232 The Rabbit Battue. 



" Thank you, Mr. Johnson 5 I shall be very happy to come. Wont 

 you get off and have a glass of ale?" 



This was an invitation I was expecting, for I knew that they had 

 begun rabbiting in the forest, and when there was to be a greai 

 day I was always sent for. I knew what a "few rabbits" meant 

 — often thirty to forty dozen 5 and I also knew who the " old 

 lot" would include. 



I never could find out exactly whether or not Mr. Johnson 

 claimed the rabbits in our forest as his own pecuhar perquisite ; but 

 this I know, that I never by any chance called at his lodge (no 

 matter what was the season of the year), but it was sure to be, 

 '' Come in and have a glass of ale and a bit of cold rabbit-pie." 

 On one occasion, I recollect finding a bone on my plate, which I 

 was sure did not belong to a rabbit. My host saw it as soon as I 

 did, and I suppose he deemed some explanation necessary, or he 

 would hardly have told me, "Ah, I'm so glad we had that pie to- 

 day, for I shot an old heron down at the pond the other nighty and 

 I told the missus we'll try how it eats 5 for I never tasted one 

 before. What do you think of it ?" I thought it tasted wonder- 

 fully like pheasant ; but this I kept to myself. However, it was in 

 December, when pheasant, as well as heron, is in season. 



As soon as the regular season closed, and the " party staying at 

 the hall" had wound up with their last battue, Mr. Johnson ap- 

 peared to assume a temporary ownership of the forest, and sent 

 round invitations to his friends to come and join him in what 

 he used to call " a day's rabbiting, and a bit of lunch with us in the 

 forest," with quite as much form as my lord had, the month before, 

 invited his more aristocratic friends to a day's pheasant-shooting and 

 dinner on such a day. He found dogs, ammunition, &c., and stood 

 lunch : all we had to do was to kill the rabbits — which he kept. 



This was rare pohcy on his part. Of course these little gather- 

 ings were chiefly composed of his lordship's tenants, and gave each 

 one, as it were, a kind of interest in the game on the estate ; and 

 although just '"ound us, every farmer was a far better hand in the 

 saddle than mih. the gun, still they liked a bit of sport in any 



