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and sometimes ran a horse on the flat or in a steeple-chase; few men better knew the qualities, qualifications, and capabilities of horses than the Colonel as race-horses, hunters, or trotters. Few men's chargers were more highly broken, and few men rode them better. In the hunting field he was a bold and judicious rider, and with strong nerve, fine hands, and fine horses, he was a difficult man to beat, and if he saw any one making the attempt to do it he would have ridden at a precipice. This did not make him a sportsman; and when I say that a flower show at Chiswick would have more attraction than a fixture in the best Leicestershire country, it will show that he was not so. The reason he would prefer the former to the latter was simply that with an equipage to his taste, money in his pocket, and consequently high spirits at command, he knew that he was certain to be a prominent person on such an occasion.

Though much and many things the Colonel did and said created a suspicion of great affectation, they were really more the result of habit and peculiarity than arising from so paltry a cause as common affectation. He had a peculiar but most winning description of voice and articulation, almost at times amounting to a lisp, that gave a great piquancy to what he said, but also gave some foundation for the charge to which I have alluded. Some little share of affectation no doubt he had, but I daily see others with a great deal more without one half the excuse for it; and if affected he was, it was affectation of a much higher grade than that of a fop or dandy, both of whom he despised as much as any man. peculiar manner no man can describe; it seemed a child of his own creating; a style he had formed for himself-and had any other man attempted the same, it would not have been a copy, but a bad caricature.

His

He adopted also a somewhat peculiar style of dress. It was of the D'Orsay school, but modified and less apparently studied; it suited his peculiar walk, I should say step and carriage; but had a man been seen bustling along the street so attired, he would have been taken for a foreign charlatan or croupier. Standing by the side of, or in a fashionable equipage, it looked well on the particular man, but it certainly was not the costume of an English gentleman. His very worst taste was a little addiction to finery in the shape of a profusion of velvet, and gold ornaments; this was little short of vulgar, still on him it passed muster. He was known; but woe to the man who was not, had he adopted the same style.

Never, I believe, were contrasts exhibited to the same extent in mortal as in Copland. He would, and often did, wear a lady's veil over his face, to keep off the inconvenience of the sun and dust when driving; but he would doff that hat and all, the next minute, to give a carter a drubbing if he deserved it. He would wrap his legs and person in the most expensive furs if the wind was keen, yet would face the most biting cold if he fancied a turn at duck shooting. I firmly believe he would have given a hundred guineas if it would or could save him the unpleasantry of having a deep-seated thorn extracted from his finger, but the next minute would risk his limbs and neck on some exploit that few men but himself would dare encounter, if a bet or pitting himself against another induced him to it. He shrank from pain, disliked exertion, and ten times more detested personal inconvenience of any sort ;

THE FIRST OF OCTOBER.

but he would brave either or all for display and popularity, and I doubt
not would have equally done so where honour called for the sacrifice.
It is no uncommon practice with persons writing the characters of
others to give their opinion of the individual as a whole, namely, as one
to be decried as vicious or lauded as its reverse. This I hold to be, in

the first place, overstepping the limits of the writer's prerogative, and is
at the same time both arrogant and futile-it is arrogant as supposing
the writer's individual opinion should fix the fiat of any man's character;
and it is futile, for fortunately in a general way it would not.

In what I have said of the subject of these pages I have been guided to the best of my judgment strictly by truth; have "nothing extenuated or aught set down in malice." Let the reader pronounce such sentence as a knowledge of the fallibility of human nature may induce him to think a just one. And as he must be a man of virtue far beyond his fellow man, if he does not feel the necessity of invoking a lenient criticism of his own acts, so let him not assume the hypercritic in his judgment of those of others.

Whatever may have been Colonel Copland's failings, and many I allow they were-whoever may have more or less suffered from knowing him, still many have benefited by it. quaintance with him been so placed as to bring about an event that If one in particular has from acrescued him from difficulties and put him in possession of luxury and fortune-if that one, when the world deserted their once worshipped idol, held out the hand of assistance and attuned the voice of consolation to the origin of his happy destiny, his conscience must be a lasting source of pleasing retrospection to him; if, on the other hand, he acted a diametrically opposite part, then to him I dedicate the forthgoing pages.

THE FIRST OF OCTOBER,

BY RAMROD.

"He is lord in the dark green wood."

BARRY CORNWALL.

The above line may well be applied to the noble cock-pheasant, which is of all birds the most handsome. possess such elegant plumage, or have such a dignified appearance as None other of the game tribe this "lord of the dark green wood."

