THE WARREN 75 



who is desirous of going into greater detail than we 

 have been enabled to do in the foregoing pages. 



The duties of a warrener at the present day are 

 somewhat different from what they used to be when 

 Sam Aiken, that prince of sporting artists, portrayed 

 the good old-fashioned sort which we see depicted 

 on the opposite plate — a facsimile reproduction from 

 his drawing. On looking at it, one cannot but 

 admire the sturdy and weather-beaten form accus- 

 tomed to work single-handed in all weathers, and the 

 ' scratch pack ' by which he is accompanied, any 

 member of which is able to catch and hold the 

 heaviest buck rabbit, or tackle a stoat or polecat with 

 the slightest encouragement. 



A century ago the wold warreners were wont to 

 catch their rabbits with 'fold-nets,' with ' spring nets,' 

 and with ' tipes,' or tip-traps. The ' fold-nets ' were 

 set about midnight, between the burrows and the 

 feeding ground, the rabbits being driven in by dogs, 

 and kept enclosed in the fold until morning. The 

 warrener w^ould drive towards the net with the wind 

 if possible ; a side wind would do, but nothing could 

 be done if the wind blew over the net towards the 

 outlying rabbits. This is also very noticeable when 

 catching hares with ' hays,' and arises from their very 

 keen sense of smell. 



