280 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



all obstacles are removed, by a safe and sure asylum for 

 the spoil ; a premium is offered to successful theft ; the 

 perpetrator has only to escape detection in actual com- 

 mission. It is well known that these dealers consider 

 game, which is shot, scarcely worth their purchase; 

 consequently the art of snaring is assiduously cultivated ; 

 children, from their infancy, are instructed in its rudi- 

 ments ; and, long before they arrive at the wiring of a 

 hare, these embryo heroes of " a shiny night, in the 

 season of the year," are able, with horsehair nooses, 

 dexterously to effect the capture of any number of par- 

 tridges and pheasants, where there are any such objects 

 for the employment of their skill. During the breeding 

 season, in order to keep their hands well in (the occupa- 

 tion of picking and stealing) the trade which thrives 

 best with them, they industriously gain possession of 

 all the eggs within the range of a Sunday's ramble, 

 over any ground unguarded by a host of sentinels. 

 For these, also, they obtain a ready sale. Under such 

 circumstances it would be, indeed, something extraordi- 

 nary, if the diversion of shooting were to be enjoyed as 

 before. In many places where, within my memory, 

 game abounded, there would now be as reasonable 

 expectation of finding a five pound note as one head of 

 any description. The pastimes of winter, " siih Jove 

 frigido" are not so numerous as those of the summer's 

 day ; then cricket, bowels, quoits, or a hundred other 



