January 21 .] 
THE FIELD 
57 
modem days ; two and three hours over the finest scenting 
country in tho world, not a fence, excepting perhaps a stone 
wull once in a mile or two, no fallow fields or roads to stay 
tho pack. A little jack hare, whose weight is not more than 
from three to four pounds, found at peep of day in the 
beautiful month of May,* hunting her out by the trail (or, 
in Dartmoor phrase, tho walk) from the green pasture she 
lias chosen for her feed, frequently four or five miles before 
6ho springs from her form, then, ay 1 what thon ! ! only 
“ Somervillo,’’ or those who have witnessed it can tell you ! ! ! 
A Dhvonian. 
•Tlie Forest of Dartmoor cannot be ridden over in tho winter 
months, only aftora dry time; consequently, tho month Of May was 
always tho commencement for hunting tho Moor. 
COCIIIN AND SPANISH FOWLS. 
Sir, — Cun any of your correspondents, who aro practical 
fowl keepers, give mo a little information on the following 
points ? I keep Cochin nnd Spanish fowls ; they aro in good 
order, heulthy, heads and wuttles as rod as they can bo, they 
have a good run and aro fed as I have fed thorn for years, 
yet since last October I have not had nil egg, I have always 
before bad eggs ull the winter except during the very cold 
weather. I should add tliat my birds consist both of old 
birds and pullets, and have not been bred in, or in uny way 
deteriorated. Is tliero anything I can giro thorn to induce 
them to lay ? Tho other point I want information on is, 
what is tho most economical food I cm give thorn ? Those 
hard times I givo for barloy 21s. per sack, barley ineal in 
like proportion, and rye, which Richardson recommends in 
liis “ Domeslic Fowl,” ns the cheapest food, I learn, on 
inquiry, is 24s. tho sack, rice is 2 d . per lb., and oats are too 
dear to be thought of. Any information will be most grate- 
fully received by yours, An Amateur. 
PTARMIGAN AT BAKER STREET. 
Sir, — The Ptarmigans you wero kind enough favourably 
to remark upon in your report of tho Poultry Show at the 
Bukor-street Bazaar, woro exhibited by me, and not by 
my friend Dr. Burney, who hud ordered bis birds, but bad 
not sent them. I am, yours, &c., 
Fareham . Frederick Bernal. 
P.S. — Monday ovening. The two pens of Ptarmigans 
exhibited by mo bavo not yet made their appearance. 
This needs, I am sure you will agree, no further comment. 
EXTRAORDINARY FLIGHT OF LARKS. 
Sir, — During tho late inclement weather, Lei Bridge 
nnd its vicinity have boon visitod by numerous flights of 
larks. One largo lot, consisting of many hundreds, alighted 
on tho Leyton Marsh. Mr. G. Borosford (a crack shot in 
that neighbourhood) and friend managed to approach within 
thirty yards of them. Each discharged one barrel as they 
woro on tho ground, and the others as they took wing. They 
were fortunate enough to bag ouo hundred and twenty- 
seven — not bad for four shots. C. T. 
P.S. — The larks wero in good condition, and I think they 
were Scotch. 
MADAGASCAR MERCHANTMAN FROM SYDNEY. 
Sir, — I should bo much obliged, if through the medium 
of your valuublo journal, you could inform mo whero I could 
sec a Melbourne newspaper with a list of passengers on 
board the Madagascar, which sailed from Melbourne on the 
12th August last, and lias not been board of since; I have 
reason to bolievo my two brothers aro on board. The papers 
to the Jerusalem Coffee House and Lloyds bavo missed, and 
it is probable tho other public rooms will not have them ; 
most likely a private individual would havo tho dates, miss- 
ing elsewhere, and would confer a great favour by giving me 
the information I require. 
I remain, sir, your obedient servant, 
Henry Jackson. 
22, Do Beauvoir-torrace, Kingsland-road. 
FARMING LEASES. 
