My First Woodcock. 121 



four pounds eleven shillings, I think I hit upon 

 a good thing. Our bag of woodcocks made a 

 great commotion amongst the sportsmen in our 

 neighbourhood, as so many together had never 

 been seen or dreamt of then. 



For several years we made an annual excur- 

 sion there with varying success, but were never 

 disappointed in getting a fair amount of sport. 

 Twenty years afterwards we went again, but the 

 "Hotel" then had changed hands, had been 

 newly done up and decorated, the furniture was 

 of the gingerbread style, all French pohsh and 

 paste, the carpets were new ; and we badly 

 missed our cosy old room, where we could 

 smoke and have our dogs in, and do as we 

 liked. The cooking was nothing like so good. 

 The snipe-bog had been drained, woodcocks 

 were not half so numerous. Poor Lewis was 

 no more, and our bill was almost double, and 

 that did not include many extras, introduced 

 by the hand of civilization, and our pleasant 

 little shooting quarters had altogether been 

 improved out of all knowledge, which improve- 

 ments we did not appreciate ; and the place 

 knew us no more. 



