322 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



when the fact of its being cocked was noticed by a clergjman, 

 who was walking by his side. To the remark, " Your gun is 

 cocked, my lord ! " the reply was, " D — n me, sir, it's the first 

 thing I do of a morning in my dressing-room ! " Again, there 

 is a story told of another noble lord, who had invited a clergy- 

 man to shoot with him, which is rather funny. Addressing his 

 hearers, his lordship said, " Now, gentlemen, mind, look out ! 

 there is a pied pheasant, the only one I have in the cover we 

 are going to beat, so mind you, looh out ! " He was not a man 

 who permitted much question on such occasions ; so, if any of the 

 party had felt a little at a loss as to how they were to under- 

 stand this caution to " look out for the pied pheasant," no one 

 dared ask for further information, and the day's shooting began. 

 They had scarcely been in the cover a minute when bang went 

 a gun, and the parson's voice, raised to a pitch of bold hilarity 

 by the successful deed which was at once to raise him in his 

 lordship's favour, was heai'd crying out, "All right, my lord, 

 I've got him ! A beautiful bird ! An almost white cock- 

 pheasant with scarce a coloured feather about him ; here he 

 is ! " Saying which the reverend gentleman came skipping over 

 the brambles, and without seeing his mistake, deposited the 

 sacred trophy in his entertainer's lap. Had the thorns and 

 entanglement of the cover permitted him to look up, he would 

 have seen that he was addressing a livid statue, and that he had 

 better have run home to the precincts of his own altar than 

 approach his noble friend. He was soon brought to a tnie 

 insight of the state of things by hearing the livid statue thus 

 apostrophise his hearers: " Here! come here, all of you ; somebody 

 take tliis man's gun from him, and, sir, I — I — I, sir — go home." 

 A circumstance very similar to this happened to my friend 

 Mr. William Knyvet, of whose exploits I have previously made 

 mention. He had a day's shooting, during my father's time, 

 given him at Cranford ; luckily for him he went out alone, 

 attended by the keeper William Booth. No caution was given 

 him as to what he was to shoot at, and while the keeper was 

 driving a small clump of cover he heard a pheasant rise, and the 



