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"It's true," said the master.

"And I'll swear to that," added the butler.

"Lord preserve us !" I ejaculated. "I have heard of Kilkenny cats; but, after this warning, I would rather encounter a saw-pit full, than dip a toe into a Mayo river that held a pike."

The scarcity of grouse in Ireland is referrible to many causes--neglect of protection and the squatting system, that sends the exuberant population from the low country to the Highlands. The kite and the cur-dog are equally destructive; and probably, for one brood matured, a dozen perish in the shell. I know more than one expanse of moorland, on which, in my boyhood, twenty brace could have been shot; and now the chances are that the walk of a summer's day would scarcely secure a couple. Rifled by birds of prey; robbed by half-starved urchins, in a few years more a grouse in Ireland will be looked upon as a curiosity.

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It will hardly be credited, but it is the fact, that the extirpation of the red deer in "the far west" may be dated to a political causenamely, the landing of Humbert at Killala. The mountain peasantry, until that epoch, in the wilds of Erris, neither possessed nor understood the use of fire-arms. The French invaders brought with them an extensive supply; and numbers of Republican muskets found their way to strath and hill, where never a gun had been seen or heard before, except when some gentleman-and only now and then-traversed these wastes, in the season when grouse are shot. deer-stalking, the sportsman's chances of success, from the alpine country the animals could fall back upon when alarmed, were very few; but when the resident mountaineers were armed-when the snow covered every high ground, and winter and bad weather had forced the red deer to leave their fastnesses, and the grouse to seek the herdsman's door-then the fatal gifts of the French invaders proved destructive; and the brass-clasped musket of the peasant did more mischief in a stormy week than all the qualified shooters had effected in a season.

The old priest of confessed to me, (6 sub sigillo" of course, and, I may add, over a stoop of as good diluted potceine as ever issued from a still, that within a snowy month, a year or two "after the French," he had obtained in presents more venison than kept his house.

We have lost sight of the Erris highlands for ten years; and we have doubts whether a cloot-mark of a red deer has been traceable among them for half that period. Often in our boyhood have we numbered half a score antlered heads in a single herd. Ichabod! The sporting glory of "the far west" has departed.

In the west of Ireland there are extensive warrenries; for the large expanse of sandy billocks that occasionally fringe the Atlantic, although irreclaimable for the uses of the plough, produce bent-grass extensively, and afford the rabbits a facility for burrowing, that they particularly delight in. These sterile districts have sometimes a drawback; for a gale of wind, and that, too, lasting as it does fre

quently for a whole week, sands up the burroughs; and I knew one case occur between Louisburgh and the Killeries, where a rabbit community of thousands, which colonized a league of sand, were, by a gale of wind and tremendous spring-tide, absolutely exterminated; there are sand-rabbits and bush-rabbits. You can ferret the one, and now and again can shoot the other; but there was one settlement in a mountain gorge in the Western Highlands, called Loughtey, which set all human expedients at defiance.

A narrow valley, walled in by steep, bold hills, opens there the moorland with the low country. A mountain stream flows through it; and its sheltered advantages have induced the ultra population, for fifty years, to squat, partially reclaim, and cultivate poor crops. of potatoes, and miserable ones of oats. The eastern hill has all the evidence of a volcanic origin. The whole face presents a mass of disrupted rock, the stones lying disjointedly one upon the other. The chasms shattered into a thousand rents, and extending under ground, Heaven knows to what extent. There, in 1820, a wild colony of rabbits had established itself; and, in a brief space, the numbers had increased enormously. The founder rabbits had shown admirable military tact. No shooter could approach them within a hundred yards without being discovered; and from the lateral communications-a whole hill-side, and perforated at every yarda ferret was altogether useless. Of a summer evening, in their rocky outlets you could see them by the dozen, lying basking on the ledges of shattered granite. On the valley below they fed after night-fall; and at last, from their spoliations, the human colony had to move on, and abdicate in their favour.

