Q. I have noticed an alarming trend creeping in during
the shooting season. I recently asked some friends for a day's sport and was somewhat taken aback when not one but two of them announced during the morning that they would have to leave immediately after lunch. As we do not indulge in that very dubious 'shooting through' habit, I was suddenly left two guns short. Worse still were the spurious excuses. One said that he had to get to London to play in a backgammon tournament; the other said that he had to go and collect his wife from a shopping expedition.
M McM., Notts.
A. Now that shooting has become a lifestyle accessory for those who might not have absorbed the protocol since birth, some instruction is in order. You could enlighten the miscreants by having a third party enquire, Is it true you were sent home early for shooting dangerously the other day?' When they rise to the bait and protest their innocence, the third party can calmly comment, 'Oh, I can see how the rumour started, then, because of course it's unheard of to leave a shoot halfway through — rather like leaving a dinner party after the main course and before the pudding. . . . 9
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