48 AN ENGLISH SQUIRE 



hear a subterraneous rumbling and rattling and scramb- 

 ling that now seems to draw near the mouth of some 

 hole, and the next moment rapidly recedes from it. 

 At last the persecuted victim takes heart of grace, and 

 shoots out of some unsuspected bolting-hole, altogether 

 hidden among the grass and the fallen leaves. The 

 terriers who have been watching for him with cocked 

 ears, cannon up against each other in their eager rush, 

 and you have to shoot clear of them, and shoot 

 quickly, before the nimble game disappears under 

 some convenient branches. There is an extreme 

 satisfaction in a rabbit rolled over by a clean shot, 

 more especially when his impetus has carried him out 

 of sight, and you are at a loss to know whether you 

 have killed or missed him. In the open park the 

 sport is comparatively simple. The rabbits burrow 

 in the mounds of turf under the roots of the venerable 

 thorns ; while on occasion they even scramble up the 

 hollow trunks, and come tumbling out of unsuspected 

 orifices on high, to the extreme astonishment and 

 disgust of the jackdaws. 



Whatever our individual opinion may be, it is 

 certain the squire would never hesitate between his 

 English home and a principality in the Highlands. 

 His heart may be in the Highlands, among the deer 

 in the season, and possibly his person too ; but if he 

 were sent to the Highlands to settle he would have 

 to leave his horses behind him to begin with. Except 

 a pair for his lady's carriage, and the serviceable beast 

 he drives in his dogcart, the laird keeps nothing but 



