27 DECEMBER 1930, Page 13

As an example I may give an extract from a

letter from a country rectory that is situated in a district almost unknown to me :— " I hope you will not let this matter, this ' slur on English sport' drop. All that you say might have been written with direct reference to the country round here. As you say, picked shots are selected in order to secure brobdingnagian bags ; for example, over 1.200 at X last week. I myself saw last year not less than 1,500 pheasants brought over the guns at the first stand. There is, or appears to he, a sort.of big bag' rivalry between X, Y and Z. I hear of one crack shot who hates the country, and just comes down from Town for two days here and elsewhere, and bolts back to Town."