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George Bird Evans
really gets the heart beating

The new letter of the Old Hemlock "family"-

the submissions are from owners - and cover the range from hunting experiences to tributes to lost dogs, puppies experiences and just days with friends

some back issues are available as well

http://oldhemlock.org/News/index.htm

and view the photos link on the left- lots of stuff there including a collection of the first ten years I put together for that milestone gathering

I'm no longer in the same state of fan worship for GBE that I was 40 years ago. That being said, I'm not sure that I would have started hunting grouse and woodcock--living in Pheasant Heaven Iowa as I did, where grouse weren't legal game until 1968 and woodcock a few years after that--if I hadn't read "The Upland Shooting Life". And that book also got me started keeping a hunting log, and caused me to buy my first sxs.

he was human, and opinionated

but, I still enjoy a re-read of much of his stories still

in any case- he arranged his life early on to be able to later center it on shooting and dogs - not many have the talent or drive to do what he and Kay did -

GBE made horrible gaffs in his writing about Harold Money (De Shootinest Gent'man) in the book he put together, The Best of Nash Buckingham.

GBE states about Harold -- "His father, Captain E.C. Money, should not be confused with Captain A.W. Money, a live-bird shot who wrote Pigeon Shooting in 1896 under the pseudonym 'Blue Rock.'" That is totally wrong, as Harold most certainly was the younger son of Capt. Albert W. Money who ran the American E.C. and Schultze Powder Company from 1890 to about 1904.

GBE writes � �John Olin described Harold Money to me as he first saw him in 1913, after John had left Cornell and was working at his father�s Western Cartridge plant at East Alton, Illinois: �Money was tall � six feet four or five � and he had been loading and handling the Velox smokeless powder, which we obtained from his father. It was made with picric acid and he was as yellow as a Chinaman.�� GBE obviously didn't verify the information he got from John. Velox Smokeless Powder was manufactured and sold by The Economic Smokeless Powder Co., of Hammond, Indiana, while Harold�s father, Capt. A.W. Money had operated The American �E.C.� & �Schultze� Gunpowder Company, Ltd., with works in Oakland, Bergen County, New Jersey, and with offices at 318 Broadway, New York City. Likewise this date couldn't possily be correct, as in early 1904 Capt. A.W. Money was retired out of the powder business and by the April 2, 1904, issue of The American Field, �New E.C.� and �Schultze� celebrated Bulk Powders were being advertised as products of Laflin & Rand Powder Co. Through the end of 1906 L & R advertised �New E.C. (Improved)� and �New Schultze� bulk powders in addition to their �Infallible Smokeless� dense powder. Beginning in mid-February 1907, �New E.C. (Improved)� and �New Schultze� bulk powders, and �Infallible Smokeless� dense powder were being advertised as products of E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company, Wilmington, Del. And, finally 1913 would be about the time Harold was off in Ceylon trying his hand in the rubber business, and by 1912, Albert W. Money had returned to England for his retirement.

In the 1941 Scribner�s book, De Shootinest Gent'man, Nash wrote �Harold Money was just under six feet, a graceful, well muscled middleweight with a keen mind, delightful smile, superbly rounded educationally, and one of the most adaptable chaps I�ve ever known. With a gorgeous sense of humor and polished by the contacts of high birth, he could put all hands at ease on any occasion. �He is the only man I�ve ever seen,� the late Captain Arthur du Bray used to say, �who could shoot craps on the mud floor of a Diggers Indian hutch and then change for a bow at the Court of St James.� They were great pals Captain Arthur du Bray, gallant gentleman and father of the twenty gauge shotgun in the United States.�

OH O - +1.
I still get an inner glow when I re-read selected passages of GBE's "The Upland Shooting Life".
I particularly like the continuity thread from the (Dr.) Charles Norris book "Eastern Upland Shooting". Dr. Norris obtained a Purdey 12GA from a gent in the 19teens, cherished and used it appropriately. BGE spent time visiting and maybe shooting with Dr. Norris (IIRC - going on memory here, and away from my main library for several months). Both Norris and GBE thrilled in the "rush" when a ruffed grouse went up in front of them. Norris passed the Purdey to GBE, can't remember if it was gifted or sold. GBE cherished and used the Purdey and it got ink in some of his writings. I recall a complete magazine article about it from his pen. The Purdey eventually went to a new owner after GBE's passing IIRC.
If Norris gifted it to GBE, I do hope GBE contrived to gift it after his passing. Gifting worthwhile guns strikes me as a worthy and honourable tradition.
I've never seen reference anywhere to the Purdey's new owner after GBE's stewardship.

GBE met Dr Norris through the Drs responding to an ad for pups- looking for a started dog, which the Evans did not do. They kept up the correspondence any way and the Evans were eventually shooting guests several times at Dr Norris' club - Amwell, the Dr being elderly enough by then to have given up grouse. One of the smallest publications (by number of books) of GBE's books is "Recollections of a Shooting Guest" about the relationship, and a previously unpublished manuscript by Dr Norris

in his will, Dr Norris left GBE his choice of guns

He picked the Purdey - last I handled it, a few years ago- it was still in the Old Hemlock "family"

OH O - thanks VERY much for that information. I'll annotate the inside covers of my copies of the Norris and GBE books with that info.
" still in the Old Hemlock "family" " - how appropriate and gratifying.

GBE and his great books: "The Upland Shooting Life" and "The Best of Nash Buckingham" (as if anything TNB ever penned wasn't a "Best"--got me hooked on double guns and the gentlemanly manners and mien of Southern Gent'men indeed-- Of all Nash's works on non-gun articles, I love "Play House" the best- and of his shooting advice stories- "The Dove"-- A gent like Capt. Money as Nash described him in his great story "The Shootin'ist Gent'man, in some wise recalls to my mind the tag line from a Robert W. Service poem: "So they break the hearts of kith and kin, and roam the will at will!" One could also argue that the central characters in both Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Somerset Maugham's "The Razor's Edge" might also blend well into that mileu!!