Farmer Willums Place. 177 



CHAPTER X. 



FARMER WILLUM'S PLACE : SNIPE SHOOTING. 



ONE October morning towards the end of the month, 

 Orion and I started to beat over Redcote Farm upon 

 the standing invitation of the occupier. There was a 

 certainty of sport of some kind, because the place had 

 remained almost unchanged for the last century. It 

 is ' improvement ' that drives away game and necessi- 

 tates the pheasant preserve. 



The low whitewashed walls of the house were of a 

 dull yellowish hue from the beating of the weather. 

 They supported a vast breadth of thatched roof drilled 

 by sparrows and starlings. Under the eaves the 

 swallows' nests adhered, and projecting shelves were 

 fixed to prevent any inconvenience from them. Some 

 of the narrow windows were still darkened with the 

 black boarding put up in the days of the window 

 tax. 



In the courtyard a number of stout forked stakes 

 N 



