38 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



and then to give advice on matters arising out of the 

 estate. He can watch the young broods of pheasants 

 still, and superintend the mixing of their food : his 

 trembling hand, upon the back of which the corded 

 sinews are so strongly marked now the tissue has 

 wasted, and over which the blue veins wander, can 

 set a trap when the vermin become too venturesome. 

 He is yet a terror to evil-doers, and in no jot 

 abates the dignity of more vigorous days ; so that 

 the superannuated ancients whose task it is to sweep 

 the fallen leaves from the avenue and the walks near 

 the great house, or to weed the gravel drive in feeble 

 acknowledgment of the charitable dole they receive, 

 fall to briskly when they see him coming with besom 

 and rusty knife wherewith to ' uck ' out the springing 

 grass. He daily gossips with the head gardener 

 (nomind), as old or older than himself; but his 

 favourite haunt is a spot on the edge of a fir planta- 

 tion where lies a fallen ' stick ' of timber. Here, shel- 

 tered by the thick foliage of the fir and the hawthorn 

 hedge at his back from the wind, he can sit on the 

 log, and keep watch over a descending slope of 

 meadow bounding the preserves and crossed by foot- 

 paths, along which loiterers may come. His sturdy 

 son now sways the sceptre of ash over the old woods, 

 and other descendants are employed about the place. 



