218 KEMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



gin ; and my lake proved so safe and quiet a place 

 that the fowl were confirmed in their haunt of it. 

 The first day I shot on it, I forget the bag, but it was 

 under twenty, of the varieties of the fowl I have 

 named ; and ever after that an occasional day at the 

 lake was available. I have often been amused at a 

 trick we used to play the Penruddock fowl, which 

 I hope might be forgiven, considering what a jubilee 

 they always had from their owner, and that they 

 always fed in our river at night. Mr. John Wynd- 

 ham and myself used to agree on a day on which we 

 Avould shoot the river, as we were joint proprietors 

 of it, and on the morning of that day he used some- 

 times to call and pay Mr. Penruddock a visit, when 

 all he had to do was to be transfixed for a moment 

 in passing by the beauty and quantity of wildfowl 

 he saw. Had he passed on nothing would have 

 occurred ; but if he stood but for a few moments in 

 admiration, the strangers of the flock became un- 

 easy, but not much scared, just sufliciently so to 

 make them take flight and drop in the river below. 

 We then honestly sent them home again, taking a 

 tithe by way of payment for the trout spawn they 

 devoured. The geese from the lake at Fonthill used 

 also to feed on my land on Place Farm, and I have fre- 

 quently, with a number one or a number three car- 

 tridge, bagged a couple at a time as they came over 

 my head on their return. The sports of Teffont were 

 very well, but the house was most uncomfortable, and 

 my landlord, to use a mild expression, so odd, that, 

 having legally quashed the lease on account of my 

 landlord's infractions, I left Wiltshire, and took 

 Beacon Lodge of Lord Stuart De Rothesay, where I 

 have continued for the last fourteen years. 



