SIIOOTIXG IX CAMBRIDGESHIRE. Gl 



continent. This is preferred in Germany to having men 

 and boys 2:)laced on the sides, who from their talking or 

 noise of their footsteps, cause the larger game, more 

 especially the wolves, who are at all times on the alert, 

 instantly to leave the forest or wood. The precaution 

 of feathers is particularly necessary to be adopted when 

 the side of the cover is adjacent to another person's 

 property, for on these occasions your kind neighbours 

 are sometimes keeping a sharp look out to convey to 

 their own larders all stragglers. A rather curious in- 

 stance of this kind occurred to me many years ago when 

 I resided in Cambridgeshire. I invited some friends on 

 the last day of shooting to a battue, for though contrary 

 to my usual ideas of shooting, one must sometimes 

 comply with the sporting fashions of the day ; amongst 

 the number the late Lord Maryborough, brother of the 

 Duke of Wellington. He inquired of me how many 

 guns there would be : I told him five or six, upon which 

 he observed they were too many, and he must decline 

 the invitation, as there is some chance of a man getting 

 shot with so numerous a party. 



On the day of this battue, after we had beat some of 

 the plantations round the park, we heard two or three 

 shots fired on the outside, and very near. I sent the 

 gamekeeper to make quietl}'' a reconnaissance in the 

 direction we had heard the shots, as I suspected it was 

 Lord Maryborough, who rented the shooting on that 

 side, and some of the fields of this manor were very 

 near the plantation. The keeper soon returned telling 

 me it was his Lordship with his head gamekeeper, keeping 

 a sharp look out to bag all game that escaped us in that 

 direction. On another side I had two more enemies 

 to my game. A farmer who possessed two or three 



