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many soft words as you can screw your mouth to give utterance to, attempt nothing more then and there.

Upon these subjects I shall pro-
bably enlighten you a little in my
next letter; but as you seem, be-
fore all other things, to request
my assistance in hiring you a
keeper, and giving you a few
hints about getting up a head of
game, that shall be the premier
pas. You say your tenants (pretty
vagabonds according to your ac-
counts) have made what they call
"free manor" during the time of
your minority, while you were
pulling stroke in the ten-oar at
Eton, and doing a bit of Trump-
ington at Cambridge. This must
be stopped forthwith-fairly and
softly if possible, but by all means
stopped rem facias, rem si
possis rectè, si non quocunque
modo rem." These gentry appear
from the plan of your estate to
occupy some one hundred and
fifty or two hundred acres each,
which (as I pretty well know
the value of your land) makes
them payers (or promisers to
pay) of some sixty or eighty
pounds per annum. Now these
are not the persons to whose ten-
der mercies and sporting propen-
sities I should like to entrust
my hen pheasants and doe hares.
Where a farmer is a man of pro-
perty and respectability; where
he associates but half a grade be-
low, or possibly with his landlord;
or where he is himself a land-
owner, the case is a different one:
but where newly caught, clothed,
and promoted from the plough tail,
he is a different species of animal:
therefore at your next audit din-
ner, when their hearts are softened
with your best ale and rum-punch,
and when they have (which they
infallibly will) just declared that
"money they have none," request
their desisting from their accus-
tomed amusement, and, giving as
VOL. V.-SECOND SERIES.-No. 25.

But now to get back upon the scent of your keeper. Many think that a stranger in the country is preferable to a native, inasmuch as he has no connections, and is brought into it totally new to the society he will fall in with, and perfectly dependent upon yourself. For my part, I own I prefer a native of the spot: he knows and has known from childhood the name, circumstances, and characters of the whole parish: he will tell you "the marks, height, age, and where he strayed from," of every smock-frock whom he may chance to see three fields off: he knows how many nails are in Tom's half-boots, and the shape of Will's tips: and lastly, as there are customs of poaching peculiar to every district, he is more au fait in the particular walk to which his attention is to be turned. If he be honest (of course the first inquiry to which you will pay attention), he will not allow old acquaintance to interfere with his duty: if he be the contrary, and desirous of forming improper connections, it matters not whether he come from John o'Groat's House, or the Land's End. Looking therefore on both sides of the question, I should say, hire a native if you can find one who you think will suit you if not, I will look out for you in my neighbourhood. After his honesty, you will inquire into his character for sobriety, but this is almost a repetition; for no drunken keeper was ever honest. It is impossible that his weekly wages can both keep his wife and chil

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dren in comfort, and himself in gin: the money to pay for "the enemy he puts into his mouth to steal away his brains" must come from some other source; he has not an hour to spare from your employ by day or night to earn it in; nevertheless it must be found where can it come from but out of your woods? Never tell me of an uncommonly clever fellow who can see with one eye when he is drunk as far as others can with two when they are sober: it is all stuff! discard the belief of it altogether. Trust me there are many other very clever fellows" besides your keeper in the village; and if they can once plant him, and mark him down at the sign of the Pig and Belly-ache, or at that respectable beer-house which you tell me Tom Slipgibbet has just established in your neighbourhood, he must be a "clever fellow" indeed to save his pheasants. Another grand objection I have to a drunken "clever fellow" is this nobody ever gets drunk alone: no respectable person will sit down to get drunk with him -ergo, he is perforce the boon companion and pot ally of every vagabond with whom he scrapes acquaintance. Trust in no reformed drunkard-it is a vice which I never knew a man get rid of. Perhaps by necessity, after being turned away, and kept on parish allowance for a twelvemonth, his nose loses somewhat of its wonted ruby, and his hand regains somewhat of its pristine steadiness: but put him into your harness, get a few beans into him, and if he does not kick over the pole before long, never believe me again. Experto crede.

