274 THE NEW FOREST 



could have done and 27 woodcocks. But two 

 days afterwards the keeper of the walk came 

 to tell me that not only was there still in the 

 covert all the woodcocks we had left, but also 

 that a fresh flight had come in. I hastily sum- 

 moned by telegraph a number of the best sports- 

 men that I thought could be got together, and 

 met those who responded on the following 

 morning. We found all the woodcocks we had 

 left on the previous occasion, and a few more. 

 I placed the guns on the rides and open spaces 

 solely for the woodcocks, just as I had placed 

 them on the previous day solely for the rabbits. 



We got 41 woodcocks, and incidentally some 

 30 rabbits. I had previously arranged to shoot 

 the rabbits in Sloden early in the following week, 

 and it yielded, besides some 130 rabbits, 20 

 woodcocks more, making 88 woodcocks killed in 

 three days comprised within a single week. I do 

 not think this record has been often beaten in 

 England at any rate in the southern counties. 



But, alas! we could not keep up this sort of 

 shooting. The coverts quickly grew up, and became 

 draughty under the trees on the ground ; our 

 good friend Sir Henry Paulet passed over to the 

 majority, and no longer supplied us with hordes of 

 his surplus rabbits to make us a day's shooting. 



In 1888, I had a day in Sloden which pro- 



