20G REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



" two pounds for the loss of his wife's peace of mind 

 in that Mrs. Berkeley had deprived her of a pet 

 canary-bird during the time of our residence at Tef- 

 font." The fact as to the bird was this ; — we found 

 it there on our arrival in a cage, hung up in the con- 

 servatory, forgotten, and nearty dead from famine: 

 Mrs. Berkeley took great care of the poor little thing, 

 and it recovered and became much attached. The' 

 bird undoubtedly did not originally belong to us ; so 

 I returned it with the following note : — 



" Sir, — I return you the canary-bird ; but as to 



your charge for the loss of Mrs. 's peace of mind 



on this occasion, that is absurd : considering the 

 time you have been married, she could not have had 

 any to lose." 



When, in the first instance, I came down to look 

 at his place, not taking anything for granted, an 

 application was made by me to see a net drawn 

 in the river to ascertain if there were any trout 

 in it. He sent his men with me, and I convinced 

 myself that there were trout. In the accounts he 

 tried to impose on me ; I found the payment for 

 the day of his men set down to my charge. So an- 

 noying was this man's conduct that I confess to the 

 folly of having entertained the wish to give him what 

 is vulgarly called " a bit of one's mind : " what that 

 might have been followed up by. Heaven only knows. 

 He lived in his cottage, to furnish which he had 

 abstracted from the manor-house the furniture he had 

 leased to me, and I knew by his tracks that at times 

 he Avalked about my woods, and strongly suspected 

 that he took his perambulations, in summer, when he 

 heard my dinner-bell ring. I dined at three o'clock, 

 and generally fished after dinner. To give him a meet- 