Mr. Editor, — It is difficult to be very brief upou such 
a subject as that of funning leases. It is one upon which u 
great deul may bo said on both sides. Tho public and the 
public press may, in an off-hand way, not unusual with 
them, assort that, this, that, and the othor, ought to bo 
done, and that farming leases must, as u matter of course, 
bo granted; but as long as fifty acres of laud aro either 
uiino or yours, in fee-simple, free from tho controlling power 
of incumbrances, wo shall be very apt to do as wo please 
about granting or not granting a lease of them, putting or 
not putting them out of our power lor 14 or 21 years. And 
it is the small holdings which will ever prevent long farming 
leases from becoming universal, because small farms are 
letablo any day, and ure within the moans of a lurge class 
of applicants. 
A lease of such a small quantity of land as 50 acres 
would bo a useless incumbrance to a man of capital, except 
at a very inadequate rout; therefore small farms will natu- 
rally be let to small tenants at high rents. A farm servant 
or bailiff, who has saved his 250/., will venture on 50 acres, 
and will, with his knowledge anil his own labour, manage 
thorn with that amount of capital ; but I think I should not 
grant a 21 years’ lease to him, except it were made deter- 
minable upon his death ; for if I granted a lease it would be 
upon the knowledge nnd faith of bus own personal character. 
If he should fail or die, into whose h inds might my 
farm got? And a tenant, asking mo for a loase, may 
very fairly put the same question to nio. But still the 
great lovo and competition for the soil in this country 
will always givo the lundl. rd tho advantage, and tills, 
coupled with tho feeling of “doing what we like witli 
our own ” will havo u tendency to retard the granting of 
leases, us a general measure. With lurge ostutes, and large 
tracts of luud, tho matter is differont ; becauso such extents 
are onlv marketable umongst men of capitul and business, 
who will not tuke them without a lease, or some equivalent 
certainty — such as the nover-violated and honourable custom 
of 6omo noblo families. Tho difficulty is in putting such 
leases upon some proper principle, which I will consider 
hereafter. But it must bo borne la mind that leases are not 
nu unmixed good to a tenant; they may bocomo a hoavy 
incunibranco to him. Leases, during the past four years, 
havo noarly approached to so much waste paper, as affecting 
the lessee; and it will always be tho case when capital fulls, 
and “ poverty comes in at tho window.” But, nevertheless, 
a leaso lias often been, and will ho again, in the present state 
of the law, a Sebastopol, or stronghold, to an insolvent and 
roguish tenant, backed by a black sheep of tho law. 
My experience of embarrassed funning tenants is very 
unfuvouruble. Givo me the active vice of towns at any 
time and in anythiug in preference to the stubborn and 
hoggish tactics of tho country; and although I live in tho 
country, and by farmers, and they by me ; and although I 
an known to be tho “farmer’s friend’’ within my own 
limited and little circle, I must say in truth, that a bad 
tenaht in a quarrel with his landlord is shamefully cheered, 
sympathised with, and supported, by far too largo a portion 
of that parish which happens to be the scene of the unseemly 
conflict. And all this lias arisen from bad, slow and eusily- 
dofied laws ; for it was (is ?) provorbial that the law was 
“made for rogues.” Just look at tho remedies upon the 
covenants of a farming lease. The lease gives the landlord a 
power of re • entry on non-payment of rent, and upon certain 
gross breaches of covenant. This sounds right and reasonable. 
But to “ re-enter” in effect means nothing ; for although 
tho breach may be as gross and wicked as possible, you 
cannot “ ro-enter;” the word is a fiction and a snare. You 
must bring an action of ejectment — a disgusting piece of 
foolery — between John Doe and Richard Roe, witli their 
allegations that one entored with his “sticks, staves, swords, 
and knives,” to wit “ one hundred sticks, one hundred 
staves, one hundred swords, aud one hundred knives;” and 
that the other turned him out! Have we been living, or 
are wo now living, in the laud of the Goths and Vandals? 
