COVERT-SHOOTING. 123 



On this occasion the host is pleased, for the totals 

 are even more than he expected, and if these amounted 

 to even four figures, what harm ? who is injured by it ? 

 Not the tenant-farmers, many of whom are out beat- 

 ing or looking on with smiling faces, and taking as 

 much pride and interest as the host himself in the 

 successful proceedings, and who, with half the neigh- 

 bourhood round, receive handsome presents of game, 

 and what else can it hurt but the proprietor's own 

 pocket ? for these battues are costly. Still, if he 

 likes to spend his money thus, employing as he does 

 a great number of persons, what harm ? 



Why, I repeat, should the Camberwell Daily 

 Calumniator wax so wroth as it records these totals ? 

 And if, after a wide distribution of gifts, the surplus 

 be sold, what harm again ? There is a large demand 

 for game. The rich merchants and manufacturers, 

 whose smart villas fringe the adjacent town, im- 

 peratively require it for their dinner parties. They 

 have no manors of their own to supply it ; they must 

 buy it, and if landed proprietors won't sell it, so 



