42 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



peaty, being formed from the decomposed vegetation of 

 years ; while the boughs against which the passer-by 

 must push fly back and send a cold shower down the 

 neck. In fog as well as in rain the trees drip con- 

 tinuously ; the boughs condense the mist and it falls 

 in large drops — a puff of wind brings down a 

 tropical shower. 



In warm moist weather the damp steam that floats 

 in the atmosphere is the reverse of pleasant. But 

 a thaw is the worst of all, when the snow congealed on 

 the branches and against the trunks on the windward 

 side, slips and comes down in slushy, icy fragments, 

 and the south-west or south-east wind, laden with 

 chilling moisture, penetrates to the very marrow. 

 Even Robin Hood is recorded to have said that he 

 could stand all kinds of weather with impunity, except 

 the wind which accompanies a thaw. Wet grass has 

 a special faculty for saturating leather. The very 

 boots with which you may wade into a stream up 

 to your ankles in perfect comfort are powerless to 

 keep out the dew or raindrops on the grass-blades. 

 The path of the keeper is by no means always strewn 

 with flowers. 



Probably the number of keepers has much increased 

 of recent years, since the floodtide of commercial 

 prosperity set in. . Every successful merchant naturally 



