401 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, September 21, 1858. 
was, however, impossible to put up with this howling, and 
I went down to take advantage of any happy thought or 
fortunate circumstance. When I reached the yard, he was 
delivering himself of a longer and louder note than common. 
I had my whip in my hand ; I measured the exact length of 
his chain with my eye, and gave him the sharpest cut I could. 
He did not expect it; he gave one yell of pain, and then 
rushed at me. The chain held on well, .bnt he drew the 
kennel several inches. He was then quiet, and watched me. 
I was pleased with my performance, and, with the magna¬ 
nimity of the victorious, I offered friendship. I approached as 
nearly as I could with safety; I held out my hand, called 
him by name; but all in vain. Instead of a wagging tail, he 
showed a row of teeth that might be envied by every one; 
but my wife, finding he was quiet, called to me to come 
in. “ Well, you see,” said I, “ I have mastered him.” My 
triumph was short-lived: before I had reached the door of 
my room the howl had begun again. Another note came 
from my neighbour, begging me, for the sake of his sick 
child, to prevent the noise; and from my disagreeable one, to 
say he was surprised it continued. Well, I sent my wife to 
bed ; and, finding he was quiet while I was in front of him, 
I put on a great-coat, and, taking some cigars, determined 
to wear him out,—I did it only for the sake of the sick child. 
Seated in a large kitchen chair, wrapped in a great-coat, with 
a cigar in my mouth, I kept my dog in awe ! 
This was my first experience of having a dog of my own, 
and the next morning saw the first little cloud I had ever 
seen on my good wife’s face. She wished I had never seen 
the dog. She soon came round, and, as usual, offered the 
best suggestion,—that I should send for the man of whom I 
bought him, tie a direction on his collar, and send him to her 
father’s. Her brother, she said, understood dogs. I suppose 
she meant thereby I did not. Accordingly, a messenger was 
sent. He returned with the intelligence the man was not to 
be found. No one knew anything of him, and he had only 
asked permission of a friend to allow him to keep the dog 
S there two days. What could I do ? I must be in the City 
by ten. My wife declared she would not be left with the dog ; 
and Mrs. Martin said she would rather lose us as lodgers 
than set the whole neighbourhood against her by keeping it. 
“My good woman,” said I, “I am as anxious to send him 
away as you are; but I have no one to send him with. Find 
me some one.” She went away, and soon returned with an 
odd man, who was sometimes helping in stables and some¬ 
times amateur waterman on the cab-stand. I told him what 
I wanted, and thought it but fair to inform him it was a 
savage dog. “Never mind, Sir,” said he; “he won’t hurt 
me, depend upon it.” Of course, I was curious to see his 
process. He went straight to the kennel, looking hard at the 
dog, and speaking to him all the time. He then unfastened 
the chain, and, whistling to him and calling him by name, led 
him away. With what joy I gave the direction to tie on his 
collar! and so my dog went into the country. 
The time between this and the 1st of September presents 
nothing of interest. There were the usual consultations 
about costume, and the numerous purchases of indispensable 
articles that were useless. The gun was constantly put to¬ 
gether, and then put away. The dog had become an old 
joke, at which we both laughed ; and my wife, who had seen 
the 1st of September come and go many years without any 
great excitement, was more than amused at my enthusiasm. 
Anxious to get as many shooting days as I could, I did not 
go down till the last day of August. I need not say we had 
a hearty reception. There is a heartiness in a farmhouse you 
cannot meet with in towns. Men’s habits are different, and 
agriculturalists are not accustomed to have their time so abso¬ 
lutely bespoken, and so tyrannically lotted out, as men in 
business : hence, much of the difference. How busy I was 
unpacking the gun, going over the list of all my different 
articles, and taxing my memory to be sure I had omitted 
j nothing. 
“ Lots of birds,” said my brother-in-law. “ And my dog ?” 
asked I. “ Oh, he is in capital condition. I am afraid he is a 
little wild; but he is at the upper yard. He howls so at 
night, we can’t bear him near the house.” I saw a smile on 
every one’s face, and my wife laughed outright. I could bear 
it, for I w r as very happy. 
