SEPTEMBER. 245 



ordinary pleasures, and, among the numerous 

 sources of a sportsman's enjoyment, the in- 

 fluence of natural beauty is one of the most 

 efficient. It may not be very apparent ; in nine 

 cases out often it may even be unknown to the 

 man himself, yet it is not the less true ; the 

 love of Nature, and the silent apprehension 

 of her beauty, is a freely-bestowed and far- 

 spreading gift. It lives in the least cultured 

 heart, as the beautiful wild-flower in the un- 

 ploughed heath. It lives often a pleasant, 

 though unperceived guest. It spreads the 

 charm of its influence when its possessor has 

 not even a name for it, yet still it lives, — and 

 they who cannot talk of it, yet feel it in its 

 sweetness and its power. The sportsman sel- 

 dom analyses his own feelings ; he cares not 

 to inquire into the causes of his taste and his 

 gratification ; but those causes exist in the se- 

 cret of his heart, and he follows their delightful 

 impulse with joy. Ask a sportsman if he be 

 an admirer of nature, — he has perhaps never 

 thought of the subject; but the moment he 

 goes forth he gives a practical testimony of his 

 attachment. Whither does he go ? To the 

 free and fresh air, to the solitude of the heath 

 and the mountain, to dells and copses, where 

 his fine dogs plunge amid the red fern and the 

 fading leaves, and the pheasant, the partridge, 



