CHAPTER V. 



The Squire's "dodges." — The "cat-holes." — The dove-cote. — Pigeon- 

 shooting matches and mode of supplying the birds. — Waterton's 

 pigeon-house, external and internal. — Pigeon-stealers baffled. — Ar- 

 rangement of pigeon-holes. — Ladders not needed. — How to feed 

 pigeons economically. — Rats and mice in the garden. — The poison- 

 bowl and its safety. — Sunken mousetrap. — Gates and chains. — The 

 carriage-pond. — Waterton's antipathy to .scientific nomenclature. — 

 Advantage of such nomenclature as an assistant to science. — Popular 

 and local names — Colonists and their nomenclature. — Zoology gone 

 mad. — Complimentary nomenclature. — The fatal accident in the park. 

 — Waterton's last moments and death. — The last voyage and funeral. 

 — Epitaph written by himself. — The new cross, and place of burial. 



Now we must cast a glance at some of those ingenious 

 arrangements which I called "the Squire's dodges" on first 

 seeing them. 



There never was a place so full of ' dodges ' as Walton 

 Hall. The Starling Tower, described on page 67, was one 

 of them, being so arranged as to keep out rats and cats. 

 Now, Waterton wished to make a place which cats could 

 enter, but would keep out rats, and he achieved his object 

 by remembering that cats and rats could both climb, but 

 that rats were no great jumpers. 



As may be remembered, the flat stone of the starling 

 tower was just out of reach of a cat's jump, which Water- 

 ton calculated at five feet for an ordinarily active cat. So 

 he had a large, smooth, flat stone let into the wall, and an 

 aperture made in it, which he called the " cat's hole." It 



