rush-covered corner, with a ring of oaks round, the Thames at the bottom,
and some tall chestnut-trees on the outside. As the men advanced we had a
regular rise of wild pheasants, rocketing up from the reeds in every
direction high over the oaks and chestnuts. A fox helped the fun by
trotting up and down in the reeds uncertain which way to go, and flushing
the birds as he did so. Then the rushes were walked out and the rabbits
sent darting in every direction. After this we hardly found a bird or
rabbit in that corner during the season.

That year the wood gave constant sport, far better than in the later
years. There were three times as many rabbits, as well as hares and
pheasants.

One day in January we shot it during a fall of fine, dry snow. As the day
went on the ground grew white, and our coats whiter. At luncheon the men
were quite prepared for the emergency, or rather had prepared for it the
day before when the frost began. They had a bonfire of brambles a dozen
feet high, and faggots ready as seats, one set for us on one side of the
fire, another for themselves on the other. The roaring blaze of the fire
warmed us through and through, and by the end of luncheon our coats, which
had been powdered with snow, were grey with wood ash descending. During
this day a fox hung round us during the whole shoot. I think he must have
been picking up and burying or hiding wounded rabbits, for every now and
then he would come out into the ride, carefully smell the various places
where rabbits had crossed, and then, selecting one, would go off like a
retriever into the cover.