PARTRIDGE SHOOTING ON THE DOWNS. 173 



game on these Downs, the excessive wildness of 

 the coveys, and their interminable flights; and 

 often have I seen others, who fancied themselves 

 rather "knowing'' in such matters, but whose 

 experience had been limited to the thick wheat- 

 stubble and the prolific turnip-field, regularly 

 " choked off'' after the second or third hill had 

 been surmounted, just, perhaps, as a marker, 

 perched on the summit of a distant beech tree, 

 was in the act of telegraphing the delightful 

 fact that a covey had dropped among the juni- 

 pers half a mile higher up. 



And if you are a lover of the picturesque, what 

 a magnificent scene is spread before you, as you 

 pause for a moment from your successful toil, 

 after having fairly run your game to ground on 

 the heathery summit of one of these lofty Downs ! 

 The very air that you breathe, fresh from the 

 altitude of the spot, and mingled, as it is, with 

 the sea-breeze, is far more exhilarating than any 

 artificial compound which your flask can fur- 

 nish. Down after Down swells around you, their 

 smooth sides dotted with the evergreen holly 

 and juniper, or varied with larger patches of 

 golden gorse, while the steep slopes that bound 

 the intermediate valleys are clothed with hang- 

 ing beech-woods, wdiose irregular forms relieve 

 the undulating outline of the Downs, and the 