I went to bed early, that I might be up by times in the 
morning. I never had such a bad night. I woke up con¬ 
tinually. I thought the daylight would never come; but at 
last there was a little break in the east, just a feeble dawn. 
I got out of bed, gazed at it, chided its tardiness, got into 
bed, and went soundly off to sleep. 
About six o’clock I woke up, jumped from my bed, and 
found it raining hard. I was disappointed, but I neverthe ¬ 
less dressed, I thought, noiselessly, but not so much so, 
that I did not have numerous remonstrances about “ fussing 
about,”—“ tearing up in the middle of the night,”—“ shoot¬ 
ing upsets everything,” — “what can you do in a pouring 
rain like this?” I got up. I confess, when I got down 
stairs, the prospect was gloomy; it did rain, as it only rains 
sometimes after a severe drought, and when, it would seem, 
the pent-up moisture comes down like an avalanche: it does 
not drop, it falls in a body. I stood at the door, booted and 
gaitered. I had had a hint not to put on my nailed shoes, 
as they were not fit for running up and down stairs. Still, 
the idea of coming into the country on purpose to shoot, 
having everything necessary, and not putting it on, seemed a 
sort of wickedness.—[In middle-class houses, where the proper 
people are not kept to provide and attend to all things ne¬ 
cessary for the pursuit, amateur sportsmen should give as 
little trouble as possible. They are apt to imagine their 
hobby is as important to every one else as it is to themselves, 
and that the fact justifies upsetting all the aarangements of a 
house ; but it is not so. They should endeavour to interfere 
as little as possible with others.]—Now, although it was, for 
a time, impossible I could get out, yet I put on my heavy- 
nailed shoes, and waited impatiently at the door, looking for 
a change of weather. Every now and then I walked into 
the house, and it was not till I had a gentle hint, about 
“stabbling” in and out, that I perceived the mess I was 
making. I then went to see my dog; he w r as in excellent 
condition, and I could not help laughing heartily when I 
thought of my first adventure with him. Still the rain fell in 
torrents, and, spite of my anxiety to make a start, my brother- 
in-law declared it madness. 
Thus, my first day’s sport was confined to getting all my 
things in order, to dressing before daylight, and to waiting 
ail day for a change of weather. 
(To be continued .) 
TAMWOETH EXHIBITION OF POULTEY. 
This Exhibition, held annually in connection with the 
Sparkenhoe Farmers’ Club, has for a series of years been no¬ 
torious for the very spirited manner in which it has been con¬ 
ducted ; and certainly this year an equal amount of energy 
and long practice has been called into requisition to procure 
success, and most happy are we to say that the result has 
been pre-eminently satisfactory. Every arrangement was 
complete. The attendance embraced almost every family of 
distinction for many miles around Tamworth, whilst the en¬ 
gagement of an excellent band of music, with the additional in¬ 
terest ever attendant on a floricultural meeting, which was 
held conjointly with the Poultry Exhibition, drew together a 
number of the fair sex almost without precedent. 
The poultry, as a whole, were naturally somewiiat out of 
condition (particularly the old birds), from the season for 
moulting being just in the midst. Consequently, some few 
pens originally entered for competition w r ere not actually sent; 
and many were the expressions of extreme regret that met our 
ears from amateurs, who, thus acting upon the supposition 
that it would be useless- to exhibit them, found to their morti¬ 
fication that the successful birds were in precisely the same 
predicament. The chickens exhibited, on the contrary, were 
mostly in first-rate feather. For the “ Silver Cup, awarded 
to the three best pens of poultry of any variety, exhibited by 
one person, to be entered separately for this particular prize,” 
there was a goodly muster. One of the exhibitors in this 
class made a most extreme mistake, in sending a cock com¬ 
pletely roupy, the eye being swollen to excess, and, as the 
only sequence, endangering the health of all surrounding 
poultry. The Committee very properly had the bird at once 
removed. It is well to mention, that, by common consent, it 
is everywhere recognised at agricultural meeeings, as also at 
poultry exhibitions, that any specimen betraying positive 
