PECULIAEITIES OF GOOSE-SHOOTING. 231 



<runs as beino; tlie best 1 know to make a sfoocl bao;, 

 from the wild bull in Chillingham Park, and the stag 

 on the mountains at Auchna-carrie, down to the eagle 

 and the wild swan, and other varied description of 

 strange fowl, besides wild ducks, teal, widgeon, geese, 

 woodcocks, snipes, pheasants, partridges, and hares, 

 that haunt the rivers and manors of Heron Court. 

 When wild-goose shooting is mentioned, men couple 

 it with bogs, morasses, water, or the Pontine Marshes ; 

 but at Berkeley Castle you have it in the greatest 

 perfection, clean, neat, and verdant, so that, but for 

 the coolness of the attire at that season, the finest 

 dancing master might step after them in pumps 

 and silk stockings. In addition to this, is the im- 

 mense satisfaction in knowinsj that no other o:uns 

 than those from the castle can or dare be heard in 

 the vicinity. There are geese on your own lands, 

 exceeding occasionally ten thousand, as much yours 

 as if they were roasted and on the dining-table, 

 that is, if you can get at them, and this I have no 

 doubt the three guns I have mentioned could 

 amply do. Lord Fitzhardinge, one season, bagged 

 to his own gun ninety-nine geese ; and, consider- 

 ing that, weather permitting, he hunts four days 

 a week, and shoots game on the other two, and 

 was then only at Berkeley Castle alternate months 

 throughout the winter, unless he shot on Sunday, 

 which he did not do, he had not much time, save in 

 occasional frosts, to accomplish such a collective bag. 

 Any man accustomed to any species of woodcraft, or 

 chase of wild things, whether feathered or four-footed, 

 must know that it is not anything like the most suc- 

 cessful way, always to attempt their capture or death 

 in one unvaried manner. Geese, geese though they 



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