14 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



white seemed to signal the bovine fleet for a sail : up went every 

 peak, and, tails on end, they tossed and scudded over the hedges 

 horses after hounds could not have gone better. They were 

 found, the following morning, all over the vale ; with the poor 

 goat, who had faithfully followed in their wake as far as he could, 

 unharmed, but anchored or hung up in his white sheet in a hedge 

 behind them. That farmer left off his tricks, and for the remainder 

 of his days refrained from his illegal and mean practices. 



A farmer, not a tenant of ours, but whose land adjoined the 

 outside of the preserve, left a large barley field, as near to the 

 manor as possible, standing till the first of October, in order 

 to decoy from thence both pheasants and hares. This, in our 

 boyish love of game, was not to be put up with ; and the night 

 before shooting we resolved to drive the standing barley. Some 

 suspicion existing that the farmer would put a watch on his 

 land, shirts were put on over our jackets, and each wore a hideous 

 mask, and carried, in case of need, a stout cudgel. Grumbo, 

 who was always ready to hunt or fight, of course accompanied 

 me. At about midnight the revel commenced in the corn. We 

 had not been setting the pheasants flying long, when, right 

 under our feet, up jumped two labourers, and, shouting out to 

 us, " We knows ye," they looked on our masks, and took to their 

 heels like mad. They had some distance to run for aid, so we 

 drove the barley, and departed. 



This same farmer, in a subsequent season, left some corn 

 adjoining his potatoes, close to his house, to attract the phea- 

 sants. As usual with us then, this was a signal for war. So we 

 sent for my brother Augustus, whose person was not known, and 

 for Captain Claxton, R.N., to shoot in his corn at daylight on 

 the first of October, driving all towards home. Knowing they 

 would be ordered off directly, their directions were of course to 

 obey ; but, as they began on the farthest side from us, to come 

 off the longest way, and, in fact, to drive it all as we desired. 

 Resolved to see the fun, I ascended into an elm tree which stood 

 on the enemy^s bounds, but within a few yards of the manor. 

 I shall never forget it. The tree in which I sat must have lost 



