embers, and soon produced six nondescript looking articles 

 enclosed — as they dress maintonon cutlets or red mullet — 

 in double sheets of greasy letter paper — these he incon- 

 tinently dished, and to my huge astonishment they turned 

 out to be three couple of our woodcock, which that inde- 

 fatigable varlet had picked, and baked under the ashes, 

 according to some strange idea, whether original, or bor- 

 rowed at second hand from his master, T never was en- 

 abled to ascertain. 



The man, be he whom he may, who invented that plat, 

 is second neither to Caramel nor to Ude — the exquisite 

 juicy tenderness of the meat, the preservation of the 

 gravy, the richness of the trail — by heaven! they were in- 

 imitable. 



In that sweet spot we loitered a full hour — then counted 

 our bag, which amounted already to fifty-nine cock, not 

 including those with which Tim's gastronomic art had 

 spread for us a table in the wilderness — then leaving him 

 to pack up and meet ua at the spot where we first started, 

 we struck down the stream homeward, shooting our way 

 along a strip of coppice about ten yards in breadth, 

 bounded on one side by a dry bare bank of the river, and 

 on the other by the open meadows. We of course kept 

 the verges of this covert, our dogs working down the 

 middle, and so well did we manage it, that when we 

 reached the wagon, just as the sun was setting, we num- 

 bered a hundred and twenty-five birds bagged, besides 

 two which were so cut by the shot as to be useless, six 

 which we had devoured, and four or five which we lost 

 in spite of the excellence of our retrievers. When we 

 got home again, although the Dutchman was on the spot, 

 promising us a quarter race upon the morrow, and press- 

 ing earnestly for a rubber to-night, we were too much 

 used up to think of anything but a good supper and an 

 early bed. 



