who knew every nook and cranny of the surrounding country, and the haunts of the deer and wildboar. I imagined, from the lateness of the hour, they had breakfasted, but was quite out of my reckoning; for after the party had all up, instead of beginning the important business of the chase, they made a dead stand, and without the least ceremony stripped the mule of all the stomach provender and other moveables, and turned it to graze; and by means of steel, flint, and tinder, a blazing fire in a few seconds was at their service. We Gentlemen cooked the more delicate kinds of food; the coarser, but most substantial, was reserved for the hungry Spaniards-although we had to guard our stock of wine and prog, as an evident attraction existed between them and the hands and jaws of our Spanish sportsmen. The gallant and brawny Welshman at this feast lost a number of fine cigars, which theft elicited from him a

few hearty curses; notwithstand ing, the cigars did not again come to light. After solids commonly follow fluids; so the Spanish hunters, after filling their bellies, managed with tolerable facility to effect a shrinking, or a few wrinkles in the skin of wine.

Being thus fortified, and the mule reloaded, we directed our course north-westerly, through a pass in the hills, along a winding and very irregular foot-path, and reached the face of a declivity which overlooked a ravine filled with wood, exhibiting the richest verdure of spring. This thicket was destined to form the scene of the first essay of our sanguinary pastime. Each Spaniard had a gun of his country. The

British sometimes turn up their noses at the Spanish fowlingpiece: notwithstanding their sneers, however, the barrel is generally a bit of good stuff, and from the strength of the lock, main-spring, and fluted face of the hammer, the Spanish firelock seldom gives a miss-fire, even with an indifferent flint. The detonating system is liked by the Spaniards, and is in pretty general use.

We all now assembled in a group, in order to make the arrangements necessary in forming the batido, or party employed with dogs in beating covert; and as two of our Gentlemen understood the Spanish language the intended movements were of course made known to every one.

Accordingly about six Spaniards and all the dogs were selected for this important duty; and a leading man of the remaining Spaniards pointed out to the beating party the extent and boundaries of the thicket to be scoured, and the intended line of posts or stations along the margin of the covert to be occupied by each person, armed, and lying in wait or ambush for the deer or boar. The posts fixed upon were always near the path or track followed by these wild animals.

The placing of each man at his station was a work of ceremony and explanation. The men of the batido rested at the margin of the covert with the dogs, when the principal Spaniard of the foraging party began to place each of us at our post, exactly like sentries. The distances between each station varied from 100 to 500 yards, according to the nature of the ground or

This

position of the covert. chief, from former experience, likewise, in due form, pointed out to each of the foraging party the course, or path, the deer or boar would take, if they happened to pass any particular station; and strict cautions were at the same time given to each sentry not to fire in a direction that might endanger the life of his brother sportsman on either side of his post. On a reasonable time being allowed for placing every man at his station, the men and dogs eagerly entered the skirts of the covert, opposite to the line of stations occupied by the shooting party; and, separating at various distances from each other, formed a curved line, and beat covert in a direction facing obliquely the posts of the respective armed sentries.

The hills and dales soon resounded with the clamour of the dogs and men. Although at first it seemed insipid pastime to be fastened to a spot like a post, still when the sound of the men and dogs approached, and ascended from the valley below, a pleasurable kind of excitement was kept up in the mind, from the impression that a deer or boar might in a moment pass close to our post. One barrel (doubleguns) was loaded with buck-shot, the other with ball; the single pieces with ball. After the lapse of nearly an hour the beating party began to emerge at different points along the edge of the thicket, their time of appearing varying according to the nature and extent of covert to be searched. From the oblique course the beaters took through the wood, they made their egress one after the other on the mar

gin of the covert; the first man coming out near the sentry first posted, whom having joined they marched together along the line of stations, and the other beaters making their exit from the covert in succession thus gradually picking up and re-assembling each individual of the foraging party; and before this was effected the extreme wing of the beating party had time sufficient to scour the furthermost point of the covert before the general muster of men and dogs was accomplished.

Not having had a shot at, or even seeing, a boar or a deer in this our first sally, added a fresh spur to our exertions. We all assembled, and moving along on the face of a hill we soon looked down upon a ravine, which surpassed the first in the beauty of the landscape and the chequered hues of the foliage. Rugged rocks and a purling stream occupied the bottom. A second council of war was held, when the thicket to be beaten and the course to be pursued by the batido being decided on, each man with his firelock was fixed at his post, and strict injunctions, as before, given relating to the plan of ac-. tion. The joyful report of a musket in the wood soon mingled with the multifarious sounds of men and dogs. This made every one alert on his station, and encouraged the hope that the sun, before dipping in the horizon, would scatter his rays on the carcase of a fine buck or boar. A second shot soon echoed from the faces of the surrounding hills, and again afforded sweet music to the sportsman's ear. Our expectations were, however, not realized; for after the lapse

of above an hour we were mus tered the third time, and learned from the beaters that a boar had scampered past them in the brushwood, and that two balls were despatched after him, but without turning a bristle. After a romantic and circuitous route, two or three other ravines became alternately the theatre of action, each of them displaying diversity in the blooming productions of the vegetable kingdom. In the middle of one of these glens a shot was heard. In this instance a dog was mistaken for a hog, and severely wounded. On beating the covert in the last ravine, all our prospects of killing a deer or boar the first day vanished with the setting sun. From the winding course taken on first starting in the morning, we found our selves by the end of the day's labour at the western extremity of the extensive and picturesque plain, at the eastern corner of which the party first assembled and breakfasted. Towards the south-west border of this verdant level a hut was situated, fabricated of mud, turf, and stones: to this we bent our steps, and, on entering, the inmates made all of us welcome for the night. The fire was placed in the middle of a clay floor, and the smoke escaped by a hole in the roof.

We had ample opportunities during the day of marking the manner, actions, and sayings of our Spanish hunting associates. Most of them were fine men, but one individual, old, lazy, and rather rotten at heart, whose mental and corporeal faculties not being cast in a common mould, must be here taken notice of. The personage alluded to was a tall, lank, withered, tawny man,

standing full 6 feet 2 inches, shewing a face haggard, pendulous, and furrowed: the bones cut a conspicuous figure in his physiognomy and corporation generally: his legs were of the same thickness from the ancles to the knees, the dimensions being only a little thicker than a walking stick; and what made our party laugh most heartily was, that these emaciated natural supporters were enveloped in a pair of leather leggings as large as a sack: and, from the legs and legings seeming to the eye to be made throughout of the same material, we unanimously and viva voce dubbed with the name of Leather-legs. From the cut of his jib at first sight it was anticipated by us all that his jaws, when opportunity offered, would commit unusual violence and havoc on our prog and drinkables. On the cooking being finished, he set to with the other Spaniards, when our suspicions as to his voracity were completely realised, and to a most extraordinary degree; and, what is curious, he appeared vastly surprised, and even grumbled, when we told him that had his work in the woods been at all commensurate to his eating and drinking, we might have killed both deer and boar. After these hints he sat sullen for some time: he was soon observed, however, to move his spindleshanked person alongside the skin of wine, and having untied the throat-string, he with amazing facility and address took at least six copious gulps. After, such good eating and drinking, as might be supposed, he became good-humored and even facetious, being literally, as Gil Blas would say, filled to the tongue.