LETTER XIII. 139 



hunting and bye-days. I had one keeper only, who was 

 not allowed to carry a gun, and his chief business was to 

 look to the earths, and keep up the wood bounds. Under 

 this man, foxes, pheasants, and other game increased pari 

 passu. In one season I had no less than four litters of 

 foxes bred and reared in an extent of small coverts, not 

 exceeding a hundred acres. Twenty or thirty hares 

 might be counted out at feed in one field, as many phea- 

 sants, and rabbits innumerable. 



When the kennels were removed, these coverts fell 

 into other hands, and their present possessor, as a novus 

 homo generally does, when first becoming a landed pro- 

 prietor, commenced a vigorous war (with the assistance 

 of a man, said to be a superior keeper) against vermin 

 of every description, foxes included, by trapping and 

 poisoning, right and left indiscriminately, all that came 

 in his way. Neither did he stop short in shooting his 

 neighbours' dogs, either, if they dared to set foot on the 

 land of his high mightiness. He very nearly succeeded 

 in poisoning a poor man also, who, finding a part of a 

 rabbit laid upon the ground where he was working, took 

 it up, with the intention of carrying it home for his 

 supper; when, having fortunately some suspicions in his 

 mind, he threw it to his dog instead, which, soon after 

 eating it, fell dead at his feet. And what has been the 

 result ? that there is about one-third, or not so much, 

 game in these woods, after such grand proceedings, as 

 when occupied by myself, with only a woodman to look 

 after them. 



It is the fashion in the present day to abuse the game, 

 and large game preservers, as the cause of supplying the 

 county gaols with inmates. It must be admitted that 



