FERRETING. 183 



corner of a meadow, where the angle made by meeting 

 hedges protects them from the wind, crouching round the 

 embers of the fire which boils the pot and kettle. This 

 influx of strangers is not without its attendant anxiety to 

 the keeper, who looks round now and then to see what is 

 going on. 



Despite the ill-will in their hearts, the labourers are 

 particularly civil to the keeper ; he is, in fact, a consider- 

 able employer of labour not on his own account but in 

 the woods and preserves. He can often give men a job 

 in the dead of winter, when farm work is scarce and the 

 wages paid for it are less ; such as hedge-cutting, mending 

 the gaps in the fences, cleaning out ditches or the water- 

 courses through the wood. 



Then there is an immense amount of ferreting to be 

 done, and there is such an instinctive love of sport in every 

 man's breast, that to assist in this work is almost an ambi- 

 tion ; besides which, no doubt the chances afforded of an 

 occasional private ' bag ' form a secret attraction. One 

 would imagine that there could be but little pleasure in 

 crouching all day in a ditch, perhaps ankle-deep in ice-cold 

 water, with flakes of snow driving in the face, and fingers 

 numbed by the biting wind as it rushes through the bare 

 hawthorn bushes, just to watch a rabbit jump out of a hole 

 into a net, and to break his neck afterwards. Yet so it is ; 

 and some men become so enamoured of this slow sport as 

 to do nothing else the winter through ; and as of course 



