But with ferret, dog, and gun, and now and then a partridge net
along the edge of the standing barley, they excel. So, too, with the
wire; and the broad open Downs are their happy hunting grounds,
especially in misty weather.
This is the village of the apple-bloom, the loveliest spot imaginable.
After all, they are not such desperately bad fellows if you deduct their
sins against the game laws. They are a jovial lot, and free with their
money; they stand by one another--a great virtue in these cold-blooded
days. If one gets in trouble with the law the rest subscribe the fine.
They are full of knowledge of a certain sort, and you may learn
anything, from the best way to hang a dog upwards.
When we reach the inn, and Dickon calls for the brown brandy, there in
the bar sits a gamekeeper, whose rubicund countenance beams with good
humour. He is never called upon to pay his score. Good fellow! in
addition he is popular, and every one asks him to drink: besides which,
a tip for a race now and then makes this world wear a smiling aspect to
him.
Dickon's 'unconscious education'--absorbed rather than learnt in
boyhood--had not been acquired under conditions likely to lead him to
admire scenery. But, rough as he was, he was a good-natured fellow, and
it was through him that I became acquainted with a very beautiful place.
The footpath to The Park went for about half a mile under the shadow of
elm trees, and in spring time there was a continual noise of young rooks
in the nests above.
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