64 HUNTING. 



matter ; or of finding himself fast in a neglected rabbit trap, 

 the most serious case of all, requiring instant amputation by his 

 own teeth of the imprisoned limb ; but these accidents he 

 generally debits in his life's ledger as the drawbacks inseparable 

 from a nobly selfish career, so long as he is free, as in all 

 well-regulated countries he is free, from fear of poison or 

 other malicious conspiracy against his existence. 



For the rest, who is there in these troublous times that 

 enjoys such complete immunity from the universal depression, 

 as the ' thief o' the world,' the chartered freebooter of our fields 

 and forests ? A certain amount of deprivation he may indeed 

 have suffered from the Hares and Rabbits Bill, when it first 

 came into operation, but he soon learned to recoup himself 

 by increased raids upon pheasant preserves, or poultry yards, 

 leaving the M.F.H. and the hunt fund on the one part, the 

 keepers and the farmers on the other, to adjust their differences 

 as best they could. 



Broadly speaking, his hand is against every man and no 

 man's hand is, without due notice, against him. Hunting days 

 excepted, he parcels out the twenty-four hours after the manner 

 of most predatory animals, even after the fashion of the man 

 about town ; the nights he devotes to refreshment, plunder, 

 and love, the days to the luxury of rest and sleep, being ex- 

 tremely fastidious as to the warmth and dryness of his bed- 

 room. Of course it is annoying after a hard and perhaps 

 unsuccessful night's poaching to find the main earth 'put to,' 

 but is not this barring out a sufficient hint to his acute intellect 

 that he may look out for squalls on the following day ? And he 

 betakes himself with grim complacency to a hole under a hay 

 stack, the top of an ivy-covered wall, a grassy bank, the shelter 

 of a thick gorse or thorn covert, or some other well-know^n 

 coign of vantage, where experience, or the excellent advice 

 of his vixen mother has taught him that he can see without 

 being seen. 



Here, when a deep sleep comes upon him, he may be 

 occasionally taken unawares, but the due and lawful warning 



