56 EEMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



house, and gets into the frontiers of his estate before he 

 beats about in search of a hare or partridge, on purpose 

 to spare his own fields, where he is alwa5's sure of finding- 

 diversion. For this reason, the country gentleman, like 

 the fox, seldom preys near his o\vn house." 



A connection of mine has a wood within two or three 

 miles of him, of about fifty acres, a divided property ; 

 by his adopting the above plan, I have had, some years 

 ago, on the 1st of October, a good day's pheasant shoot- 

 ing, according to my taste as a sportsman of the old 

 school, for what we bagged was acquired by fagging 

 hard, and contending with brambles, briars, and other 

 strong impediments, which are found at this season to 

 impede your walking. When the plantations are young 

 and the country intersected with large turnip fields, as 

 in Norfolk and Suffolk, I give the preference to pheasant 

 shooting with pointers ; and to recover wounded birds, 

 as they run with much speed, it is desirable to have a 

 steady retriever in a slip. The late Colonel Gillon, of 

 the Greys, an old friend of mine, when pheasant shoot- 

 ing in cover, had generally a leash of pointers, with 

 small bells attached to their collars, in order to ascertain 

 where they were, and when a dog was making a point. 

 This answered well in October, for then many of the 

 pheasants being young birds lie well, but later in the 

 season, when they are on the qui vive, or ready to make 

 use of their legs at the least alarm, the tinkling of the 

 bell makes them run, and when they rise are mostly out 

 of shot. 



Colonel Gillon* was a first rate sportsman of the old 



* Thirty years ago he died at Wallhouse, his residence about twenty 

 miles from Edinburgh, -vrhere he had an estate of 2000^. per annum. His 

 late son inherited a very large property in England. 



