The Gamekeeper at Home. 



wood. The elms in the meadow are full of rooks' 

 nests, and in the spring the coombe will resound with 

 their cawing ; these black bandits, who do not touch it 

 at other times, will then ravage the garden to feed 

 their hungry young, despite ingenious scarecrows. A 

 row of kennels, tenanted by a dozen dogs, extends 

 behind the cottage: lean retrievers yet unbroken, 

 yelping spaniels, pointers, and perhaps a few grey- 

 hounds or fancy breeds, if ' young master ' has a taste 

 that way. 



Beside the kennels is a shed ornamented with rows 

 upon rows of dead and dried vermin, furred and 

 feathered, impaled for their misdeeds ; and over the 

 door a couple of horseshoes nailed for luck— a super- 

 stition yet lingering in the by-ways of the woods and 

 hills. Within are the ferret hutches, warm and dry ; 

 for the ferret is a shivery creature, and likes nothing 

 so well as to nozzle down in a coat-pocket with a little 

 hay. Here are spades and billhooks, twine and rabbit 

 nets, traps, and other odds and ends scattered about 

 with the wires and poacher's implements impounded 

 from time to time. 



In a dark corner there lies a singular-looking piece 

 of mechanism, a relic of the olden times, which when 

 dragged into the light turns out to be a man-trap. 

 These terrible engines have long since been disused — 



