty ; yet Sir Thomas More, writing when she was still alive, but old, lean, and withered, declares that even then an attentive observer might have discerned in her shrivelled countenance some traces of its lost charms. She was born in London, and married before she was quite out of girlhood to a citizen named William Shore, who, though young, handsome, and well-to-do, never really won her affections ; and thus she yielded the more readily to the solicitations of King Edward. Her husband on this abandoned her, and after Edward's death she became the mistress of Lord Hastings, whom Richard III., then duke of Gloucester, as protector during the minority of Edward V., suddenly ordered to be beheaded on 13th June 1483. According to the report given by More, Richard had accused Hastings at the council table of conspiring against him along with the queen-dowager and Shore's wife, who by sorcery and witchcraft had given him a withered arm. So having got rid of Hastings he caused Jane Shore to be committed to prison and spoiled her house, containing property to the value of 2000 or 3000 marks, equivalent to a sum of 20,000 or 30,000 at the present day. But having sought in the first place to charge her with conspiracy a charge which apparently he could not sub- stantiate he thought better afterwards to get the bishop of London to put her to open penance at Paul's Cross for her vicious life. She accordingly went in her kirtle through the streets one Sunday with a taper in her hand, her beauty really enhanced by the blush which her humilia- tion called up in her usually pale cheeks ; and many who detested her mode of life could not but pity her as the victim of a hypocritical tyranny. The penance certainly did not induce her to reform, for she immediately after- wards became the mistress of the marquis of Dorset ; and, what is still more extraordinary, next year, having been taken again into custody, and her husband, it may be presumed, being by that time dead, she so captivated the king's solicitor, Thomas Lynom,. that he actually entered into a contract of marriage with her. This we know from a letter of King Richard to his chancellor on the occasion, desiring him to dissuade Lynom from the match, as far as he could, by argument, but, if he found him determined, then, provided it was not against the laws of the church, he might convey the king's consent and meanwhile deliver Jane out of prison to her father's custody. Conduct so