My First Woodcock. 117 



Having seen the dogs put into some clean 

 straw, we told Lewis to come up and have his 

 dinner ; but he said he would rather have a bit 

 of something and go home for good than come 

 up afterwards. I rather fancy, after having his 

 supper the poor fellow had to go to bed for his 

 wife to get his clothes ready for the next day. 



We made ourselves extremely comfortable 

 that evening. It is certainly almost worth 

 while getting wet to enjoy the luxury of a dry 

 suit of tweed or flannel ; and if we did not 

 enjoy our coursed hare that evening may I 

 never see another. 



After dinner we had in our spaniels, and of 

 course talked over the events of the dav, and 

 could not but come to the conclusion that, with 

 fair shooting, we ought at least to have killed 

 double the number of cocks, as we had seen 

 more than twenty ; but then the reader must 

 remember that w^e were only young hands at 

 it, and that we were in consequence not over 

 steady. But even taking old and experienced 

 sportsmen, you will find that more woodcocks 

 are missed than any other description of game, 

 the reason being, that people are always in such 

 a hurry, and so anxious, directly the cry of 



