WARWICK WOODLANDS. 26 



cried Tom, as the two setters bounded into the room, joy- 

 ful at their release — '''good dog! good Chase!" feeding 

 them with great lumps of beef. 



"Avast! there Tom — have done with that," cried Harry; 

 "you'll have the dogs so full that they can't run. 



"Why, how'd you like to hunt all day without your 

 breakfast — hey f 



"Here, lads! here, lads! wh-e-ew!" and followed by his 

 setters, with his gun under his arm, away went Harry; 

 and catching up our pieces likewise, we followed, nothing 

 loth, Tim bringing up the rear with the two spaniels fret- 

 ting in their couples, and a huge black thorn cudgel, 

 which he had brought, as he informed me, "all t' way 

 from bonny Cawoods." 



It was as beautiful a morning as ever lighted sportsmen 

 to their labors. The dew, exhaled already from the long 

 grass, still glittered here and there upon the shrubs and 

 trees, though a soft fresh south-western breeze was shak- 

 ing it thence momently in bright and rustling showers; the 

 sun, but newly risen, and as yet partially enveloped in the 

 thin gauze-like mists so frequent at that season, was cast- 

 ing shadows, seemingly endless, from every object that 

 intercepted his low rays, and chequering the whole land- 

 scape with that play of light and shade, which is the love- 

 liest accessory to a lovely scene; and lovely was the scene, 

 indeed, as e'er was looked upon by painter's or by poet's 

 eye — how then should humble prose do justice to it ? 



Seated upon the first slope of a gentle hill, midway of 

 the great valley heretofore described, the village looked 

 due south, toward the chains of moimtains, which we had 

 crossed on the preceding evening, and which in that direc- 

 tion bounded the landscape. These ridges, cultivated half- 

 way up their swelling sides, which lay mapped out before 

 our eyes in all the various beauty of orchards, yellow 

 stubbles, and rich pastures dotted with sleek and comely 

 cattle, were rendered yet more lovely and romantic, by 

 here and there a woody gorge, or rocky chasm, channelling 

 their smooth flanks, and carrying down their tributary 

 rills, to swell the main stream at their base. Toward 

 these we took our way by the same road which we had 

 followed in an opposite direction on the previous night — 

 but for a short space only — for having crossed the stream, 

 by the same bridge which we had passed on entering the 



