84 WARWICK WOODLANDS* 



two chaps must botli keep the outside you all the time, Tom \ 

 you, Frank, till you get to that tall thunder-shivered ash tree ; 

 turn in there, and follow up the margin of a wide slank you 

 will see; but be careful) the mud is very deep, and dangerous 

 in places ; now then, here goes I" 



And in he went, jumping a narrow streamlet into a point of 

 thicket, through which he drove by main force* Scarce had he 

 got six yards into the brake, before both spaniels quested ; and, 

 to my no small wonder, the jungle seemed alive with woodcock ; 

 eight or nine, at the least, flapped up at once, and skimmed 

 along the tongue of coppice toward the high wood, which ran 

 along the valley, as I learned afterward, for full three miles in 

 length while four or five more wheeled off to the sides, giving 

 myself and Draw fair shots, by which we did not fail to profit ; 

 but I confess it was with absolute astonishment that I saw two of 

 those turned over, which flew inward, killed by the marvellously 

 quick and unerring aim of Archer, where a less thorough 

 sportsman would have been quite unable to discharge a gun at 

 all, so dense was the tangled jungle. Throughout the whole 

 length of that skirt of coppice, a hundred and fifty yards, I 

 should suppose at the utmost, the birds kept rising as it were 

 incessantly thirty-five, or, I think, nearly forty, being flushed 

 in less than twenty minutes, although comparatively few were 

 killed, partly from the difficulty of the ground, and partly from 

 their getting up by fours and fives at once. Into the high 

 wood, however, at the last we drove them ; and there, till 

 daylight failed us, we did our work like men. By the cold 

 light of the full moon we wended homeward, rejoicing in the 

 possession of twenty-six couple and a half of cock, twelve brace 

 of quail we found another bevy on our way home and bagged 

 three birds almost by moonlight five ruffed grouse, and a 

 rabbit. Before our wet clothes were well changed, supper was 

 ready, and a good blow-out was followed by sound slumbers 

 arid sweet dreams, fairly earned by nine hours of incessant 

 walking. 