Pheasants are a species of birds allied to the domestic fowls; consequently they partake of many of their habits; and it is strange that in selecting a place for their nests, they always choose a spot close to some public path or road, hence the cause of their eggs falling an easy prey to the poacher. I myself have seen a hen-pheasant sitting so near a much-frequented path, that the dresses of females must have swept

;

the bush in which she was, as they passed to and fro that bird hatched notwithstanding, and brought twelve, all of which she took away safe amongst them was a pied one, the handsomest of the sort I ever beheld. I had frequent opportunities of seeing it, as the brood located themselves near the house, where they remained for some time after they grew up.

By law pheasant-shooting commences on the first of October, and ends on the first of February, that day being inclusive. Very little can be done at the sport during the month of October, for at that time it is almost impossible to shoot in coverts on account of the leaves being yet on the trees. The only plan then is to start early in the morning, to make a circuit, and so get between the birds and their strongholds. As soon as they perceive you they will most likely make to the hedgerows, and then comes the prettiest sport imaginable. For this work choose a steady setter, or a retriever that has been tutored to beat a few yards from you; a wild, or what is termed a well-ranging dog will spoil your sport, and the sport will also spoil him, young pheasants being apt to run much in the long grass before they rise, which is trying to a dog. If the weather is wet, pheasants prefer the hedge-rows to the woods, as they have an objection to the droppings from the trees, and for the same cause may they be found at such times in the young springs adjoining high trees, in which after a certain age they roost. A laughable incident occurred to a friend and myself, when we were one day out shooting. We had found a pheasant, which got up wild from a hedgerow, and which we marked down, as we thought, in some springs beneath high trees; upon proceeding to the place we could not find the bird, and after having searched diligently for some time, we uncocked our guns, laid them down on the ground, and commenced eating our luncheon, making some fallen trees serve the places of a table and chairs. We had nearly finished our repast when, to our great astonishment, out of the tree we had been sitting under, and with a crow of defiance, flew our friend the pheasant; before we could reach our guns it was out of shot, but if any bird deserved to escape, as a reward for sang froid, that bird did. As the pheasant is such a large object, it would seem impossible to miss it, the mark it affords being almost as large as a barn-door; but such is not the case, for though a heavy bird, it rises fast, consequently many fire under it. Though I have concluded the door of a barn to be an easy shot, I am not so sure such is the case, for I once asked a friend of mine to try a gun at a mark fixed to a barn door, and he not only missed the mark, but the door also! I believe he considered himself a good shot; perhaps he was, but it was before I knew him. With the long bow he certainly excelled, though he came it a little too strong at times; but I am now shooting very wide, and must endeavour to get nearer the mark.

The exact time to fire at the pheasant is the instant it ceases to rise, and assumes a horizontal flight; at that moment it presents an easy mark, and cannot well be missed; but most people fire too soon, and whilst the game is rising. With what a startling sound does this large bird move from amongst the bushes! and little is it to be surprised at that the young, if not the old, sportsman should feel nervous when he pulls the trigger; and this is the cause why the gaudy favourite so often escapes. That almost every juvenile sportsman fires too quick there

can be little doubt; and that the sudden whirr of the pheasant has the effect of unnerving many, is equally certain; hence the advantage of accustoming the ear early to such sounds, and the plan of levelling at objects with an unloaded gun; as I have noticed in that article, entitled, "The Gun; and how to use it." To bring the eye and hand readily to act together should be the constant endeavour of the sportsman: as soon as this is accomplished all difficulty is at an end, and good shooting the result. There is nothing I like better to observe than a thoroughly good shot; the coolness he displays, and the neat way in which he kills his game, are always pleasing to me. But to see a bungler at work, with his elbows squared and his back bowed, maiming his victims, is just as disagrecable a spectacle, and one too often seen; for though every other man considers himself a sportsman, not one in a hundred is so really; and this may be said of three out of four of the individuals who are seen in the High-street at Cheltenham, with red coats on, during the hunting season. Let anyone who wishes to convince himself of the fact just take a canter with Lord Fitzhardinge's hounds, and he will see where these gentlemen are, and how they go in a run. There are fair ones to kill as well as foxes. To sport for sporting's sake, and to sport for the sake of being a sportsman, are two separate things, and the latter is more frequently the case than the first. I have had the satisfaction of being acquainted with some first-rate sportsmen in my time-and a satisfaction it is to know such men-and therefore have had opportunities of seeing the difference, and contrasting the two.

