304 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER. 



keeper to Lord Brooke, at Easton Lodge, 

 near Dunmow. Tom had thirty-three shots 

 at rabbits and killed every time, never missing 

 a shot all day, and bringing home thirty-three 

 rabbits. That's more than I ever did. 



I have sometimes had fifteen or sixteen 

 shots and killed fifteen. There were three 

 keepers on the neighbouring estates in Wilt- 

 shire, Shires, Hobbs, and Maskelyne, who 

 used to say that Wilkins' gun had taken an 

 oath never to miss a snipe. I used to help 

 them kill snipe, when I was at Chilton, as 

 their beats adjoined mine. 



Shires was head keeper for General Popham, 

 at Littlecote ; Hobbs was keeper for the 

 Dowager Lady Cooper, at Chilton Lodge ; 

 Maskelyne was fisherman keeper for Mr. 

 Smith, at the Manor House, Ramsbury. 

 Being a dead nail on snipe, I was always 

 asked to meet them in the water mead which 

 ran all along by my ground at Chilton, near 

 Chilton House and Chilton Lodge. Chilton 

 House is where the Rev. Henry Fowle lived 

 before he went to Chute Lodge, near Andover 



