28 REMIXISCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAN", 



chalky, with a considerable quantity of flints lying on its 

 surface, which is dry, game is tolerably abundant when 

 well preserved. If a gentleman is fortunate enough to 

 have any of these soils on his estate, he should then 

 make every exertion to get into his service a trustworthy 

 gamekeeper, who understands all the duties he is to 

 perform by day and night, in destroying vermin and 

 assisting in rearing and giving directions about young 

 pheasants and partridges ; but it is absolutely necessary, 

 to succeed well in this object, that he should have a 

 person to assist him in procuring ant eggs, feeding the 

 young birds at stated times, and keeping all the coops 

 particularly clean. As the above duties of a game- 

 keeper require no trifling degree of bodily and mental 

 exertion, he should have good wages to make it worth 

 his while to serve his master with zeal and fidelity, for a 

 servant in this capacity has a great latitude, and cannot 

 be looked after like those who form your domestic 

 establishment. If you should have adjoining to yom- 

 property the estate of a nobleman or gentleman where 

 the game has been well preserved for some years, this 

 will, I have no doubt, prove of great advantage to 

 you in getting up a stock of game, particularly if you 

 should have some woods or plantations near these pre- 

 serves ; nor do I perceive any great harm in sowing an 

 acre or two of buckwheat in the vicinity of these pre- 

 serves, as pheasants and partridges are exceedingly fond of 

 it ; and as an additional attraction to the former, have a 

 few small buckwheat stacks placed in some of your 

 woods, for these birds are particularly partial to scratch- 

 ing and feeding round them. Pheasants require to be 

 constantly fed during the winter in order to retain them 

 in your covers ; white pease, damaged barley, and occa- 



