I2O O'er Crag and Torrent 



thereon. What the Twelfth is to those 

 favoured by fortune the First is to the many ; 

 it is the staple amusement of middle-class 

 sportsmen, or the great mass of them, at all 

 events, and of many, too, of the higher rank. 

 It is a great day in English sporting life, and 

 long may it continue so, especially as other 

 kinds of shooting become less and less 

 accessible to the general public, for partridge 

 shooting can be indulged in and enjoyed, 

 not on a grand scale, of course, but by every 

 owner or lessee of five or six hundred acres. 

 Yes, it is in truth the shooting man's festival. 

 There is an ineffable charm about the month 

 of September, with its keen, bright mornings, 

 the fragrant air, the woods changing red, 

 russet, and brown ; the orchards rich with 

 their burthen of ripe fruit, and the hedges 

 and brakes hung with their harvest of luscious 

 blackberries. All Nature wears " a sweet, 

 attractive grace." 



