The Gamekeeper at Home. 



The keeper will tell you that it used to be set up 

 in the corner of the gardens and orchard belonging to 

 the great house, and which in the pre-policemen days 

 were almost nightly robbed. He thinks there were 

 quite as many such traps set in the gardens just out- 

 side the towns as ever there were in the woods and 

 preserves of the country proper. He recollects but 

 one old man (a mole-catcher) who actually had expe- 

 rienced in his youth the sensation of being caught ; he 

 went lame on one foot, the sinews having been cut or 

 divided. The trap could be chained to its place if 

 desired ; but, as a matter of fact, a chain was unne- 

 cessary, for no man could possibly drag this torturing 

 clog along. 



Another outhouse attached to the cottage contains 

 a copper for preparing the food for both quadrupeds 

 and birds. Some poultry run about the mead, and 

 perhaps with them are feeding the fancy foreign ducks 

 which in summer swim in the lake before the hall. 



The cottage is thatched and oddly gabled — built 

 before * improvements ' came into fashion — yet cosy ; 

 with walls three feet thick, which keep out the cold of 

 winter and the heat of summer. This is not solid 

 masonry ; there are two shells, as it were, filled up be- 

 tween with rubble and mortar rammed down hard. 



Inside the door the floor of brick is a step below 