Aro wo rational electors of our law- makers, or are we insane 
ones? Well may wo repoat, “How long, O law-inakers, 
wilt thou abuso our putionce ?” Yet all this cumbrous 
machinery of ejectment must be brought to bear against 
insolvent tenants — men of straw, — or, what is worse, 
against obstinate, ill-conditionod solvent tenants, awkward 
as the colts they drive, and malicious as fiends. Or, 
if you wish to restrain any threatened injury, to old 
turf land, to buildings, or otherwise, you must apply 
to that mercurial and swift-winged court, tho Court of 
Chancery; and before you have “moved” the court, which 
it takes no small drench to effect, the injury is done, — your 
meadows aro ploughed up, anil your buildings removed and 
sold, in market overt, under tho hammer, ami the bouigu- 
ne9S of our Constitution (now do bless yourself that you aro 
an Englishman) loaves you to your remedy at common law, 
and you must be left content to “sue a beggar and catch 
what you can,” and after all to pay the tenant a sum of 
money to go out. The only remedy for this beautiful 
Blackslone — a theoretic mockery of law and justice — is an 
immediate Landlord nnd Tenants’ Act, directing, amongst 
other provisions, that a certain number of practical and com- 
petent men, of high standing, in each county, should be 
formed into an Arbitration Court, and that every question or 
difference which may arise upon agreements between land- 
lord and tenant shall be decided by such court ; should 
havo power to enforce covenants, both of lessor or lessee; 
to eject tenants, to terminate leases; aud to allow or 
give compensation or damages, as the case may bo, and to 
settle all kind of disputes; with peremptory powers to en- 
force their decisions by force. Landlords then would bo en- 
abled to grant leases in safety and confidence ; but, as the 
law now stands, they cannot and will not grant them. The 
horrors of the courts of law aud equity appal them ; espe- 
cially when pitted against inen of straw, and their shifty ad- 
visers in the law. I have scon four skins of parchment Alien 
with the rigmarole of farming covenants, which the parties 
well knew could not, and would not, he fulfilled. Good 
tenants, now-a-davs, will not be bound, hand and foot, 
to all seasons and circumstances ; so mucli binding is so 
much irritating and blistering nonsense. Every reasonable 
man must approve of some fair protective covenants, regu- 
lating the last two or three years’ cultivation at the eud of a 
lease, to prevent the beggary of a farm ; but as to tho first 
part of the term, let sell'-interost guido tiie tenant. If you 
admit him tenant at all, and so far worthy to be trusted, 
trust him for eleven years out of a fourteen years’ leaso ; but 
every man born of woman requires a wholesomo check, be 
lie whom lie may, particularly at the final scramble ; for the 
present defeclivo relation of landlord and tenant, I am sorry 
to say, is, after all, in its termination, a sort of struggle 
between them. Yours, See., 
Umbra. 
$,M«S Ilf SMS. 
Memoirs, Journal and Correspondence of Tiiom as Moore . 
Edited by Lord John Russell. Vols. v. & vl. 
Longmans. 
After a lapse of a year from tho publication of tho first 
und second volumes, Lord John Russell ha9 issued tho fifth 
and sixtli volumes of the Memoirs and Journal of Thomas 
Moore. His lordship anticipates that lie shall completo his 
task in eight volumes, by niiiking greater use of an editor's 
privilege of cutting and condensing the voluminous entries 
of tho diary ; and not many of his readers will object to liis 
takiug advantage of liis constitutional right on this occasion. 
The fifth volume embrucos the period commencing in 
November, 1825, and terminating in December, 1828. In 
the end of tho former your, we find Moore at Abbotsford, 
remarking, among other tilings, what every one else lias 
wondered and speculated upon — namely, tho extraordinary 
rapidity and lurge amount of manual labour that Sir Walter 
Scott evincod in his writings. Scott attributes liis facilities 
iu theso respects to liis education in an attorney’s offleo. 
