12 Sporting Sketches in Pen and Pencil. 



Ay ! Ay I How time flies ! and what an original remark ! "We went home 

 and tumbled out twenty-four and a half brace of birds, six rabbits, three 

 landrails, a quail which I shot out of a bevy of eleven found on some 

 standing barley, and five hares. They were pleased to say that it was the 

 best first of September that had been scored for many years. 



We had a glorious dinner. The old folks were gorgeous; the old 

 gentleman was what they'd call "awfully jolly," I suppose, nowadays; and 

 told us little tales when the ladies went, and laughed tiU he was purple ; 

 and as there was not much point in them we too laughed consumedly. 

 After dinner we had a committee of the whole house in the billiard room, 

 where we played a pool, and somebody and I divided it amidst a sKght titter 

 from one or two lady friends who were visiting. They weren't good 

 looking nor very agreeable, so of course— ah ! that's how it was. Then we 

 had some four-part songs which the old gentleman sadly discomposed 

 by a melodious moan from the pit of his stomach when any particular 

 chord struck him from time to time; and, lastly, I was besought by 

 Somebody, egged on by Tom, to oblige them with a nigger song, and I 

 sang them " Get away, black man," — then quite a novelty, — which suited 

 them amazingly, and then one or two more; and as that sort of thing 

 was new then, I was looked on as a sort of Mackney or nigger Phoenix, &c., 

 &c., &c., and so ended that first of September. 



I never had so pleasant a one since, and though by walking without dogs 

 we do perhaps make bigger bags now, beyond the mere pleasure and skill 

 in shooting, what does it amount to ? Three, four, or even six abreast, with 

 perhaps a beater to each gun, you swoop down on a twenty-acre turnip 

 field. " Bang ! bang ! " on the right of the line ; " bang ! bang ! " on the left 

 of the line ; " bang ! bang ! " in the middle. It is almost like an engagement 

 in the B/Usso-Turkish war. On you swoop without stopping, three mUes and 

 a Mttock an hour. The keepers look after, pick up, and retrieve the dead 

 and wounded. You go on as if you were doing it for a wager, and you hardly 

 know how many you score, or whether your birds are gathered or lost. If 

 birds lie very close, as they sometimes do, you walk over them ; sometimes 

 they get up behind you, sometimes they don't; sometimes a covey of 

 frenchmen worry the soul out of you just for distraction; or you stick 



