258 GUN, RIFLE, AND HOUND. 



interesting beat this. The birds are a bit easy, but 

 there is lots of ground game. I am rather at the side, 

 so I only hear a " tally-ho " from some one at the end 

 of the belt, and see a fox quietly trotting across the 

 park in the distance. 



This beat finished, we move off to the house for 

 luncheon. Our host has to stand some chaff on the 

 subject of the fox, who has taken up his abode so close 

 to the M. F. H. A lunch indoors is, I always think, 

 a mistake on shooting-days, and it seems to me that 

 we waste a lot of time before we again assemble 

 on the hall-steps. This time we have but few yards 

 to go, for the beat is in the shrubberies round the 

 house, where we find plenty of birds. The winter 

 sun is getting low before we take our places for the 

 last beat, the bonne douche of the day. On rising ground 

 in the park stands a longish thicket of evergreens 

 and underwood, with a large pond on one side, and 

 scattered throughout it a good number of old oaks 

 and elms. Behind the pond come the gardens and 

 the house, so there is no fear of the birds going that 

 way. Consequently one gun is posted at the other 

 side, and the rest of us are formed in double line at 

 the end. The beat begins. At first it is a bit slow 

 for the second line of guns, but soon the birds come 

 thicker and thicker, and all, as Jefferies^ says, is 

 "smoke, fire, and slaughter." My cartridges are out, 

 and I have to borrow a couple of handfuls to go on 

 with, and still the birds come swinging over the high 

 tree-tops. At last the fire slackens and dies out, 

 * "Amateur Poacher." 



