WARWICK WOODLANDS. IT 



of ten"iers, mixed with the deep bay of two or three huge 

 heavy foxhounds which had been lounging' about in tlie 

 shade, and a peal of joyous welcome from all beings, 

 quadruped or bipe<l, within hearing. 



"Hulloa ! boys!" cried a deep hearty voice from within 

 the bar-room. "Hulloa! boys! Walk in! walk in! Wliat 

 the eternal h — 11 are you about there?" 



"Well, we did walk into a large neat bar-room, with a 

 bright hickory log crackling upon tlie hearth-stone, a large 

 round table in one corner, covered with draught-boards, 

 and old newspapers, among which showed pre-eminent the 

 "Spirit of the Times'' ; a range of pegs well stored with 

 great-coats, fishing-rods, whips, game-bags, spurs and ev- 

 ery other stray appurtenance of sporting, gracing one end ; 

 while the other was more gaily decorated by the well fur- 

 nished bar, in the right-hand angle of which my eye de- 

 tected in an instant a handsome nine pound double barrel, 

 an old six foot Queen Ann's tower-musket, and a long 

 smooth-bored rifle ; and last, not least, outstretched at easy 

 length upon the counter of his bar, to the left-hand of the 

 gangway — the right side being more suitably decorated 

 with tumblers, and decanters of strange compounds — 

 supine, with fair round belly towering upward, and head 

 voluptously pillowed on a heap of wagon cushions— lay in 

 his gloiy — but no! hold! — the end of a chapter is no place 

 to introduce — Tom Draw!* 



*It is almost a painful task to read over and revise this chapter. 

 The "twenty years ago" is too keenly visible to the mind's eye in 

 every line. Of the persons mentioned in its pages, more than one 

 have passed away from our world forever : and even the natural 

 features; of rock, wood, and river, in other countries so vastly more 

 enduring than their perishable owners, have been so much altered by 

 the march of improvement. Heaven save the mark ! that the travel- 

 ler up the Erie railroad, will certainly not recognise in the descrip- 

 tion of the vale of Ramapo, the hill-sides all denuded of their leafy 

 honors, the bright streams dammed by unsightly mounds and changed 

 into foul stagnant pools, the snug country tavern deserted for a huge 

 hideous barnlike depot, and all the lovely sights and sweet harmo- 

 nies of nature defaced and drowned by the deformities consequent on 

 a railroad, by the disgusting roar and screech of the steam-engine. 



One word to the wise I Let no man be deluded by the following 

 pages, into the setting forth for Warwick now in search of sporting. 

 These things are strictly as they were twenty years ago! Mr. Seward, 

 in his zeal for the improvement of Chalauque and Cattaraugus, has 

 certainly dp^troyed the cnck-shooting of Orange county. A sports- 

 man's benison to him therefor! 



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