A WILD-FOWL PRESERVE 177 



at Teffont with wattled hurdles, putting the hurdles back in the 

 plantations and pleasure-grounds just out of sight, and on the 

 water put pinioned pairs of the various fowl I had seen the 

 duck, the pochard, the widgeon, teal, and tufted duck and in 

 a short time, just at dusk, I could hear the whistling wings of 

 strangers coming to see them. The first time of hard weather, 

 when more stagnant waters were frozen, filled my little lake full 

 of fowl. Gardeners dared not sneeze, much less show themselves, 

 on the margin ; 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 Wyndham and myself used to agree on a day 

 on which we would shoot the river, as we were joint proprietors 

 of it, and on the morning of that day he used sometimes 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 wild-fowl 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 uneasy, but not much scared, 

 just sufficiently 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 frequently, with a number one or a 

 number three cartridge, 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. 



