224 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



mence business, to which should be added loo/. for 

 wages, food, egg baskets, &c., till the following May 

 before any returns were made. With good manage- 

 ment the returns for eggs and young pheasants 

 would produce near upon 350/. The cost of food, 

 wages, repairs, dog feeding, carriage, and other 

 expenses, would be upwards of 180/., with rent and 

 four acres of land, leaving a substantial profit for a 

 most agreeable and interesting occupation. Within 

 a radius of eight miles from Lee, upwards of 10,000 

 hen pheasants were kept, and as each hen laid during 

 the season thirty eggs, upwards of 300,000 were laid, 

 and mostly sold. The price at the commencement 

 of the season early in April would be loci. each, or 

 10s. per doz., falling to ninepence after the first 

 fortnight, and dropping a penny a week till the 

 beginning of June, then it would descend to 5^'. or 

 6rt'. each egg ; when the price was below that sum, 

 the pheasant farmers began to set the eggs them- 

 selves ; by the middle of June there was a great 

 demand for barn-door sitting hens, which made 45^. 

 to 55. each. Seventeen to nineteen eggs are placed 

 under each hen, and about twelve young ones were 

 a fair number to hatch from each sitting. There 

 would be an average of seven young pheasants 

 reared to maturity. 



Messrs. Dwight, who reside near Great Berk- 

 hamstead station, and Mr. Leno, of Co.\-Pond 

 Farm, near Hemel Hempstead, are the principal 

 dealers in that district, who take eggs from the 

 farmers, and then supply the gamekeepers of the 

 great preserves of England, and send eggs to every 



