A TAIL OF WOE. 15 



neighbourhood to do the same. Unluckily, at my 

 father's death, there were no reservations made as 

 to sporting, and this man, therefore, for a time, 

 could do as he pleased. He rented the park and 

 every inch of land around the covers. Not content 

 with shooting fairly, on finding that he, himself, 

 could hit nothing in motion, I have seen him stop 

 his plough when the pheasants, in line, had been 

 following the furrow to pick up insects, or any- 

 thing he turned up, and, resting his gun on the 

 stilts, fire among them, killing and wounding, at one 

 shot, a considerable number. Such conduct as this 

 was not likely to be tolerated by us, and I set my 

 wits to work to be even with him. A considerable 

 flock of sheep of his being in the park, while he 

 was in church one Sunday, my brother Moreton 

 and myself captured the bellman of the flock, and 

 with about six feet of whip-cord fastened a dead 

 rook to his tail, and then let him go. Away he 

 went after the flock, who, while we were thus tail- 

 ing their leader, had collected, and were standing 

 some way off gazing at us. As soon as they saw him 

 coming at best pace, with what seemed to be a little 

 black dog after him, away they went, and round and 

 round the park the chase continued, the bellman, 

 haunted by the rook, gregariously pursuing, with his 

 friends all flying his presence because of the thing he 

 brought behind him. Ditch after ditch, at length, 

 were full of sheep that in their terror had become 

 cast on their backs, and the bellman, a stout black- 

 faced Southdown, was reduced to a trot. All at once 

 he seemed resolved to face his pursuer ; and having no 

 wind for further flight, and not much of a flock left to 

 run after, old woolley-sides turned to bay, and making 



