46 AN ENGLISH SQUIRE 



of the weasel species can make its way ; with the gorse 

 covers where the foxes are carefully preserved, in the 

 hope that they may stick pretty much to the rabbits ; 

 with the great patches of bracken in the park and 

 along the lanes ; with the long, dry, grassy-covered 

 ways, that run under the roots of the hedges. And 

 then the numbers that are brought up under fowls. 

 The head-keeper is hand-in-glove with the farmers, 

 and their good-wives are always willing and eager to 

 supply him with sitting-hens. Spring after spring he 

 shifts his breeding-ground, but it is always on some 

 sunny, sheltered aspect in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of his cottage and the kennels. There the long lines of 

 coops are set out in the rank grass that is carefully 

 mown immediately in front of them ; and he or one of 

 his subordinates is always on sentry duty to guard 

 against the descent of hawks or jackdaws. How he 

 has gone questing about in search of the early eggs 

 before the voracious rooks and magpies have had time 

 to anticipate him ! What a pretty sight it is, when the 

 young ones are hatched and come running out of the 

 grass to his call ! And later, before the first of 

 October, when their plumage is in its bloom, and they 

 begin to take a conscious pride in it, how ornamental 

 they are in the stubbles and on the cover-side ! How 

 he can reconcile it to his feelings to see these pets of 

 his shot down is a question between himself and his 

 conscience on the same principle, we suppose, as the 

 motherly poultry-woman cherishes her ducklings to 

 come in with the peas. But it is certain that there is a 



