68 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



In the ha-ha wall of the park, which is made of loose 

 stones or without mortar, the tomtit, or titmouse, has his 

 nest. He creeps in between the stones, following the 

 crannies for a surprising distance. Near here the part- 

 ridges roost on the ground ; they like an open space far 

 from hedges, afraid, perhaps, of weasels and rats. On the 

 other side, where the wood comes up, if you watch quietly, 

 the pheasants step in lordly pride out into the grass ; so 

 that there is no place without its especial class of life. 



Perhaps, with the exception of our parks and hills, 

 there is scarcely any portion of southern England now 

 where a grand charge of cavalry could take place scarcely 

 any open champaign country fit for operations of that kind 

 with horse. In the Civil War even, how constantly we 

 read of ' lining the hedge with match,' and now with en- 

 closures everywhere the difficulty would apparently be 

 great, despite good roads. 



Park-fed beef is thought by many to be superior, 

 because the cattle run free almost wild the entire year 

 through, winter and summer, and have nothing but their 

 natural food, grass and hay : in strong contrast with the 

 bullocks shut up in stalls and forced forward with artificial 

 food. A great number of parks have been curtailed in 

 size as land became more valuable the best ground being 

 selected and hedged off for purely agricultural purposes ; 

 so that it not uncommonly happens that the actual park is 

 the poorest soil in the district, having for that reason re- 



