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CHAPTER X. 



" Where in tlio shallow stream the roaches play, 

 And stony fragments stay the whiding stream, 

 And gilded pebbles at the bottom gleam, 

 Giving their yellow surface to the sun, 

 And making proud the waters as they run." Crabbe, 



Having taken TefFont manor-house, near Salisbury, 

 in Wiltshire, and reared at Harrold a great many 

 partridges and pheasants by hand, I had wicker bas- 

 kets made for them, low, and imperial-like, to fit the 

 top of a post-chaise ; and after feeding-time one night, 

 I sent my butler with them post to Teffont, at which 

 place he arrived by break of day the following morn- 

 ing-. Coops being in readiness, hens, with their broods, 

 were put out on the lawn, with scarce the loss of a 

 bird. I had appointed a keeper, whom I had in my 

 service at Harrold, as under-man, to look after the 

 game until such time as I came to reside. His strict 

 orders were, to preserve Mr. Wyndham's foxes, and 

 to shoot at nothing but the common vermin. How 

 he obeyed these orders remains to be seen. Soon 

 after the arrival of the young game, a fox paid the 

 coops a visit, and at once killed thirty pheasants, be- 

 sides partridges, the greater portion of which he buried 

 about the flower-beds. On finding that foxes neigh- 

 boured me so close, I borrowed an idea from a keeper 

 at Berkeley Castle, and lit a lantern or two, sus- 

 pending them by a string, so that they swung with 

 any airs that might stir in the night ; and this is, short 

 of a direct fence with hurdles, the only effective 



