238 LEAVES FEOM A GAME BOOK. 



room was situated. The whole building shook, then 

 for the fraction of a second all was still, when 

 simultaneously the green baize swing door of my 

 room began to open and shut violently, the fire-irons 

 fell, the jugs and basins rattled, while my bed, a very 

 heavy old oak four-poster, hopped rapidly from side to 

 side for some fifteen or twenty times. Though I had 

 never before felt an earthquake shock, I yet recognised 

 what the somewhat alarming disturbance must be, so, 

 jumping out of bed, I threw open the window to take 

 a look at the skies, to see if they presented anything 

 unusual in their appearance. Beholding nothing strange, 

 my attention was at once drawn to the frightened 

 crowing of every cock pheasant in the place ; the noise 

 they made was not the rather hoarse "cock-cock" of 

 the to-roost-going bird, but each one gave that peculiar, 

 jerky, shrill cry of fear uttered when a fox is about. 



Then came Christmas, followed by 1897, the 5th and 

 two following days of January finding me at Knepp 

 Castle, Horsham, where, in two days, we got 48 cock 

 pheasants, 39 partridges, 15 snipe, 2 teal, 4 hares, 



