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lodge, and though it had a good kitchen, there was no range and only 

 a bad grate ; hence we had to do the best we could in the dining- 

 room. We cooked our snipe thus, and I will back the method against 

 any other that circulates in the cranium of any cook in Christendom : 

 I drove six nails into the wooden chimney-piece in the dining-room, to 

 each of which I attached a short piece of twine, and underneath I put 

 a saucer with a piece of butter in it. To each of the strings I hung a 

 snipe, tied by the bill, regulated to let him hang just opposite a hot, 

 clear fire. I then twisted the strings, so that the birds revolved round 

 and round, and I basted them well with the pure butter well melted. 

 As soon as the trails began to drop they were taken off, and replaced 

 by another lot, which were cooked in like manner, while we discussed 

 the others in the perfection of hot juiciness. We each ate for dinner six 

 or seven snipe, with wild duck or teal to follow. 



The time I refer to was when our daily bag ran from twenty to 

 thirty brace of snipe, with several duck, teal, and widgeon. Times are 

 changed, however, and so are laws since then. Over the same ground 

 the best shot in the kingdom would not now get a quarter the number. 



If the iniquitous 10s. gun certificate and game-dealer's licence had 

 never been heard of, we should still have good shooting in many places 

 in Ireland. The first day we held the races over Williamstown Course 

 hares were so plentiful that six were killed by the crowd, and on the 

 same farm I had no difficulty in often getting my two or three brace of 

 partridge before going to my office at 9.30 a.m. Xow you might as well 

 look there for hyenas or ostriches as for hares or partridges. I got fifty 

 hares once to stock the same place for coursing, and let them all go 

 myself, every one being as strong and healthy as it was the day 

 before, when caught. I marked each by clipping off the top of the left 

 ear. Within a week nearly half of them were sold to licensed game- 

 dealers in Waterford ! The same story can be told of hundreds of other 

 places in Ireland. 



I may here remark that hares should never be turned down on strange 

 ground in the evening, for if they be, they will travel all through the 

 night in the direction of their old home whence they were taken. Hares 

 feed in the evening and early in the morning, and roam about at night, 

 never stirring from their forms in the daytime unless disturbed. There- 

 fore, the time to put them out is from an hour after daylight to noon, 

 and then in the vicinity of good covert and feeding ground. If this be 

 done they will take refuge in the former immediately, and come out to 

 the latter in the evening for food, for which they will then be ravenous. 

 There, if they are not disturbed and find the place comfortable and tlie 

 feeding good, they may remain ; but turned-down hares seldom stay 

 where they are put if the place be unenclosed. 



In my younger days selling game by the proprietors of preserves was 

 never thought of in Ireland nor was it practised much in England ; 

 in fact to do so would have been considered outr4 to a degree by 

 the great majority. Now that is all changed, and game is sold by the 

 lords of the manor as universally as are their sheep and cattle. A 



