220 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



where Mr. Drax had one. I did so for the purpose of 

 proving to him that it was possible to have foxes, hares, 

 and pheasants in any amount together when the soil 

 did not suit game, and, therefore, at such a place at 

 Charborouo-h, where the soil was most favourable to 

 game, the fact of the show of game and foxes was more 

 easily attainable at Charborough Park than at Berkeley 

 Castle. All that was required was, that the squire of the 

 one should be as resolute to accomplish it as the peer 

 of the other. On one of the days Mr. Drax was out at 

 Berkeley we killed nine foxes. To be sure, there is 

 this to be said, that the number of acres at Berkeley 

 Castle outstretch those at Charborough Park ; but, if 

 Charborough is the extent I have always understood 

 it to be, and, in fact, have seen it to be, there is no 

 reason why ^Ir. Drax should not have any quantity 

 of game and foxes on his immediate acres. A fox 

 certainly requires a wider circle of friends, and per- 

 haps the Castle, from hereditary respect for the battle- 

 ments, had the advantage ; but the hare and pheasant 

 never have and do not require more friends than the 

 lord of the soil, as, in all counties, all men kill 

 whatever Heaven sends on their lands, and the pro- 

 prietor of thirty acres, down to an acre and a half, 

 invariably deems himself right in exterminating all 

 that comes within his reach, without contributing an 

 egg or leveret to the stock of his neighbours. When 

 1 first knew Mr. Drax he had a lot of men in his 

 employ called gamekeepers, but, on the whole extent 

 of his acreage, I could not have gone out and killed 

 twenty head of pheasants and hares ; and this in the 

 face of my father's assertion, that I remember hearing 

 as a boy, " that take it in any way Charborough 

 Park," in the time of my grandmother (who was a 



