FAEMIXG IX CA.AIBRIDC^ESIIIEE. 137 



annum, and during harvest time lie lived at tlie house, 

 and on this occasion was allowed a pint of wine a day, 

 which were the terms on which he had formerly been 

 employed as bailiff. This, of course, would considerably 

 diminish the profits of the farm, and the balance at the 

 end of two seasons was not by any means in my favour, 

 and I got thoroughly tired of my farming speculation. 

 Perhaps this may be a wholesome lesson to naval and 

 military men whose minds may be seized with an 

 ardent taste for turning their swords into i3loughshares, 

 and I certainly had not the satisfaction of feeling Labor 

 ipse voluptas. Mais retournons a nos laptins. My 

 bailiff came to me one day with a long face, to complain 

 that the rabbits were doing great damage to a piece of 

 wheat of forty acres. They were certainly numerous on 

 about four acres of sand hills, covered with large furze, 

 which I preserved to have occasionally a day's rabbit 

 shooting with my friends. This was a few hundred 

 yards from the wheat, and as it was during the night 

 that the rabbits committed these ravages, a council of 

 war was held between the bailiff, the head ploughman, 

 and myself, when it was decided that some of the furze 

 should be cut, and small fires made every night at 

 certain distances along the side of the field towards the 

 rabbit warren. This had the desired effect in scaring 

 the enemy from the wheat. I now entertained a 

 sanguine hope that I should have my four quarters an 

 acre from the field ; but, alas ! I was sadly disappointed 

 in this expectation, for a blight or smut attacked the 

 ears of corn, and I got little or nothing but the straw 

 as manure. Such was the sweet solace for all my old 

 bailiffs labour. 



There are three pej'sons in a country establishment 



