132 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXVIII. 



this classical-looking gentleman, who seems to be 

 merely enjopng the beauty of the evening, although 

 all the while he is watching with the eyes of a lynx 

 the unsuspecting partridges as they run about 

 calling to each other preparatory to going to roost. 

 The fellow is thus able to form a pretty good guess 

 as to where half-a-dozen coveys may be netted ; 

 and he returns to his confederate, who in the mean 

 time has been equally usefully employed at some 

 alehouse or elsewhere in preparing and mending 

 the nets. " Dressing " for the occasion, as it is 

 termed, is now become by no means an uncommon 

 practice near large towns in England, and many a 

 pheasant preserve is laid waste by Methodist 

 parson-like fellows, whose black coat-pockets and 

 clerical-looking hats contain, instead of sermons, 

 neatly coiled piles of horsehair nooses ready tied 

 on a line long enough to be rim across a large 

 extent of cover, at the favourable moment when the 

 keeper, of whom they have just asked the way to 

 the rectory, has gone about his business in some 

 other direction. 



By such means as these a great part of the game 

 is obtained which we see hung up in such immense 

 quantities in all the poulterers' shops. A game- 

 keeper cannot be too curious and inquisitive as to 

 the business and movements of all strangers about 