In beating an extensive cover, and one not full of game, it is perfectly useless to take a team of wild spaniels; if you do, the odds are you may walk the whole day and not see a head of game: the best plan is to take only a well-broke steady setter, and one that will not range too wide; you will thus be able to walk up to your dog, and get a shot at every head of game moved. Though this is hard work, especially if your coverts lie on hill-sides, you will have the satisfaction of getting a bag for your pains. I recollect, when I was a boy at home, an individual who used to come across our ground, and act in the way I have mentioned; he was a first-rate shot, a first-rate walker, a first-rate poacher, and consequently a first-rate nuisance. I will answer for it, that man killed more game in one week than any other person did in a month. With one setter taught to retrieve, and which he always walked up to, he would visit his neighbours rather too often, and woe to any game that came within the range of his musket, for it was soon deposited in his capacious pockets, which would accommodate themselves to receive any quantity of game. I always could recognize the sound of my friend's gun, which went off like a squib, it being his policy not to make any more noise than he could help. To search for him was useless, for he was half a mile off on his own or his neighbour's land, so soon as he thought it advisable to make himself scarce. He had, I remember, a most extraordinary dog-a sheep-cur, which was as staunch as a wellbroke setter, and would retrieve in first-rate style. But almost any sort of dog may be taught to point, and we have heard of pigs doing so as well. Some years ago Mr. Toomer, gamekeeper to Sir Henry Mildmay, taught a pig to act as a pointer. Daniel says "she would stand a jack snipe when all the pointers had passed it; and she would back the dogs

when they pointed, but they would not back her. Her pace was mostly a trot; she was seldom known to gallop, except when called to go out shooting. She always expressed much pleasure when game, either dead or living, was placed before her. She has frequently stood a single partridge at forty yards' distance-her nose in a direct line to the bird : after standing some considerable time, she would drop like a setter, still keeping her nose in the right direction, and would continue in that position until the game moved. If it took wing she would come up to the place, and draw slowly after it, and when the bird dropped she would stand it as before." This, and other facts which came under our notice, leads me to feel convinced that almost all animals may be educated, if sufficient pains are bestowed upon them.

Some dogs are broke with less difficulty than others; and this depends very much upon the breed, and whether the parents had received a proper education; for there can be no doubt that acquired qualities may be transmitted by animals to progeny. On this head Mr. J. A. Knight, in a communication to the Royal Society in 1807, says

"In all animals this is observable; but in the dog it exists to a wonderful extent, and the offspring appears to inherit not only the passions and propensities, but even the resentments of the family from which it springs. I ascertained that a terrier, whose parents had been in the habit of fighting with polecats, will instantly show every mark of anger when he first perceives the scent of that animal, though the animal itself be wholly concealed from his sight. A young spaniel brought up with the terriers showed no marks of emotion at the scent of the polecat, but it pursued a woodcock the first time it saw one, with clamour and exultation: and a young pointer, which I am certain had never seen a partridge, stood trembling with anxiety, its eyes fixed, and its muscles rigid, when conducted into the midst of a covey of those birds. Yet cach of these dogs is a mere variety of the same specics, and to that species none of these habits are given by nature. The peculiarities of character can therefore be traced to no other source than the acquired habits of the parents, which are inherited by the offspring, and become what I call instinctive hereditary propensities."

Mr. Knight, when he wrote this, had been for nearly sixty years pursuing investigation on the subject; and therefore I feel the quotation needs no apology for its introduction.

Oh that I may never be fated to spend October-that most delightful month of the whole year-encircled by bricks and mortar ! that month when everybody who can rushes either to dip in the briny, shoot cockpheasants, or partake of some one country recreation. To be left in London at this time is worse punishment than transportation; to feel yourself the last rose of summer is fearful; and if thoughts of the Serpentine or Waterloo Bridge enter the mind under such circumstances, who can be surprised? To watch the expiring embers of the London season, as carriage after carriage rolls packed from the different doors, and house after house is closed, is to me melancholy. Some time ago I was detained almost the whole year in London; at least, from November of one, till October of the next year, was I doomed to the pavé. I had promised myself a few days' fishing during the period of the Mayfly, but business obliged me to forego the pleasure; then I looked forward to September, but here again was I disappointed, for the friend I was to visit, and who had first-rate partridge-shooting, was unexpectedly called away from home on urgent business a few days before the first. At length October arrived, on the first day of which I was engaged to shoot with a very old friend in Herefordshire, whose preserves were the

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