CH. XXVIII. PRESERVING GAME. 133 



his ground, whether dressed in a fustian jacket and 

 leather leggings, in a rusty suit of black, or in a 

 blue swallow-tail with gilt buttons. By watching 

 unseen an idler of this sort, a keeper may fre- 

 quently find out some projected manoeuvre against 

 his pheasants and partridges. 



There has been of late a great cry out against 

 game and game-laws, gamekeepers and game- 

 preservers. In fact, the mere word " game " is 

 sufficient to excite the bilious indignation of half 

 the newspapers in the United Kingdom, and more 

 especially of those whose claims to popularity are 

 founded on the loudness and virulence of their 

 abuse of what they term " the aristocracy of the 

 kingdom." 



I am very far from being an advocate for carry- 

 ing out the system of preserving game to the extent 

 which is frequently done, where woods as full of 

 pheasants as a poultry-yard is of chickens afford no 

 real sport, and where, instead of the amusement of 

 hunting for and finding your game, your only em- 

 ployment is the mere act of shooting them, the 

 birds and hares being as tame and as easy to kill 

 as so many domestic fowls. At the same time, if 

 proprietors like to go to the expense and trouble 

 of keeping innumerable pheasants and hares, I 

 cannot see why they should not be allowed to 