Neither net nor gun could be employed to check their annoying fecundity; but another and more deadly enemy invaded a fortress proof against human artifice. A female cat disappeared from a herdsman's house, and was accompanied by her feline brood. A year afterwards, the rabbits showed symptoms of rapid diminution; and, occasionally, cats of enormous size were seen now and again among the rocks. I saw one huge animal myself, and splintered with a bullet the rock on which she lay. No living thing, however, could get within shot-range. They were ever on the qui vive; and the last time I made enquiry, I was assured that, from the immense increase of the cat tribe, Loughtey would be rabbitless within a year or two.

CAPTAIN PIGSKIN'S VISIT

TO THE

ВАТИ AND BRISTOL STEEPLE CHASES;

TOGETHER WITH

SOME DETAILS OF THE NEIGHBOURING SPORTING QUARTERS.

BY LINTON.

Having visited the metropolis for a few days on matters of businessthe sole cause which would ever induce us to travel even to that most splendid capital at this walnut-cracking season of the year-chance led us through the street in which an ancient military friend has for years inhabited bachelor apartments; that is to say, a comfortable second floor in the west-end-for Pigskin, being a man of taste, prefers to breathe the breath of life in an aristocratic atmosphere; and although to hear him talk of the mountain and the flood, the wood and the vale, you would imagine him to have been born a shepherd or bred a gamekeeper, he nevertheless clings to the smoky air of the city for ten months out of twelve, passing the remaining two, generally the first of the year, in country rambles similar to those we are about to relate.

Being alive to Pigskin's peculiarities, as well as to the delight he ever experienced in detailing his little sporting rambles to an acquaintance, and having an idle hour on hand, we called at our friend's abode, and, as we had reason to believe would be the case, found him at home; we therefore quickly mounted to his retreat, and were duly welcomed. As we have already said, Pigskin was, or professed to be, a man of taste; moreover, an ardent lover of the country, and a practical sportsman in all matters appertaining to the chace. We greatly fear, however, our good friend's practice was in reality theory; for we question if he ever shot four brace of birds in his life, or ever witnessed the killing of a fox after a fair run in the open, however frequently he may have been at the death of a chopped one. However, as the world goes, he knows more than many, and, to take him at his own word, more than most.

On entering his snug apartment, which was decorated in half metropolitan and half sporting style, yet containing all the comforts of bachelorship-which infers abundant, selfish, snoozy, after-dinner armchairs, a good lounging sofa, well-polished boots by the fire-side though his bedchamber opened into his sitting-room, with sundry hats, sticks, &c., without one accompanying elegancy supplied by female hands. Here we found our friend Pigskin warmly clad in a Scotch plaid dressing-gown, with his slippered feet on the fender-for the morning was a rainy and foggy first of November-reclining in his easy chair, with paper-knife in hand, enjoying the perusal of the Sporting Mag. that morning received. On our opening the door he arose and gave us a hearty shake of the hand, and we were soon in friendly chat, having reference to the county and its sporting neighbourhood, from whence we

had arrived on the previous day. As, however, an hour was far too little for the worthy Captain to dilate on his favourite topic, and we had an appointment with one whose time was precious-and we consider it not only the courtesy but the duty of life never to neglect one, if practicable, when once made-having no dinner engagement for the day, we promised to return at seven and partake of such tête-à-tête hospitality as was kindly offered to us. At seven precisely we accordingly made our appearance, and found our worthy host prepared to receive us, in full costume, white waistcoat and neckcloth: this, however, was one of his proper peculiarities, with which we are far from finding fault; for nothing are more agreeable than the courtesies of life-nothing more disgusting than the neglect of them. Five minutes after our arrival the dinner was served hot and excellent, London cod and native oysters; boiled leg of mutton, followed by snipe and an omelet. What from the book of gastronomy could have been selected more to the purpose? True, the Captain was from the land of kilts; but no sooner was he breeched by his appointment to a trouser-wearing English regiment, than he forgot, in a great measure, the stirabout and cock-a-leekie, and took to good wholesome fare and French cookery. Previous to entering further on our subject, however, we beg leave to introduce to our readers the hero whose sporting adventures we are about to relate. The worthy Pigskin, though truly his name does not smack of the Highlands or clanship, was born in the neighbourhood of Invergordon, in the county of Inverness; at least such was the place from whence he annually received the rental of a few patrimonial acres, his worthy sire being, or rather was, what anent the Border would be termed a laird on the small scale, that is, an hereditary holder of two hundred acres of freehold land, two-thirds of it consisting of heathered mountain-fit holding for grouse, fit feeding for sheep-the remainder being arable and valley land, through which flowed a trout and salmon stream. The former, in the days of Pigskin's boyhood, was valued at about five shillings an acre, and the latter at about thirty; in those we live in, the little estate is somewhat more valuable, as possessing shooting for one gun, and sheep feeding being in the ascendancy. All the world may therefore pretty accurately judge the means the Captain had at his disposal for sporting recreations by adding the addition of his half-pay to the amount of his valuable freehold; bearing in mind that such an individual's papa, in the land of fraternity," would very properly be termed "un petit proprietaire," and in merry England, very improperly, a gentlemanfarmer-a term we have never been able to understand, or the justice of which appellation we can never admit of. A gentleman may be wellinformed as regards the theory of farming, and find much delight in all agricultural pursuits, but it by no means follows that he is a farmer; yet such a man can only be properly termed a gentleman-farmer. On the other hand, a farmer may possess a hundred acres of freehold land, and be a most upright, hospitable, and well-conducted yeoman, but it by no means constitutes him a gentleman; and it is even a matter of surprise to us that an English yeoman, the finest race in Europe, should ever covet a title to which he has no right, and the assumption of which only causes ridicule.