If, cæteris paribus, you have

your choice of a married man and a bachelor, choose the former. He knows what a good starve is, and will hardly be such a fool, when he gets a livelihood, as to throw it away wantonly. Besides, Tom, as thou art now about indeed to become a Benedick thyself, there will be less chance of a caterwauling in the dairy, or behind the hen house, by having thy garde de chasse in the same predicament-or there ought to be.

Civility is another grand requisite: by the rules both of law and propriety, every man is answerable for the good behaviour of his servants; and I know no person more likely to be tempted to outrage civility, and to overstep the propriety of de meanour due to every man, than agamekeeper. Sometimes I grant there may be the greatest excuse made for heat of temper or roughness of manner, for I have seen some soi-disant gentlemen set their whole wits to work to cause a poor devil of a keeper to lose his temper, and by so doing take advantage of him: but never let him forget to carry a civil tongue in his head. I have no penchant for being made target practice of to answer the sins of my servant, yet to this am I by right exposed upon such an occasion. Activity in body is as necessary as promptness of mind: I had sooner have a man who could run like a greyhound, than one that could fight like a bull-dog. A cross is doubtless to be preferred; but ninety-nine times in a hundred the heels instead of the fists are a poacher's resource, except indeed in great preserves, where the quantity of game induces gangs, and where one rascal shouldering the other imbibes a courage

which he individually possesses not. Do not misunderstand me, and imagine that I would keep a skulker a moment in my service, but generally (particularly as I before stated if you by my recommendation hire a native) all that is wanted is to recognise your man. If a row does take place, and you happen to have more keepers than poachers in the melée, I hope they will not be such fools (as was once the case with my own wiseacres) to stand upon the rules of fair play: remember our rule at school, when engaged in a battle royal with Snobs-get 'em down and keep 'em down. Gown and Town ought always to take every advantage in their power for rely upon it, reverse the tables, and your adversaries would do the same.

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A dandy I utterly abhor. I hired one (unsight unseen) out of Hertfordshire some years since, and he appeared with a Corydon hat, a summer tye, a shirt pinI forget whether he had cameo on his little finger-but (ναι περ A) I found him feeding his pointers in gloves!! As I could not imagine that a gentleman of his calibre was at all likely to lie in a ditch from light to dark for a week together watching a wire, he quickly resought his paternal glades, where I trust he gives satisfaction.

Two good active fellows ought to look over your ground (I think you say about twelve hundred acres) thoroughly, and (if you allow assistance for night work) to find you plenty of shooting in a moderate way. By the bye, while I think of it, a word as to your shooting days. If you give a battue, never take both keepers: your party is as well known by

every poacher as if you were to advertise it on the market cross; and they will, of course, be seeking what they may devour. If you have a good sharp fellow who can manage the retriever and drill the men, I would recommend both keepers to be excused: this they will not like, for it is a day's fun to them; but I know you always said that you would never be John to your own servant, and I hope you will be as good as your word. At any rate let them take it by turns, or if you make one the head man, give him his choice.

I should not advise dividing your ground, and giving_one man one-half, and one the other: by so doing they are more easily watched by poachers. Moreover, by making the ground common to both, you run a better chance of keeping all on the square, unless you happen indeed to hire both rascals, which let me tell you has occurred to older men than yourself.

A dog-breaker will be but of little import in your cramp woodlands: I prefer setters broke in an open country, and when seasoned brought into the small inclosures: even they, too, soon get to hedge hunting and puddling: but a young dog in your country would be spoiled even in teaching him his business. As they get older, they (setters) are the best dogs in the world for cock or pheasant; and you must indeed be out of luck, if out of all your kennel you have not one that will bring his game, which is quite a sine quá non in rough shooting. I hate to see a keeper stand jawing for half an hour with every hedger and ditcher he comes across in his rounds: a sharp

