JANUARY 35 



that their motives were misunderstood, and that they 

 were suspected of having misgivings of their ability to 

 hit such small objects. To the Demarch therefore fell 

 the lot to approach and fire, which he did with great 

 eagerness, but without effect. 



Progress was resumed. In the distance appeared our 

 rendezvous, a large wood at the foot of the mountains, 

 just under the hill- village of Marmagnano, and the ground 

 began to look more gamey. Three wild geese rose far out 

 of shot from a swampy meadow, and a hare moved out 

 of some rushes after we had left the highroad and were 

 driving across the open plain. 



The first ceremony on arriving was an excellent dejeuner 

 a la fourchette, spread on the short turf in the bright warm 

 sunshine. There were six regular guns two Turkish 

 gentlemen, two Greeks, and two Englishmen; but in 

 addition nearly all the beaters, of whom there were a 

 score or more, were armed with fowling-pieces of sorts. 

 It was a pretty scene: the bivouac, the groups of 

 romantically dressed peasants, the excited dogs, the 

 picketed horses. The wood was very thick copse, of 

 great extent, and containing some magnificent plane- 

 trees, oaks, and black poplars. The defect of Greek 

 scenery, as a rule, is the want of trees : those that are 

 allowed to stand are cruelly maltreated the hard-wood 

 being lopped and hacked for fuel, the firs being gashed 

 and bled to the verge of death for resin, with which the 

 Greeks love to spoil their excellent wine. It is therefore 

 a great treat to get into a bit of real woodland, and the 

 russet oaks and silvery poplar stems towered nobly against 

 the blue mountain background. 



It was not, let it be confessed, without some qualms of 



