tered, and driven to the low grounds and meadows; where, with steady dogs, they may be found one or two at a time, and kicked up as fast as you can load and fire. The most partridges that I had seen bagged in a day by one person, (when this work was first printed,) in a country not preserved, were twenty-three brace, in killing which I remember, that although he began in the very best quarter, and everything favoured, as well as it possibly could do, his starting at daylight, yet he only got three shots before nine o'clock. Although he had four relays of dogs, he felt confident that he should have killed at least seven brace more, if he had left the coveys undisturbed till about half-past seven or eight. The person who performed this, and the double shooting before alluded to, went out in a subsequent year at nine o'clock, surrounded by other shooting parties, who had been hard at work since the break of day. He had this season a far inferior breed of birds, and he had only one, and that a very old, dog. He took refreshment, and rested from twelve till two; shot again till six, and then went home to dinner, having killed fifty partridges and a hare, with only missing two very long shots, though he invariably used both his barrels whenever the coveys rose within gunshot. To this one dog he bagged in all, at different times, in a wild country, 3163 head of game. In 1827, when the breed of birds was good, the same person shot with only one dog, (except a short trial of a young one, that did more harm than good, but with several markers,) and, in eight hours, he bagged fiftyone brace of partridges (besides three brace lost) and a hare; and then he did not "throw off" till nine o'clock. This is perhaps the best day on record, for a wild country and one dog. Much game as I have seen killed in a September day, I do not recollect one solitary instance of any thing extraordinary being done very early in the morning. Many people tell me about killing ten and even twenty brace before breakfast; but I never yet had the fortune to see the chance for such a performance; because the dew is seldom off before eight or nine o'clock. It would be bad manners to doubt their word; so I will conclude that they mean before some dejeuné à la fourchette, at 12; or perhaps before their breakfast on the following day. With regard to where and how we are to beat for game, &c., &c., it would now be unnecessary to inform even a schoolboy; and, indeed, others having mentioned all particulars, is a sufficient reason for my not imposing on the reader's patience with what he will have seen before, and what, to describe, would lead me into the very subject of other sporting-authors. Suffice it therefore to say, that the great object is, first to have good markers judiciously placed, and then to disperse the birds; the best way to do which, is to head your dogs, by taking an extensive circle. The second is, to make no more noise than what cannot absolutely be avoided, by doing as much by signal and whistling, * * Always be sure to tell a young marker that he must carry his eye well forward when a covey of birds begin to skim in their flight, and consider, that as they may continue doing so for a field or two, he cannot safely say that he has marked them down, till he has seen them stop and flap their wings, which all game must do, before they can alight on the ground. and as little by hallooing as possible. Thirdly, go first on hills to find, and drive down from them, the birds, and then in vales to kill them. Fourthly, when distressed for partridges, in a scarce country; at the end of the season, take a horse, and gallop from one turnip-field to another, instead of regularly slaving after inaccessible coveys. After a storm, as soon as the ground is dry, or the next day, birds will lie in a calm; and, after a calm, they will lie in windy weather. Birds are frequently as much on the listen as on the watch; and this is why, towards the end of the season, we sometimes do best in boisterous weather. Many an excellent shot has come home with an empty bag, under the following circumstances. He has gone out in a cold raw day, and found that the birds were scarce and wild, and that even in turnips they would not lie. But had he then tried one kind of land, to which almost every man, as well as his dog, has a dislike the fallows, he might possibly have got some good double shots; because the birds, finding it a misery to run here, particularly if he walked across the fallows, will sometimes lie till they are sprung the fairest possible shots. Let me conclude, under this head, with a few observations as to taking horses into the field. If birds are wild, a sportsman, who goes out with his man, and has no other attendant, will bring in more game if he contrives to mount that man, or rather a light boy, behind him; because, the moment the dog stands, he can then dismount, (by throwing his right leg over the horse's neck,) and leave the man in full possession of the Rosinante, instead of being encumbered with a led horse, which frequently precludes the possibility of his galloping on to mark a covey, or follow up a towering bird. Moreover, it requires no conjurer to discover that two horses make more noise than one; and all noise, after the first few weeks, is the ruin of sport. The gentleman with his stud would say, Why not have three horses? This, I admit, is a more dignified way of taking the field, than the subaltern turn-out of the Johnny Trot behind; but then we have the clatter of three horses, with the chatter of two servants' tongues, an increase of noise that would set the birds on the run; and it would be as vain to attempt the suppression of the one as the other. In short, I would back the double-mounted gent. against the great squire and his stud. Two on a horse, and the "cad" to be helmsman, is an excellent way of giving the shooter the liberty of his hands, the moment a covey springs unexpectedly. Recollect too, in wood about five feet high, a mounted man can shoot, where one on his legs cannot see; and again, if a hare runs straight away, she may be killed ten yards further, if you are well above her, and catch her head and pole clear of her high rump. All these little et ceteras are what we may call the finish: as to ordinary sporting, in the present day, we may as well tell a man how to eat his dinner. Double-mounted markers are always ready to act in any country. I took the hint from the French cavalry, who had frequently riflemen mounted up behind them, for the purpose of what, as a foxhunter, I should call "drawing the covers." Mounted markers have a droll appearance; so I chose a respectable group of them for our old frontispiece, but they shall now be shown off |