CHAPTER VI 



A Kentish Parish: Sport and Bird-life 



A S may be imagined, there is fair shooting in Oaken- 

 -L** hurst. Pheasant-preserving pays very well in the 

 great flat covers, cut up by rectangular rides ; the cocks 

 raise a perfect chorus of crowing of an autumn even- 

 ing ; and the birds may be seen pecking about by 

 scores in the surrounding stubbles, to the temptation 

 of the indifferent characters who hang about the 

 Oakenhurst pot-houses. There is but little poaching 

 all the same : a very moderate staff of watchers is 

 found to suffice ; and it is remarkable, indeed, how 

 comparatively cheaply and bloodlessly the proprietors 

 continue to do their preserving within easy reach of 

 the London poulterers. Occasionally an astute labourer 

 may go lounging about his work with some snares or 

 wires in the pockets of his corduroys, or he may 

 stretch his limbs of an evening after his labours with 

 a gun in pieces under his smock-frock. But we never 

 hear of the gangs of truculent ruffians with blackened 

 faces, who beat up the preserves in the mining or coal 

 districts, murdering or maiming for life keepers and 



