14 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



made to do everything. There are many qualities in 

 animals, in which they are supposed by the vulgar to 

 be deficient, but which are only inert for the want of 

 being properly called forth. Whipping and ill-usage 

 will not bring such gifts to light ; it can only be done 

 by kindness and example. 



At the time that I possessed Grumbo, my brother 

 Moreton and myself preserved the game at Cranford ; 

 and for the size of the covers and estate, no place had 

 such a stock of pheasants and hares. It was but a 

 thousand acres in all, on the outside of which Brent- 

 ford, Isleworth, Twickenham, and indeed London, 

 furnished a certificated set of marauders, to destroy 

 all living things that did not return home to our 

 covers before the 1st of September. 



At break of day, on the 1st of September, for an 

 liour there was a running fire, indeed — 



" A squadron's charge eacli leveret's heart rlismayed, 

 On every cover fired a bold brigade." 



To remedy this evil, we drove the outskirts in, so 

 soon as the gathering of the corn would permit us ; 

 and on the 1st of September I always went forth and 

 began to bag every hare and partridge I could get 

 near, at break of day. During the preservation of 

 the game, of course, we occasionally met with some 

 difficulties. In the first instance, an old farmer 

 and tenant, who had rented for years under my 

 family, and to whom my father advanced the first 

 twenty pounds he ever had in hand to begin with, 

 after having made by the farm a very large fortune, 

 qualified, and with a certificate, on the last season 

 of holding his land, not only shot at the game him- 

 self, but invited " the tagrag and bobtail " of the 



