-GEOUSE SHOOTING. 23 



further than by hinting, that, as a general principle, 

 they use circumspection before concluding their 

 bargains. The historian, Joe Miller, relates that a 

 party who purchased an estate warranted to contain 

 a hanging wood, found a gibbet in one of the fields. 

 We imagine a good many who have taken Highland 

 quarters on the assurance that they would furnish 

 red game, discovered that the supply was chiefly con- 

 fined to the carroty gillies that go with the ground in 

 capacity of markers lucus a non lucendo. 



Grouse shooting, according to act of parliament, 

 commences in Scotland on the 12th, and in Ireland 

 on the 20th of August. Of course there are sea- 

 sons in which the packs are more mature in June 

 than in others in October ; but that has nothing to 

 do with the matter : we are speaking of an act of 

 parliament, which, of course, has nothing to do with 

 reason or common sense. Those who take time 

 by the forelock, and begin at the commencement of 

 the season, have light work of it like all who have 

 to deal with novices particularly of the feathered 

 family. We will imagine our beginner, in both 

 senses of the word, has reached his quarters in good 

 time as becomes a sportsman. I do not mean by 

 good time the peep of morning, eight or nine 

 o'clock is quite early enough ; give the birds time to 

 eat their breakfasts, or they are off before you get 

 within visiting distance. In contradistinction to the 

 maxim, " the early bird gets the first worm," it is 

 notorious that he who uncouples his dogs among the 



