2 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



the fir plantations begin, their dark sombre foliage hang- 

 ing over the water. A dead willow trunk thrown from bank 

 to bank forms a rude bridge ; the tree, not even squared, 

 gives little surface for the foot, and in frosty weather a 

 slip is easy. From this primitive contrivance a path, out 

 of which others fork, leads into the intricacies of the 

 covers, and from the garden a wicket-gate opens on the 

 ash wood. The elms in the meadow are full of rooks' 

 nests, and in the spring the coombe will resound with 

 their cawing ; these black bandits, who do not touch it 

 at other times, will then ravage the garden to feed their 

 hungry young, despite ingenious scarecrows. A row of 

 kennels, tenanted by a dozen dogs, extends behind the 

 cottage : lean retrievers yet unbroken, yelping spaniels, 

 pointers, and perhaps a few greyhounds or fancy breeds, 

 if ' young master ' has a taste that way. 



Beside the kennels is a shed ornamented with rows 

 upon rows of dead and dried vermin, furred and feathered, 

 impaled for their misdeeds ; and over the door a couple 

 of horseshoes nailed for luck — a superstition yet linger- 

 ing in the by-ways of the woods and hills. Within are 

 the ferret hutches, warm and dry ; for the ferret is a 

 shivery creature, and likes nothing so well as to nozzle 

 down in a coat-pocket with a little hay. Here are spades 

 and bill-hooks, twine and rabbit nets, traps, and other 

 odds and ends scattered about with the wires and 

 poacher's implements impounded from time to time. 



