WILD-GOOSE SHOOTING 187 



days with my greyhounds. On any day during the period I 

 have mentioned Lord Fitzhardinge has it in his power to say 

 " he will go goose-shooting," as much as he has it in his power 

 to determine he will pheasant shoot, or anything else. At times, 

 and in hard weather, the geese number many thousands, and the 

 noise they make then when they rise is astonishing. They get 

 used to the shepherds or cow-herds, and to the under-keepers or 

 " runners, 1 ' as they are locally called, and will let them come 

 within forty or fifty yards of them ; and, on horseback in a red 

 coat, I myself have ridden among them in about that distance, 

 or certainly within eighty yards. A very strange sight it is to 

 see on those rich grazing meadows, which carry immense droves 

 of cattle, thousands of wild-geese mingled with cows and oxen, 

 and often have I longed to be allowed to stalk them with what 

 in Pool Harbour would be termed a great shoulder-gun ; oh, 

 what a sweep might in that way be had at them ! I am almost 

 afraid to say what I think, supposing the day to be favourable, 

 and the geese in what is called "good humour 1 ' for it, Lord 

 Malmsbury, Lord Ossulston, and myself could kill. I mention 

 their guns as being the best I know to make a good bag, from 

 the wild bull in Chillingham Park, and the stag on the moun- 

 tains at Auchnacarry, 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 immense satisfaction 

 in knowing that no other guns 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 



