50 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



cannot walk through wheat or barley, and while the crops 

 are standing the partridges have too much cover. 



Many gentlemen, again, keep their pheasants till nearly 

 Christmas : October goes by frequently without a bird 

 being brought down in some preserves. Early in the new 

 year, if the weather be mild, as it has been so often latterly, 

 the birds begin to show signs of a disposition to pair off, 

 and in consequence the guns are laid aside before the cer- 

 tificates expire. So that the keeper thinks the actual 

 shooting season has grown shorter and the sport is more 

 concentrated, and taken in rushes, as it were. This causes 

 additional work and anxiety. If the family are away 

 they still require a regular and sometimes a large supply 

 of game for the table, which he has to keep up himself — 

 assistants could hardly be trusted : the opportunity is too 

 tempting. 



Though a loyal and conscientious man, in his secret 

 heart he does not like the hounds : and though of course 

 he gets tipped for stopping the earths, yet it is a labour 

 not exactly to his taste. The essence of game-preserving 

 is quiet, repose ; the characteristic of the hunt is noise, 

 horn, whoop, whip, the cry of the hounds, and the crash of 

 the bushes as the field takes a jump. Students and book- 

 worms like the quiet dust which settles in their favourite 

 haunts — the housemaid's broom is fatal to retrospective 

 thought : so the gamekeeper views the squadrons charging 

 through his cherished copses, 'poaching' up the green- 