eye and a silent tongue" are not more requisite in a seaman (by the way Tom, if you have not read Glascock's "Tales of a Tar," buy them and study them forthwith) than in a gamekeeper. Some men have the knack of slipping from covert to covert like a mole: whether they walk in the ditches, or crawl through the hedges, or possess the tapestry of Prince Houssain, I know not; but nobody ever sees their motions, or can nail them: others swagger across every field, big with all the consequence inherent to velveteen, gold lace, and a double barrel, whistling to an unbroken pointer puppy, and rehearsing upon sparrows the art of shooting flying. These gentry, "full of sound and fury, signify nothing." Their approach and departure are notified by so many signals thrown out by themselves, that the poacher follows in their wake as unerringly as the cock-sparrow does in that of the owl.

Never believe a coxcomb who tells you that" poaching is over for the season: poaching is never over: and, during March and April, when the hares run by night, more mischief is done amongst them by wiring the does than at any other time of year*. You must likewise continue your night patrol until the corn gets high enough to hide a hare, if you intend to avoid coursers. When they catch an old suckling unsaleable doe, they put her in their own pot; and an early half-grown leveret is more valuable and readier of sale than any other game. A full moon, when very bright, is not the

most favorable time for a lurcher; they are then more easily perceived by the hares: a moderately cloudy night, with some wind (of which the poacher takes advantage by working to leeward) is the perilous season.

The gun is the only prescription for lurchers, although I agree with Colonel Hawker in being very cautious whom I entrust with such an instrument. If possible, and if the light serves, they generally course hares towards the morning, when the keepers are gone to bed, and when the hares' bellics are crammed with green corn, so that their pace and wind are at a discount. It will be quite as well for your game, and you will stand no lower in your keeper's estimation as a preserver, if he finds you awake to these few memoranda, and upon their being obeyed I should insist, as part of my system.

Remember I am not writing to you as to a Norfolk preserver, whose head man is a man in authority having gamekeepers under him, and who merely sees to others preserving his master's game; but as to a Sussex farmer and landowner, who can only afford a moderate sum to insure him and his friends moderate sport, and who is perforce obliged to overlook carter, groom, and gamekeeper with his own eyes, and to make use of all those senses with which Nature has endowed him, to ensure a tolerable degree of attention from those hired to work at their several occupations.

You say your stock of phea

* I should have precisely the same opinion of the judgment of a man who turned his hunters to grass for the summer, as of the vous of any gamekeeper who relaxed his exertions, and discontinued his watching when the shooting season expired.

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ONE NE letter more before the season closes, and I shall then have told you all that has occurred.

Saturday, March 17. The Squire met at Cold Ashby; went to Lord Spencer's gorse covert close by the canal, where we found, and went away at a capital pace to the left, up to Winnick Warren-twenty minutes: then bore to the left, over the hill, down into the valley, where we checked for a few minutes; hit it again, and went away, leaving Ravencroft to the left, and, crossing the bottom, lost him in a small plantation, where there were earths I believe-fifty minutes. There was a large field out, but not more than ten or twelve saw the run-fences some of them very big, and a great many falls. The Squire, though on his best jumper, Pilot, winner of the steeple chase, got a fall at a little bit of a place, which proves the very best make mistakes at times. He was very nearly ridden over by a farmer on a grey horse.

Messrs. Holyoak, Viner, Clutterbuck, Young, Turner, Yates, Campbell, and Heneage, went the best. Mr. Payne got a fall at first, and lost his place. A good many of the field left after the

run.

We then went to Sir James Langham's park, and drew Sir Justinian Isham's covert blank; and then on to a covert called Cotsgrave I believe. The hounds were a long time in it, and we were beginning to despair, when a most gallant fox broke at the lower end, and went away up towards Sir J.'s covert; but on getting within half a field of it, he found the wind too much for him, and turning short to the left he went right down wind over the most splendid country in England. While waiting at the top of the covert before finding, we had all been admiring this line; and one of the party observed, that if he had to pick ground for a steeple chase, he thought from where we stood to Brixworth steeple should be the course, being all grass, large

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