38 EEMmiSCEXCES OF A SPOETSMAN. 



much satisfaction in "wiping my nose," which often 

 occurred. He walked as vigorously as a man of forty, 

 and rivalled me in getting over the fences. The last 

 day, in beating a small copse, we flushed a woodcock, 

 which I shot.* 



When I recall the events of those days, which are 

 as fully impressed on my memory as if they had 

 occurred only two or three years since, I feel much 

 pleasure in declaring that I never shot with a more 

 agreeable companion and better sportsman than Mr. 

 Grirdlestone. But alas! like almost all the sporting 

 friends of my younger days, he must long since have 

 paid the debt of nature. 



" How many a girl I loved is dead, how many a man grown old ! 

 And as the lesson strikes my head, my weary heart grows cold." 



Mr, Girdlestone had been brought up to the bar, 

 was an active magistrate, but was considered an eccentric 

 character, living in a very retired way. The family of 

 the Grirdlestones had been long established in Norfolk. 

 The magisterial room of my friend might be considered 

 as the model of a sportsman's apartment. On the 

 walls were wooden racks, containing double and single 

 barrelled guns, amongst which might be seen two or 

 three with long Grerman barrels; in other parts rods 

 for trolling and fly-fishing with all their appendages 

 which were displayed on shelves; books containing 

 artificial flies and baits for trolling, and curious old 

 powder-horns. In the corners of the room, landing 



* It rarely happens that woodcocks are foimd in this country so early 

 as the month of September ; perhaps this bird might not have migrated 

 in the spring ; I know a person who saw a woodcock sitting on her nest, 

 in a wood in Oxfordshu-e, and the young were hatched. 



