PLAXTIXG IX S-WAMPY GROUXD. 73 



poachers get into the alder car they would find much 

 difficulty in escaping if found by the keeper and his 

 assistants, the only retreat open to them, being the 

 plank across the ditch. Whilst I resided on this pro- 

 perty, I believe no poacher had the hardihood to attack 

 the pheasants at night in this fortress. I had then in 

 my service, a sharp vigilant gamekeeper, who, like a 

 Bristol merchant, slept with one eye open. He told me 

 that he had never heard a shot fired in this alder car. 

 Adjoining to it were about five or six acres of an Irish 

 boggy soil of a dark colour, into which you might drive 

 a stake with great facility five or six feet. I had wide 

 and deep trenches made in various directions, and 

 planted it with alders, black Italian poplars, and willows, 

 and other trees of this species ; in some parts which had 

 become tolerably dry, I planted blackthorn and other 

 dwarf shrubs. The trees in this ground, owing to its 

 having been well trenched grew surprisingly fast, and in 

 four or five years it became a good pheasant cover. 

 ^Yhat puzzled me exceedingly was, that I could never 

 find any snipes in this swampy part of the property, 

 although there was a nice trout stream running through 

 one side of it on a gravelly soil. The only snipe I ever 

 saw was a jack, w^hich I shot. I suppose there was some- 

 thing in the soil which when the snipe bored was un- 

 palatable.* When I first went to reside in Cambridge- 



* A gentleman meeting a friend one clay returning from shooting, 

 inquired what sport he had? he replied, "Very bad indeed, I have only 

 shot an imfortiinate jack snipe," pointing to a swampy place not far 

 distant from them. " dear ! hare you ? " said the gentleman, " why that 

 jack snipe has afforded me amusement for the last month, and probahly 

 would for the remainder of the winter, for I am a desperate bad shot," 

 which made his friend laugh heartily. 