Lator we find him iu company witli Professor Wilson, 
the “ admirable Crichton ” of bis time ; but of whom Moore 
speaks without much appreciation. Certainly Wilson is of a 
very differont calibre from the journalist. Wilson, in con- 
versation on Moore's “Slioridan,” thinks the mots of this 
celebrated wit of little account. Moore partly agrees, but 
excuses his putting them into his book — good, bud, nnd 
indifferont — by urging liis obligation to plenso liis party; 
and Lord John Russell interpolates to defend tho wit. Tlio 
littlo controversy easily settles Itself when we remember that 
every “ sot ” bus a stylo of its own, and more readily under- 
stands the sallies of its members than any “ outsider ” can 
do ; and the said outsider has his density increased by tho 
remembrance of the many sharp things, “ that make those 
ioel that will not own the wound," directed by the wits of 
another “set ’’against bis parly. 
In following tho journal, we next find him wishing to 
write the life of Gruttan, but prevented by the “shilly 
sliallying,” of Grattan’a son — and then the “ Life of Byron” 
comes to bo talked about. Hobhouse sees no good in it, but 
much harm ; and Lord John Russell warns him off tho life 
of another reprobate — the other, being of course, Sheridan. 
He is, about this time, enticed by the want of a 100/. into 
an engagement with the Edinburgh Review — a snare Jeffrey 
is glad to bait. His political squibs, for which lie is well 
paid; “The Epicuroau” (his Egyptian story), his “ Life of 
Byron, and endless letter reading anil writing, dinings, sup- 
pings, theatres, fates, and festivities without end, occupy 
now all his time. Of the letter reading horo are some 
curious entries. 
“Plaguing letters, ke., from beggars and scribblers A Mr. 
— sends me no less than a comody, a sot of talus, and a poom 
(all iu Me.) to look over! An anonymous gentleman wishes a 
recommendation to the Literary Fund; bis onlv qualification n bad 
novel from tlieMinerva press. A Major and Mrs F. writo t.> com- 
plain Hint the Reviews huvo accused their friend Lieutenant 8. of 
borrowing liis ‘ Bay Leaves’ from mo, and seem to expect that I 
will vindicate the lieutenant from the charge. One of ray unknown 
Kerry cousins sends mo a petition, the first clause of which is, ‘ that 
your petitioner has the honour of being your first cousin ho 
thon .tells ine thnt I gavo him 10/. four years since, in Dublin 
(which is a lie) ; ami concludes by entreating mo to 1 resume my 
generous habits.’ Wrote to Mr. to soy, that I hope lie will 
excuse my frankness, but that I havo looked over his MSS. and 
do not think that literature is liis line. 
“* * Found quantities of letters waiting for answers at 
home. One from a young lady ut Bristol to ask my opinion of a 
volume of poems of her own, which Bhc sends mo; another from 
Madame , full of surprise at my waut of politeness in never 
having acknowledged the receipt of her translation of tho 
‘ Corsair ;’ a third, from a gentleman in Wexford, begging me 
to decido a wager, ns to whether I was bom in Wexford or Dublin, 
and so on. All this stuff, too, I have to answer. 
“* * Driven out by Lady E. Fielding and her daughter 
Caroline, to leavo my card with tho Duke of Sussex. Ilea 1 to 
thorn a curious letter I have received from ail American, pro- 
posing me to join him in a revolution, my part being to prepare 
men’s minds for tho eveni, and his to oxeeute it. Says that there 
are inauy persons who profess to love liberty, but fow who havo 
the strength of mind to love her ‘in her ragged attire;’ that ho 
‘ looks, however, to Thomas Moore for this degree of virtue,’ &c., 
&c. If this gcntlcmau could but see my tailor’s bill, ho would 
know that I nin, unluckily, not at all given to ‘ ragged attire.’ 
“ 9 * Had a strange lottor from a man about the Irish 
I! mod Towers, saying that lie, and he alone, lias found out their 
whole secret history, and will oornmunieato it to mo for my pre- 
sent work, moi/ennant tine bonne somme d' argent. A second 
letter from him, offering to come and pass a month with me, or 
more, if occasion should require; during which time ho will 
make me master of the whole birth, parentage, and bringing up 
of the Irish Round Towers, asking of me only (in addition to tho 
honour of his visit) one hundred guineas for the aamo 
And hero’s unother, which preseats us to ourselves iu very 
‘ libel-loving colours. 
