Ramblings
 

I really enjoyed Art Wheaton's piece in the recent PP about the relationship between George Bird Evans and Dr. Charles Norris. As I told Art, I have both The Upland Shooting Life and Eastern Upland Shooting in my little library but I admit I've never read EUS and have spent only cursory time with TUSL. I mean to rectify that. Art also mentioned Recollections of a Shooting Guest which intrigued me; went looking and found that copies of that tome were mostly above my pay grade, or at least what I want to pay for a book. However, I stumbled on a copy on the bay which seemed somewhat reasonable, made what I thought was a rather ridiculous offer, and was surprised that the seller accepted! I'm reading it now and really enjoying it; a glimpse into a shooting life that we'll never see again, but more importantly a look at a really beautiful relationship among a group of people with similar interests and passions.

https://i.imgur.com/IooUqmYl.jpg

Could you give us a thumbnail of that one?

I'm only a few chapters in; so far it's mostly about George and Kay's (and the dogs) visits with Dr. Norris at his Fairhill estate, correspondence between them, and about shooting with him at his club, Amwell in NJ. The majority of the book is Dr. Norris' previously unpublished manuscript that was to be his follow-up to Eastern Upland Shooting. I'm not there yet.

congratulations

nice find Phil- one of the smallest editions Of GBE's efforts-

I unfortunately had to buy two copies in the early days - the first one wandered away- and that lost tome is the reason you can count the folks I loan books to on one hand of a slow firecracker thrower

they are a bargain these days with the internet availability

Just finished the book and enjoyed it very much. Actually Norris' unfinished book turned out to be a rather small part; the majority of the book is letters between the Evans' and Norris, and descriptions of their visits to his home, Fairhill, and Amwell, his shooting club - an "old world" lifestyle for sure - and though they are worlds apart it evoked memories of some of my own experiences visiting and hunting with family and friends

Stories about the old days and upscale hunting and shooting experiences are very entertaining. However, such experiences and even more interesting experiences are had by people of means today. Just something to think about.

It's not just the hunting and shooting, it's the entire lifestyle. As I said, very "old world". You don't find that kind of elegance, style and panache today.