And this being just the fun for us, we at once adopted the suggestion; and so, equipping ourselves accordingly, we set out in company with the Squire (who himself preferred the hardy sport on the beach to any other that day), two attendants, and a couple of high-couraged dogs. The distance to the beach being nearly two miles, a trap and pair of horses was provided, by which we were quickly conveyed to the shores of the coast, where the wind was so keen and biting, and the frost so severe, that icicles hung from the nostrils of the horses; and the coachman, too, declared his hands, nose, and toes were almost, if not entirely frozen. The wind had undoubtedly made it appear one of the coldest days ever experienced in this country, so searching and freezing it was in its influence. "Keep a look-out, sir," said one of the men who accompanied us;" you will not go far before meeting with a shot on such a day as. this; they must come in-shore to-day; they can't sit out at sea in such a wind as this, and it is just thick enough to bewilder them, and so they'll come flying in over our heads, in the very style in which we'll welcome them." "Well, now," said the Squire, "it will be best to distribute ourselves about the coast at fair gun-shot distances, so as to be within range of anything that comes within a certain scope of the beach; and yet not so close that one should be tempted to interfere with the legitimate shots of the other. You, Mr. So-and-so, go about half-a-mile in that direction; and you, Mr. W., go that way; we will then place ourselves at fair distances between you," But whilst these arrangements were being made, the first chance presented itself, as a skein of some eighteen or twenty geese were seen coming from seaward, straight in a direction towards us. "Down! squat! every man of you!" said the Squire," and move not hand, foot, mouth, nor tongue, though an eagle should alight on your noses, or a flying-fish come out of that big wave, and fasten itself upon your cheeks; and you, Bob and Joe, squat down bebind, there; and though every hair of your heads should itch to the very roots, don't move hand or foot to scratch your heads; for if you do, those birds will never come near us. Now! down, so that's it! Here they come, they come! they come! they come!" said the Squire, with a whisper of intense excitement, which sent the thrill of it through the veins of us, all for a few moments, as the whole skein of geese came hovering about us, only a few yards above our heads; and then in a moment the Squire started up, and called aloud: "Now, then! at em! every one of you! So! so! bravo! bravo! that's good! Now watch them! watch them! See there's another down; and that fellow that lags behind, he is hit very hard! See how he lags he must fall! Sce! down he comes! he's a dead bird!" It was highly amusing to witness the interesting countenance of the old sportsman, and the excitement he stirred within us at this splendid commencement of our day's sport. He positively appeared as elated as a youth; but probably a good deal of it was occasioned by the pleasure he felt in being able to introduce his friends to such a remarkably fine scene of sport. It was truly one of those rare chances of pouring a volley into a fine skein of wild geese; and the success of the whole affair was entirely due to the firm, but good-humoured and jocose manner, in which he acted the part of General, and compelled us to squat down as still and motionless as stones. Had the geese observed the least motion of hand or limb, or heard any noise of human voices, they would instantly have turned off in another direction, and our magnificent chance would then have been gone. Here, then, was a striking instance of the advantage gained by the companionship of a thorough-bred sportsman, who had grown hoary in his pursuits. But our readers will be wishing to be informed of the total result of our volley of three shoulder-guns fired in rapid succession, one after another, at this skein of geese. We dropped in all ten birds, nine of which we recovered; the other had dropped too far out at sea to be got at without a boat, which the Squire did not consider prudent to launch just then, as he said it might disturb our chances at other birds which were seen hovering about, and particularly as the wounded (or dead bird) would probably come ashore with the tide and wind. Of the ten that were dropped, it is believed the Squire, with his splendid precision, knocked down five; this, however, could not be positively ascertained, as the third gun was fired very closely upon the second. Certain it is that only two fell to the first gun, which in our eagerness was fired an instant too soon. The birds had scarcely wheeled round: they were in fact just over our heads at the time. The Squire had very properly said, that the time to fire is just after they have turned tail, if not too close; but never when they are "breaston," nor abroadside the nick of time is the instant their tails are turned towards yon; the shot will then find its way easily through the feathers. : Well! to have pulled down ten fine fat brent geese at our first shot was, to our minds, fine sport; and certainly they presented a formidable appearance when collected and laid out in a row on the new-fallen snow; the fresh warm blood which oozed from the wounds dying the pure-white snow a deep crimson colour, and leaving conspicuous stains to tell the tale of our first deed of blood. But the day was yet young, and other sport was