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Updated: May 3, 2025
Well, they have now set out, and after marching all night by slow and easy stages, when morning comes our woodcocks make a halt wherever they happen to be, breakfast as best they may, and then ensconce themselves in some snug spot, where they doze the livelong day, till, refreshed by their twelve hours' rest, they set off again with renewed strength the moment the sun has gone down.
Woodcocks, again, are protected, and are said to have increased, though it is open to question if their increased numbers may not be due to other causes. Cultivation banishes wild geese and snipe, but adds to the numbers of small birds, I fancy, and very probably to the number of mice.
This impartial testimony to the superior qualities of the establishment and its head attracted a number of applicants for admission, and a couple of new boarders made a brief appearance at the table. One of them was of the class of people who grumble if they don't get canvas-backs and woodcocks every day, for three-fifty per week.
It was observable, that we did not see one Partridge from the Waterrees to this place, tho' my Spaniel-Bitch, which I had with me in this Voyage, had put up a great many before. They prov'd excellent Meat. Likewise, here is good store of Woodcocks, not so big as those in England, the Feathers of the Breast being of a Carnation-Colour, exceeding ours for Delicacy of Food.
"It has been my happy, unbroken rule to take nothing from any soldier who served in this sad war oh! on either side. I have made, I hope, some friends. The Colonel asked to-day about a horse Dixy I think and when could he ride. You may imagine my pleasure. He will get well, but you must be patient. I leave him in competent hands, and in the fall I mean to come back and shoot your woodcocks.
Fright, downright fright, had tied the banker's tongue; and while he is collecting his senses, allow me to tell you, good reader, what had occurred in our absence. Dumb and motionless, as directed, he had, during half an hour, waited anxiously for the woodcocks; but the woodcocks had for a very long time forgotten the road to this Mare; not one came there was no sport for him.
Some fifty yards, or so, from the hither shore, we discern a roughly wooded ait, Pike Island to wit, a famous place for fish, and the grand rendezvous for woodcocks; which, among other useful and ornamental purposes, serves to screen out the labourer's hovel, at this the narrowest part of the lake, from a view of that fine old mansion on the opposite shore, the seat of Sir John Vincent, a baronet just of age, and the great landlord of the neighbourhood.
Sir John published a pamphlet on the subject, and sent copies of it to the sporting gentlemen and keepers in the county, I fear with little effect; men are so apt to vent their own bad temper on their dogs and horses. At one of the battues at Holkham, Chantrey killed two woodcocks at one shot. Mr.
Eh bien, mon maitre, all was going on remarkably well, and I felt almost reconciled to my new situation, when who should rush into the kitchen but le fils de la maison, my young master, an ugly urchin of thirteen years or thereabouts; he bore in his hand a manchet of bread, which, after prying about for a moment, he proceeded to dip in the pan where some delicate woodcocks were in the course of preparation.
A convulsion of laughter from the party, now all assembled, followed; even the birds, awakened from their slumbers, began to sing and partake of the general hilarity. "Halloo! Mr. Three per Cent.," said one, "this is what you call sporting, is it killing starved woodcocks? Fie! sir." "You are three infamous vagabonds," replied the Parisian, catching his breath, and picking up his hat.
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