208 REMIXISCE^X•ES OF A SPOETSMAN". 



provement of land by drainage lias been the cause of 

 depriving the falconer of first-rate hawking, in flying the 

 peregrine at the snipe. From the rapidity of the flight 

 of this bird, and quick evolutions, the falcon is necessi- 

 tated to make use of all its strength of wing and various 

 manoeuvres to succeed in making its stoop on the bird.* 

 I knew a nobleman wlio complained that his gamekeeper 

 rarely brought him in any snipes for his table, in conse- 

 quence of some lands being drained where the snipes 

 used to be found in considerable numbers ; however, his 

 lordship consoled himself by remarking that if he had 

 been deprived of the snipes he had been amply repaid for 

 this loss by the increased rent he received. In another 

 part of the introduction to " Falconry in the British 

 Isles," the author thus expresses himself on battue 

 shooting : " The battue system, in Vv^hich hundreds of 

 pheasants, reared almost by the hand of the keeper, 

 and scores of hares enclosed within nets, are driven into 

 the very faces of sportsmen posted in advantageous 

 situations, and slaughtered by wholesale with the 

 smallest possible expenditure of trouble to the slayers, 

 may be styled in a newspaper paragrajih ' a glorious day's 

 sport,' but has certainly nothing in common with that 

 description of sport which brings into play the qualities 

 of energy, perseverance, endurance of fatigue, great self- 

 command, and calmness of nerve in times of difficulty, 

 and which has given to the national character its title 

 to respect, in the sportsman by flood and field at 

 home and the warrior abroad," — exactly corresponding 

 with the opinion of the late Duke of Wellington re- 

 specting officers who were good and keen sportsmen. 



* Colonel Thornton, in Lis " Northern Tour," d\^scri1:'es a ringing 

 snipe flight which lasted nine minutes. 