yet to be expected, for the wind was still blowing hard upon the shore, and the snow clouds were driving up, threatening another blinding fall of snow. And now we paced the beach at stated distances, and, with the exception of one shot at a small company of widgeon (by which three were bagged), two hours or more passed without another chance presenting itself. But at last the quick ear of the old sportsman detected what nobody else of the party could. "Down close!" said he;" swans, swans are near! I heard distinctly the 'conch! conch! conch!' Listen! they are close! Down, every one of you, as before!" And, truly enough, in less than a minute five large white forms were seen to emerge from the clouds, and be making towards the shore at comparatively but a few yards' elevation from the water. Onwards they came, and were quickly within tolerably fair range, when they seemed to have "twigged us," and raised their long necks to soar higher in the air; but the quick shot of the old sportsman was sent smartly at one of them, and down came the noble bird with a broken wing. This shot we followed up immediately, and brought another down. Our third gun was out of range, and therefore was not fired. At this time the snow was falling very thickly, driving in our faces, and gathering in little drifts about out garments wherever it could find a lodgment. But oh! what a splendid addition to our bag! Two wild swans! white in plumage as the driven snow, and fat and heavy as Christmas geese. "There will be more sport for us yet," said the Squire," if this weather holds. It is far too cold to stand still; we must therefore keep moving to and fro along the skirts of the beach, and using our ears as much as our eyes; for it is too thick to see far.' Several single birds were shot in the course of the next hour or two; and we had almost given up the chances of another skein of geese coming in; when, without any warning or noise, on suddenly turning our heads, we observed a skein of about a score of wild geese that had come up behind us in the air within gun-shot, had just turned about on detecting us, and were making off. Of course we fired our volley of three guns after them; but they had gone rather too far, and we dropped only two birds. Probably we might have made another shot or two had we remained longer on the beach; but out of regard for our worthy old friend, we suggested that the time he had mentioned for making our way back to the Hall was at hand; and in such weather we ought not to expose him too many hours, and so with our heavy bag we made our way, the two attendants being almost over-burdened with the weight of birds they had to carry. Another excellent dinner in the true old English style, with wines of surpassing excellence; the more enjoyable too after such a day's sport in the midst of such inclement weather; after which a rubber or round game with the ladies in the drawing-room, enlivened by the sweet sounds of the harp, and a soft melodious voice singing in right joyous and delightful air the sweet, sweet, Scotch song "Oh! weel may the boatie row, &c." The voice, the music, and the air still ringing in our ears, so delightfully impressive was the performance of the fair girl who presided. On another day we chose the woods as the scene of our rambles, where sport awaited us in great variety. But at such a season of the year we confess a weakness to the sport of wild-fowl shooting, in whatever form, and therefore our days of pursuit of the aquatic birds were as three to one with those of the woods. We had an excellent day on the water, just as the frost began to break, after a week's hard freezing and snowing. The weather suddenly changed to a mild thaw, and the old sportsman suggested that it was just the day for the wild-fowl, as they would be flying about restlessly and in search of the soft food which had been denied them so many days past; we therefore took to the sailing boat, and taking with us two large shoulder-guns in addition to the swivel gun stationed at the bows of the boat, we set sail under the able seamanship of a very experienced captain, who had long been in the service of the Squire, and who had grown so fat as to form a very material weight of ballast in the boat. "Just the day for the birds, sir," said the Captain. "Why, yes, so says the Squire," we replied. Always accessible at the first crack of a hard frost," added the Captain. "Well, now, gentiemen, if all's ready we'll slip the moorings." "All ready!" was the reply; and away we sped, the little yacht dancing along as lively as a sand-buoy, notwithstanding that the wind was light and airy as a summer's breeze. We held on our first tack several miles out in the bay, the object being, as the Captain said, to get well to windward, and then we should be able to bear away for any, and the best chances that might offer. But it appeared as if chances were at hand in every direction: the bay seemed almost alive with birds, not indeed in such large flights and companies as they are in hard-freezing weather, but in small parties of two or three to eight or ten pairs; and these were wild-ducks, widgeon, scoters, geese, and numerous other varieties of the wild-fowl species, all which had sought the refuge of the bay in the heavy gale and cold winds that had prevailed during several days previously. There was also a good deal of drift ice in the bay, which, from being deeply covered with snow, looked like little islands in the Arctic regions. Some of the birds seemed remarkably