832 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



the pewits not to be much afraid of me when I 

 approach their nests or their young; and thus I 

 liave turned a miserable waste of l^lack, bad, and 

 unburnablc peat into that which, by comparison 

 with what it was before, has become, so to speak, 

 ^'a garden of Eden" — -at' least it is so, in my 

 retired way of living, to me. 



It is not until May, or ^ ' the merry month of 

 May," as it has long been called, that the English 

 sportsman can 1)e said to rest from the saddle, 

 although tlie gun and greyhound ought to have 

 been laid aside on or after the 1st of February. 

 The death of a May fox should be the signal for 

 preparing to ^^summer the hunter" and rest the 

 hounds; and up to the 1st of May, though many 

 packs of foxhounds ]iad ceased to hunt, the salmon 

 rod always affords occupation of the most brilliant 

 piscatory kind. 



Well, then, all sport but fishing being over, let 

 us see the sort of life that can be led by a liard 

 rider and a good sliot when the horn, tlie cheer, 

 and the breech-loader are Inished, and lie no longer 

 cares for, or has not money at command to enjoy, 

 the London season. 



The sweet violets have long perfumed the air; 



