THE WARREN 75 



who is desirous of going into greater detail than we 

 have been enabled to do in the foregoing pages. 



The duties of a warrener at the present day are 

 somewhat different from what they used to be when 

 Sam Aiken, that prince of sporting artists, portrayed 

 the good old-fashioned sort which we see depicted 

 on the opposite plate — a facsimile reproduction from 

 his drawing. On looking at it, one cannot but 

 admire the sturdy and weather-beaten form accus- 

 tomed to work single-handed in all weathers, and the 

 ' scratch pack ' by which he is accompanied, any 

 member of which is able to catch and hold the 

 heaviest buck rabbit, or tackle a stoat or polecat with 

 the slightest encouragement. 



A century ago the wold warreners were wont to 

 catch their rabbits with 'fold-nets,' with ' spring nets,' 

 and with ' tipes,' or tip-traps. The ' fold-nets ' were 

 set about midnight, between the burrows and the 

 feeding ground, the rabbits being driven in by dogs, 

 and kept enclosed in the fold until morning. The 

 warrener would drive towards the net with the wind 

 if possible ; a side wind would do, but nothing could 

 be done if the wind blew over the net towards the 

 outlying rabbits. This is also very noticeable when 

 catching hares with 'hays,' and arises from their very 

 keen sense of smell. 



