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companion of my walk and the townspeople we met ; 

 and I could but smile at the rude dialect and primitive 

 manners and appearance of the generality of the inhabit- 

 ants of this isolated district — a district, devoid as it was 

 of that first step towards civilization, a stage-coach : for 

 it only communicated with the world by a boy, the sound 

 of whose horn immediately reminded me of Cowper's 

 animated description : — 



" Hark, 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge ! 

 He comes, the herald of a noisy world, 

 With spattered boots, strapt waist, and frozen locks, 

 News from all nations lumbering at his back." 



During my first visit, which was necessarily short, on 

 account of my father's business at home, I was intro- 

 duced to some of the elite of the town, which was the 

 means of my becoming acquainted with a few respectable 

 families in the Isle of Purbeck, as that part of Dorsetshire 

 is called that extends from the river Frome to the sea. 

 Their hospitality I frequently enjoyed, and in the shooting 

 season I was always a Avelcome visitor. 



I remember on one occasion shootins: with a srentleman 

 Avhose land joined on to the Encombe estate, the property 

 of the late Lord Chancellor Eldon, who had then recently 

 purchased it from the family of Mr. Moreton Pitt, at 

 which retired spot he always spent the summer vacation. 

 AYalking towards the plantation that set bounds to my 

 companion's beat, I observed at a short distance a portly- 

 looking gentleman, with a gun in his hand, a brace of 

 dogs at his feet, and an attendant close by. At the 

 moment a fine cock pheasant got up, which the gentle- 

 man fired at, but missed. The bird flying towards the 



