4i6 



The Country Gaitkmaiis Magazine 



movements of the dodging keeper, who would 

 fain make up to him, he dodges in turn, and 

 " blazes " away as he can till he is over his 

 hunting ground and the game up for the 

 time. Again, several neighbouring tenants 

 engage a rabbit trapper, and set him to work, 

 despite protests and threats as to the conse- 

 quences from the game lessee. The trapper 

 has the distinction of being closely followed 

 by the keeper and his master, who manfully 

 " spring " his traps as fast as he sets them, 

 till a sturdy employer to whom the trapper 

 complains goes up and gives the parties con- 

 cerned a bit of his mind in pretty plain terms. 

 The trapper goes on for the season. What 

 he makes off the rabbits he is justifiably 

 reticent in stating, "Was he paid anything?" 

 Not likely. " In fact," says one of our in- 

 formants, " I should have got something fae 

 him for the privilege." It was shrewdly con- 

 jectured th.at off one farm he was making ;^3 

 to ;^4 a week at the height of his season ; 

 and, without doubt, his labours resulted in a 

 good many heavy sackfuls of rabbits 

 despatched to the game dealer's ; his trapping 

 being carried on, moreover, under the serious 

 drawback of his being unable to follow the 

 creatures freely into their fastnesses in the 

 plantations. 



" It's a great point their bein' disturbit, ye 

 ken," says a shrewd out-spoken farmer, hu- 

 mourously alluding to the solemn admonitions 

 of the keeper against the tenant's dog by 

 chance going inside the wood ; and we find 

 that, as in all similar circumstances, cats have 

 a remarkable tendency to disappear. The 

 winged game are partridges and some phea- 

 sants. And last season, when the former 

 got wild and what is called " strong on the 

 wing " — in other words, when taught by ex- 

 perience, they preferred a prompt start and 



long flight to sitting on the ground till closely 

 pointed and handy for slaughter as they rose 

 — a device was adopted by the keepers, which 

 may be mentioned for general edification. 

 It was that of flying a kite overhead, and in 

 advance, which the witless " pairtricks " mis- 

 taking for a bird of prey, pressed to the ground 

 till compelled to rise and be shot at ! 



The lessee of the shooting in this case, as 

 in not a few others, sends the result of his 

 exertions directly to market in considerable 

 quantities. Looking at the comparatively 

 small sum at which the shooting is valued 

 (some p^7o) compared with the undoubted 

 damage which the tenants sustain — and any 

 one who knows the least thing in the matter 

 can judge for himself of the significance of 

 broad patches of briard closely eaten down 

 by the vermin'in the middle of June, or of 

 finding a few of the obnoxious wretches im- 

 pudently nibbling away in the corner of a 

 field at noon-day, even, as we did, here and 

 there — there can be no question that it would 

 be a much easier burden for the farmers to 

 make up the game rent amongst tHem, and 

 let a trapper have unimpeded control of the 

 vermin. 



On the Avhole, our decided conviction, 

 judging mainly by what we saw with our own 

 eyes in a case that can by no means be called 

 extreme, is that the damage sustained by the 

 tenant-farmer, in a great many instances 

 little heard of in public, or not heard of at 

 all, is so serious that were proprietors, set- 

 ting game-keeping opinions aside, simply to 

 look at it in detail with unprejudiced eyes, 

 as we did, those of them who possess a fair 

 share of good feeling and common sense 

 would not hesitate for a day to put hares and 

 rabbits, at least, completely under the con- 

 trol of the tenant. 



