In the season there are numerous sportsmen, both English and French, and
occasionally a very fair bag may be made; but game not being preserved
systematically, the supply is variable, and accounts of sport naturally
differ very widely. We can only say that it is poor work after our
English covers, and that we know some residents at Avranches who prefer
making excursions into Brittany for a week's shooting. Trout may be
caught in tolerable abundance, and salmon of good weight are still to
be found in the rivers, but they are diminishing fast, being, as we
said, netted at night for the Paris market.[28]

It was in the shooting season of the year, when game had been unusually
scarce for the sportsman and provokingly plentiful to behold in the
market-place at Granville--when the last accounts we had of the success
of a party (who had been out for a week) was that they had bagged 'only
a few woodcocks, three partridges, and a hare or two'--that the
following clever sketch appeared in the newspapers. It was great fun,
especially amongst some of our French friends who were very fond of the
phrase 'chasse magnifique,' and resented the story as a terrible libel.

An enthusiastic French marquis offered one of our countrymen, whom he
met in Paris, a few days' shooting, in short, a 'chasse magnifique.' He
accepted and went the next day; 'the journey was seven hours by railway,
but to the true sportsman this was nothing.' The morning after his
arrival he was attended by the marquis's keeper, who, in answer to X.'s
enquiries, thus mapped out the day's sport:--

'Pour commencer, monsieur, nous chasserons dans les vignes de M. le
Marquis, où à cette saison nous trouverons certainement des
grives (thrushes).' 'Et après?' says X. 'Eh bien! après, nous
passerons une petite heure sur la grande plaine, où, sans doute,