WOODCOCK. 



335 



which he presented to Mr. Coke, afterwards Earl of Leicester, 

 and which is now in the library at Holkham.* Sir Francis 

 afterwards presented the Author with the drawing on wood, 

 which is here engraved. The occurrence, from its singularity, 

 has been the subject of many epigrams and complimentary 

 verses, which have been collected in a small volume by Mr. 

 J. P. Muirhead, entitled ' Winged Words on Chantrey's 

 Woodcocks.' The following couplet was written by the late 

 Mr. Hudson Gurney : — 



" Driven from the nortli, where winter starved them, 

 Chantrey first shot, and then he carved them." 



* Mr. Stevenson states (B. of Norfolk, ii. p. 298) that although the date carved 

 on the marble is 1830, the game-book unquestionably shows that the event took 

 place in the previous year. The vei'sion of the couplet now given, which differs 

 slightly from that in previous Editions of this work, and also from that in 

 ' Winged Words,' is, according to Mr. J. H. Gurney, the correct reading. 