"

But to return to Pigskin: he was an only son, and having received that education which falls to the lot of most Scotch urchins—that is,

having partially learnt to read and write from the parish clergyman-he obtained a commission through the influence of some far-distant Scotch cousin in office, and was sent to England; which, after having seen some service in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, he found so pleasing to his tastes as a residence, that, like nine-tenths of his countrymen who cross the border to make their fortunes, he never attempted to re-cross it. While dwelling on his very just appreciation, doubtless, of our better climate and cuisine, we may add that it does appear marvellous that while England can boast of so many young men, well-born, well-bred, and well-educated, moreover who have what is usually termed immense political influence, and very strong claims of talent and of qualification for the duties, be they what they may, which they desire to perform for the public of their native land, they may seek and solicit till they die heartbroken and disappointed, while not a Gazette appears without the name of Mac This or Mac That being appointed to regiments, or ships, or consulships, or secretaries of legation; in fact, being shipped on the voyage to fortune and independence. And such was the case with our friend Pigskin. He went to sleep one night in his kilt, having feasted himself with brose and whiskey toddy, after passing the day with sundry bare-legged callants tod-hunting-Anglicè fox-hunting-on the rocky mountains, and rose next morning a full-pay ensign in the dirty halfhundredth no offence, believe us, to one of the most gallant regiments in the service.

Pigskin served with credit to himself in the Peninsula, and nursed his resources, and having retired on half-pay at the end of the war, we find him at the age of fifty enjoying his independence and his small patrimony as we have already detailed. In person our friend was by no means a beauty, though his face bore the stamp of intelligence and frankness; the few crisp and curly locks which still shadowed his bald crown bespoke the national colour, and his broad and neatly clad figure evinced the even temper and comfortable living of the man; on the other hand, he was as little fitted for the saddle as he was for any of those active pursuits on which he so fondly loved to dwell. However, take Pigskin for all in all, he was a very good fellow; and having done ample justice to his well-cooked and well-served dinner, we drew our chairs to the fire, filled a bumper of claret, cracked walnut No. 1, and prepared to listen to our entertainer's wanderings.

"Having made up my mind for a ramble," said Pigskin, "I packed my carpet-bag, and pocketed my cigar-case: the former is generally sufficient to convey my wardrobe; the other is as necessary to me as my daily bread-that is to say when filled-and having shaved, due attention to its state is my next matutinal duty, awaiting the results of time and weather, as I am one of those who often act from the impulse of the moment, and start for a distant spot with little consideration as to time or place. Such was my case in this instance: the day, though one of early March, dawned in all the splendour of latter April; and having discussed my coffee and muffin, and lighted the three inches of Havannah tobacco which invariably forms my sequel to such meal, I threw up the sash and cast my eye o'er the opposite chimney-pots towards the park, sniffing a little of the fresh air from that quarter. Whether it was this trifling besmoked inhalation of the western breeze, or the bright sun, or the sparrows which chirped on the chimney-tops of

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