128 A BOOK ABOUT THE GARDEN. 



and a Land-gallop not long before. If the latter had 

 been drawn by four-and-twenty, the former would 

 have gone by him just the same, for he always would 

 be first. He had a sincere affection for his brother, 

 but he delighted, as I have heard him say, " in 

 cutting down old 'Quis," and when he had pounded 

 him in a run, or bowled him in a match, he was 

 happy. He was master in all sports, save one. The 

 stern, imperturbable marquis was a dead shot. If all 

 the pheasants, partridges, and wild ducks upon the 

 estates to which he was heir, had arisen simul- 

 taneously, whirring and quacking around him, he 

 would have selected his bird, and slain him as calmly 

 as though there were but one. And he was never so 

 solemnly fatal as when, after Lord Evelyn had fired 

 hurriedly and harmlessly his right and left, he 

 deliberately " wiped " the fraternal " eye." I used 

 to load for my lord sometimes in covert shooting, 

 when all available hands were pressed into the 

 service ; and I remember him saying to me on 

 one occasion, as he handed me the smoking gun, 

 " There's only one living thing in the world, Oldacre, 

 which I thoroughly abhor and detest, and that's a 

 beastly woodcock." 



You begin to think, I fear, that I am " running to 

 leaf," and therefore, although we gardeners have 

 naturally a taste for garnish, I must prune accord- 

 ingly. After a short visit, the marquis and Lord 

 Evelyn went away with their friends ; and rumours 

 reached us from the servants' hall, that the latter had 

 left a brace of hearts behind them, in custody of my 

 Lady Alice. The duke, it was said, regarded with 



