60 A Sportsman at Large 



beagles of mine elsewhere. They were destined to get me 

 into further trouble as related in an earlier book of my 

 reminiscences. In later years Canon's passed into the pos- 

 session of my club-friend, Sir Arthur Du Cros. He had the 

 Great Lake drained and all the coarse fish removed (I am 

 told there were three tons of enormous carp and tench among 

 other species), with a view to stocking it with trout. Some 

 ill-advised friend persuaded him to introduce " rainbows," 

 with the usual and inevitable consequence that, in a year's 

 time, they had entirely disappeared. 



Then I offered to go into the matter thoroughly, guaranteeing 

 that the lake should become a perfect paradise for the angler. 



Of course, my plan was the stocking with three and two- 

 year-old brown trout, seeing to it that a plentiful supply of 

 snails, leeches, minnows and nymphida was kept up. 



At first Sir Arthur concurred, but business took him out of 

 England, so I had no opportunity of conferring with him 

 personally. Meanwhile I had made a careful investigation of 

 the water, but quite failed to ascertain that there were fish 

 of any kind therein, though I did not try with my rod. 



When Sir Arthur returned, he informed me that it was 

 not his intention to retain possession of Canon's Park. 



So that was that ! 



After my beloved father's death, my brother Irwin became 

 tenant for life of Moat Mount, and so he remained until his 

 death, September, 1922. Immediately he came into posses- 

 sion, he set about game-preserving in orthodox and quite 

 liberal fashion. He employed experienced keepers and raised 

 a large head of pheasants. The rabbits increased and 

 multiplied in surprising fashion, until at last they became 

 pestiferous, and then the unanswered question was how to 

 keep them down ? 



Where, in the old days we would account for half a dozen 

 bunnies in a day, we now could count our tally in figures of 

 hundreds, with long rows of pheasants laid out in gorgeous 

 array. 



These shoots became very formal affairs, and when brother 

 Irwin invited me to join in, as was his custom so to do, I be- 

 came, like a convict, a mere number ! 



