478 Notes on Sport and Travel ix 



It is true that the wild blue peaks of the Eifel 

 far away before us, and the warmer-tinted, well- 

 wooded heights of the Taunus range behind us, 

 gave a certain quaintness to the landscape ; but 

 there was a want of incident that made it terribly 

 wearisome even to one well used to the Wiltshire 

 side of Assheton Smith's country. 



But hungry men are never good judges of 

 scenery ; and, convinced of this, we hurried on 

 towards the next dorf, from which indistinct sounds, 

 betokening great conviviality, were borne towards 

 us on the morning breeze. Soon reaching it, and 

 jumping over a low mud wall into an orchard of 

 stunted apple-trees, we found ourselves in the midst 

 of our party. 



O my friends, my friends, what necessity was 

 there for your * getting yourselves up ' in that insane 

 manner ? Who shall describe you ? Your leather 

 gaiters, with mighty buckles and straps, half-way 

 up your legs, stout enough to turn the tusk of the 

 oldest boar in the Eifel ; your eccentric caps, — 

 your guns, vvdth broad worsted belts and tassels, 

 always in the way, — your curiously - contrived 

 mechanisms to prevent your guns going off 

 accidentally, and which never seemed to have any 

 effect till the moment you tugged at the trigger ! 

 Why could you not go out partridge -shooting, O 

 most quiet of doctors and Government officials, 

 without dressing for Der Freischiitz, and sticking 

 long knives in your girdles ? 



