48 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



few weeks previously ; that he had known of its 

 being loose, and had tried repeatedly, though 

 unsuccessfully, to catch it. I suspected that it 

 was probably a good animal of its kind, from the 

 fact of its having belonged to the gipsies, and it 

 proved to be one of the very best ferrets I ever 

 used. I gave it to the old man with the under- 

 standing that I was always to have the use of 

 it when I required it, but I regret to say that it 

 was used for the purpose of driving some rats 

 out of the floor of a barn, and, being over- 

 matched by them, met its death, greatly to my 

 sorrow, for it was remarkably gentle and tame, 

 and we were able to use it constantly without 

 a muzzle, as it never laid up and would come 

 readily to call. 



On a previous occasion I had employed the 

 same old warrener to ferret out some rabbits 

 which had taken up their quarters in one of the 

 down hillsides about a mile away from the village. 

 We had three ferrets at work, and all three had, 

 apparently, laid up, having stupidly been put in 

 unmuzzled. The evening was drawing on apace, 

 and it was bitterly cold. Just as we were pre- 

 paring to leave, having given up all hopes of 

 recovering any of the three ferrets, and the posi- 

 tion of the earth being such as to render it im- 

 possible for us to dig down to them, we succeeded 

 in recapturing two out of the number. We waited 

 till we could no longer see, and were compelled to 

 leave the missing ferret to take its chance, in the 



