A PLEA FOR THE PEREGRIXE. 305 



to the dogs. On these occasions, the company draw up 

 in line at fifty or sixty yards' distance from each other, 

 and gallop across the fields with a hawk upon wing; 

 the falconer being in the centre of the line, that he 

 may regulate the space by the situation of the hawk. 

 Su' John Sebright says that this method of partridge 

 hawking afforded him more sport than any other, and 

 that when the face of the country had so little cover 

 and the birds so wild as to make it impossible to ap- 

 proach them in the usual way. 



A Plea for the PEREaRiNE. 



" There was a time when the large bustard, immea- 

 sm-ably the finest and most valuable bird of his class, 

 stalked at the head of five or six hens over Salisbury 

 Plain, or the swelling chalk downs of Wiltshire. There 

 was a time when the kite, a bird of exceeding beauty, 

 unequalled in the richness of his uniform j)lumage, was 

 familiarly recognised by the most indiscriminating ob- 

 server, as he steered with forked tail in narrow circles 

 through the clear blue sky. There was a time when the 

 raven and the chough abounded on the southern coasts, 

 and when the wild cat, the badger, and the marten were 

 not fabulous, but real and frequent denizens of our 

 Kentish and Sussex covers. But those were days when 

 our forefathers tm-ned into these rough woodlands with 

 stout hearts and strong legs, and, after breathless blun- 

 dering efforts to work up to two or three couple of wild 

 spaniels, generally reached the brow of the stony bank 

 in time to catch a glimpse of an old cock pheasant, or 

 to hear his war note — happy indeed if it were his last. 

 In those days there were no clear cuts, straight, broad 

 rides — no trodden bean and barley straw — no breech- 



TOL. II. Y 



