UPLAND SHOOTING. 259 



of the morning, not the peep of day, but eight, or hy'r Luly ! 

 nine of the Shrewsbury ch>ck, when the aulumnal sun has 

 lifted liis broad, jovial, ruddy i'ace, Iroin liis dewy pillow, and 

 raisi'd it, loouiiug lai'ge and blood-red through the thin haze, 

 ab ivo the mountain's brow. There has been a touch of frost 

 during tlie niglit, and its .-ilver fretwork is still white over the 

 deep after-grass, and yet unaltered feni leaves. The air is (dear 

 and brisk, yet balmy, and its every breath seems to exhilarate 

 tlif miihl, as if it were champagne inspired by the nostrils. 



The scene is a broad and gentle valley, bijrdered on either 

 side by hills, cultivated to their mid height, and crowned aloft 

 with the unshorn primeval woodlands. The meadows in the 

 bottom, along the clear brimful stream — in Europe it would 

 aspire to be called a river — are green and soft as velvet ; but 

 the woods and swamps in the vale, are rich with every color that 

 the painter's pallet can afford ; the blood-red foliage of the 

 maples, the gold of the hickories, the chrome yellow of the 

 poplars, the red russet of the oaks, the dull purple of the dog- 

 woods, mixed with the sable green of the late alder tops, the 

 everlasthig verdure of the rhododendrons, and the lightsome 

 greenery of the willow, forming a marvellous succession of con- 

 trasts and accidents of light and shade, all blended into one 

 hamionious whole, such as no other scene or season, no other 

 clime or country, can exhibit. 



And at this time of year, at this hour of the moniing, and 

 into such a landscape, we will imagine a brace of sportsmen 

 emerging from the doorway of the country tavern in which they 

 have spent the night, with their canine companions, and a stout 

 rustic follower, loaded with supernumerary shot-belts and game- 

 bags, carrying in his dexter claw a stiff hickory cleaning-rod, 

 and leading with his sinister a leash of large, bony, red-and- 

 white Cocking Spaniels. 



Our sportsmen, for the nonce, adopting old Izaac Walton's 

 quaint nomenclature, which figureth forth something of the cha- 

 racter from the name, we will call AgiUs and Pentus. The 

 former youthful, and somewhat rash, yet neither altogether ver- 