tame; indeed, they suffered our boat to approach within a few yards of them ere they would take wing, and when they did do so, it was with such a lazy and heavy kind of flight that they presented the easiest possible marks to our aim. Some, too, of the birds were sleeping with heads under their wings, and, of course, so long as we approached noiselessly, we got close upon them. This lethargic state of some, and heavy lazy flight of others, was easily accounted for indeed, such is a common occurrence with wild-fowl that have been buffeting the seas in a heavy gale for several days previously; they become tired and weary, and having taken their fill of food, gladly rest their weary pinions on the calm, smooth surface of a tranquil sea. We were, therefore, quite in luck's way so far as a highly favourable day was concerned, with abundance of birds, a fine steady breeze, and quick little boat under able management. Shot after shot was fired, and the birds taken aboard by means of a lavenet, similar to an angler's landing-net. Of course, many a tack had to be made to pick up the wounded ones, some of which were troublesome to capture, and required another charge from a small gun ere they could be caught; such, however, is but the general fun of a cripple-chase. We spent nearly the whole day on the water in pursuit of our sport, and may well say better sport of the kind we never had. We fired the staunchion gun only twice, and on both occasions at grey-geese, killing five at one shot and nine at the other. Our other shots were chiefly at ducks and widgeon, with a few at brent-geese, which were in pairs or singles, and not worth the use of the large gun. During the whole day we saw no one else engaged in the same pursuit, no other boats and no shooting-yacht came into the bay; although, of course, so far as that was concerned it was free to anybody, but the land that skirted it for miles around belonged to our host. There were a few sportsmen on the beach, looking out for stragglers and stray shots, and it would appear as if they found plenty of amusement, as the report of their guns constantly fell upon our ears and it may be that our shooting assisted their's in some way, by driving many of the birds towards the shore. Our day's sport over, we laid out the results and counted them up, when we found they consisted of twelve-and-a-half pair of geese, fourteen pair of widgeon, six pair of ducks and seven pair of various species, in all 79 head to three large shoulder-guns and a staunchion-gun. It is only due to the Captain to say, that a good deal of our success was attributable to his able management of the boat and the skilful manner in which he steered us to the range we required. With regard to such remarkably good success, it should be mentioned that there is this peculiarity attending wild-fowl shooting: although on the day mentioned the bay and waters around seemed to be swarming with birds, on the day after there would probably be scarcely a score of wild-fowl in the bay; they shift their quarters so suddenly and capriciously, according to the way of the wind and the state of the weather. We returned to the Hall with our heavily-laden cart, and quite astonished the Squire at the success we had met with. It was a real pleasure to him to find we had spent such a thorough sportsmanlike day on the water. One would imagine no use could be made at the Hall of such loads of wild-fowl and game that were almost daily killed and brought there by the Squire and his friends, but the old Squire was as generous as he was good, and not a tenant on his vast estate was forgotten in the presents that were sent and distributed among them; nothing of the kind was ever sold, but freely given; and a brace of birds or a hare was never denied to any tenant whenever he sent for them, or mentioned that such would be required on any particular day. During our stay at the Hall we had many other excellent day's sport, though none, it is true, came up to those already described. There was no sameness in the evening entertainments, but something different every night. Charade acting and amateur theatrical performances were done admirably: the effect being considerably facilitated and enlivened by the store of fancy costumes, for the purpose, that were at hand, and the admirable stage and theatrical scenery and fittings that had for years formed part of the curiosities of the old Hall; and which were annually cleaned up and prepared for the Christmas rejoicings. Then there were the Christmas balls, which were, of course, the largest parties of the season, when the tenantry and their wives and families were invited; and, if one may judge from appearances, all present seemed most heartily to enjoy themselves. Among the fair ones, rustic beauty might be seen in all its purity and simplicity. Many and many a beautiful girl had made her conquest at the Christmas ball at the old Hall; and many a youth, too, had fallen a victim to the bewitching smiles of the fair girls of their native soil, and discovered for the first time on that eventful evening (though often seen before in the village) how lovely and beautiful were John Bull's daughters, and how happy a young farmer might be in the bosom of the one "with the dark, dark eyes. But the Squire himself always mingled freely among them all on these occasions; indeed, to follow up the words of the enduring old song: "When winter's cold brought frost and snow, He opened house to all; And though three-score and ten his years, |