74 REMINISCENCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



shire, 1820, Mrs H. at that time had never seen a 

 battue, which I mentioned to my neighbour, the late 

 Colonel Adeane, the proprietor of the Babraham estate. 

 He replied, " I am going to have a battue in two or three 

 days, and if Mrs. H. will come on that day, I will place 

 her in a situation on the Cambridge road where she will 

 have a good view of the pheasant shooting." The invi- 

 tation was accepted, and the lady stationed by the 

 colonel to have a full view of om' proceedings. The 

 plantation we were going to beat might be about a 

 quarter of a mile in length, of breadth rather narrow, 

 and composed chiefly of larch, fir, and beech of foiu- or 

 five years' growth. To deter the pheasants from attempt- 

 ing to escape on the sides of the cover, boys kept 

 walking in advance of the keeper, beating the fences 

 with long sticks, and making a noise. One party, con- 

 sisting of four guns, was stationed at the opposite end 

 of the plantation from where the keeper entered with 

 his beaters, distant from the road about two or three 

 hundred yards. Our directions from the Colonel were 

 to kill cocks and hens, but on no account to remove 

 from where we were placed after wounded birds. As 

 the beaters began to approach towards the end of the 

 plantation, the pheasants began to rise, two or three at 

 a time. Of these not many escaped who came within shot, 

 but when they arrived within about sixty yards of the 

 end of the plantation, the pheasants rose in all directions, 

 and in such numbers that they might literally be com- 

 pared to a flock of rooks, for I suppose at least for ten 

 minutes the sportsmen were employed (having no second 

 gun) in priming, loading, and firing as quickly as pos- 

 sible, and it frequently happened when you were taking 

 aim at one pheasant, another rising at the instant near 