“ * * Recoived a letter also from a Paternoster-row book- 
seller, iu consequence of a foolish story that has appeared in all 
tho p ipers, headed ‘ Illustrious Bonfire,’ telling of a work of 
miue having been lately consigned to the flames (5,000 copies), 
from having been pronounced by Brougham ‘a libol in every lino 
of it.’ This worthy bibliopolist, in the true spirit of the trade, 
offers to enter into negotiation with me for tho burnt book, and 
to bear mo harmless through any legal consequences that may 
ensue.” 
The pages of the journal abound in anecdotes of aud by 
tnen of celebrity aud wit. Hero is ono of Rogers, the poet. 
Me is speaking of practical jokes, and tells ono of a mau who, 
when tipsy, was first rolled In currant jelly, and thou covered 
with feathers; on waking, with considerably confused ideas, 
and looking at himself in a glass, bo exclaimed, “ A bird, by 
Jove !” 
Of Smith, “ tho pun-Smitli Sydney,” he says 
“He keeps us all in roars of laughter; in talking of tho stories 
about dram-drinkers catching fire, lie pursued tho idea in every 
possiblo shape. Tho incorivonieneo of a man coining too near tho 
candlo when ho was speaking; ‘ Sir, your observation lias caught 
lire.’ Then imagined u parson breaking to a blnzo in the pulpit, 
the engines called to put him out, no water to bo had, tho mau 
at the waterworks being a Unitarian or un atheist.” 
Sinithcalled witli Mooro at Newton’s, tho portrait painter, 
to see liis picture, when Smith said iu tho gravest raanuor to 
Newton: — “ Could’nt you contrive to throw iuto his fuce 
somewhat of a stronger expression of hostility to the church 
establishment !” 
This story reminds us of an order given at rehearsal 
by a Dublin manager to Mike Kelly, the leader of tbo 
band — “ Mr. Kelly, you must throw in a little music 
hero, just one or two bars, describing that the hero 
left his native country, and travelled in foreign parts, 
changed bis religion, and took to drinking beer.” Tills 
comicality was probably from the same inspiration. 
In 1827 lie is still working at “The Epicurean,” and 
troinbling at the name lie had selected for bis heroine, Alethe, 
because hefeared the people, whonredoteriniuately dissyllabic 
with Greek words ending in e. 
A reminiscence of Lord Erskino cannot be omitted. 
Erakine defended Peter Pindar lor a libel on Lord Lonsdale, 
iu which lie had compared Lord Lonsdale to the devil. 
“Erskino dwelt on the grandeur of the devil, ns described by 
Milton, and insisted that it was rather lie that should bo dis- 
pleased at being compared to Lord Lonsdale. The dovil (Lord 
Lonsdale said) was alvvuys a favourite theme with Erskino, and lie 
hud once heard him say that he looked upou him ns a great celestial 
statesman out of place ! ” 
Domestic uffnirs now occupy a larger space than usuul 
in the journul, and then his “ Epicurean,” which he com- 
pletes und revises under the greatest difficulties — being 
obliged to resort to the benches and walks ol Kensingtou- 
gardens, for retirement from admirers and admired. Iu 
July be becomes regularly ongaged (after a fight over the 
bargaiu) to The Times at 400/. u year to write squibs. 
Early iu 1828, bo is diligently employed in collecting 
local information for the much tulkod-of “ Life of Byron, ’ 
and in February lie concludes a bargain with Murray, for 
4,000 guineas for tho “ Life;” but as Tie had made a previous 
bargain witli Longmans for tho same purpose, and received 
money from that house on account, tho Louguiuus, who 
acted most kindly throughout, were paid off. 
In Juno ho iudigniintly retires from the Times, on account 
of tho views they had adopted on Irish matters, but very 
shortly his valour finds its bettor part, and the prodigal 
returns to the urms of 400/. a year. 
This brings us to the end of the fifth volume. The sixth 
commences with a little oditoriul essay on vanity in general, 
and Moore’s phase of it in particular. It may, perhaps, be 
