Under the Acorns 



slash rustle, and the drowsy night came down as 

 softly as an eyelid. 



While I sat on the log under the oak, every now 

 and then wasps came to the crooked pieces of sawn 

 timber, which had been barked. They did not appear 

 to be biting it they can easily snip off fragments of 

 the hardest oak, they merely alighted and examined 

 it, and went on again. Looking at them, I did not 

 notice the lane till something moved, and two young 

 pheasants ran by along the middle of the track and 

 into the cover at the side. The grass at the edge 

 which they pushed through closed behind them, and 

 feeble as it was grass only it shut off the interior 

 of the cover as firmly as iron bars. The pheasant is 

 a strong lock upon the woods; like one of Chubb's 

 patent locks, he closes the woods as firmly as an iron 

 safe can be shut. Wherever the pheasant is arti- 

 ficially reared, and a great " head " kept up for 

 battue-shooting, there the woods are sealed. No 

 matter if the wanderer approach with the most harm- 

 less of intentions, it is exactly the same as if he were 

 a species of burglar. The botanist, the painter, the 

 student of nature, all are met with the high-barred 

 gate and the threat of law. Of course, the pheasant- 

 lock can be opened by the silver key; still, there is 

 the fact, that since pheasants have been bred on so 

 large a scale, half the beautiful woodlands of England 

 have been fastened up. Where there is no artificial 

 rearing there is much more freedom; those who love 

 the forest can roam at their pleasure, for it is not the 

 fear of damage that locks the gate, but the pheasant. 

 In every sense, the so-called sport of battue-shooting 

 is injurious injurious to the sportsman, to the 

 poorer class, to the community. Every true sports- 

 man should discourage it, and indeed does. I was 

 165 



