time they waited to pump again, and then they come steadily on, staring up into the trees.

"Our men were all laid flat down, and the poachers came so close on to us that one of the men (a very good woolled 'un,' called Allen Ryder) made a grab at the leg of the one as carried the gun, and pulled him head over heels on to the ground.

"Of course we made a rush, and all the rest cut like anything, but we had 'em in no time; we couldn't, however, find the air-gun pump anywhere. In falling down the gun itself had got strained. The barrels were all right, but the thread of the screw inside the collar of the globe had torn out. The next thing was to count up what pheasants they'd got, and would you believe it, sir, there was sixteen found on 'em!

"It seems (as we heard at after) they had gone to another wood and looked it through, and had got five pheasauts there, and when we left the wood as we'd been tenting, they left the other, and so we'd like crossed on the road.

"We sent the rascals to the lock-up for that night, and the first thing in the morning I went with Bentley to have a look for the pump. In hunting for it we came across three more pheasants dropped in a line. Bentley says, Why, this is the road that chap took as I run down, but he was catched two hundred yards further.' We went to the place as near as we could judge, and sure enough there was another pheasant ; so they'd got twenty in a terrible short time.

"We could not find the pump then, but about two months after I was coming through the wood, and I stumbled on the pump at least sixty yards from where the scrimmage had been. It was all eat with rust, but I brought it home as a sort of a curiosity, and I fancy Captain Quentin (that's the General's son, sir) has it now. was a desperate good job getting the air-gun the very first night they used it.

It

"The old General gave Harry a five-pound note, and another five pounds among all of us; and he told me at after how glad he was I'd let Harry Lawless off in the way I did. Depend upon it, sir, it does not do to be too particular. When I didn't fetch the law of Harry I knew as well as he did that I could have dropped upon him heavy; but it was a good case for a keeper doing a bit of blowing up, and then letting there be an end to it. You see, sir, Harry didn't forget it, and it answered to me a desperate deal better than if I'd made him pay a matter of a pound or so at the time.

"This was the first time I came across Harry about the game, and he made a good thing of it; but the next time he came off second best, as I'll tell you, sir."-The Experiences of a Game Preserver; by "Deadfall" (Horace Cox, Strand).

Skates have been at a discount during the winter months of 1868 and 1869, none of the waters in the London Parks having been frozen over. To our mind, there is nothing to be compared to an oldfashioned winter, with a hard frost, and the ground covered with snow at Christmas. It is a cheery sight to see the ponds and lakes covered with skaters, and others indulging in the less graceful amusement of sliding it is a glorious spectacle when the icicles bang like brilliant gems from the trees, and when the branches are frosted over with rime, looking like the transformation-scene in one of the Christmas pantomimes. However, we must not complain. If the lovers of sports upon the ice have been deprived of their recreation, the "Nimrods" and gunners have had a glorious season; for there has been little interruption to hunting, and the return of game killed has been prodigious.

The Londoners were ever fond of skating; and Finsbury, now built over, was in the days of the historian Fitzstephen an arrant fen, of which he gives the following account, in his description of the pastimes of the citizens in his time. He refers to the awkward substitute for the skate :

"And," writes he, "when that vast lake which waters the walls of the city towards the north is hard frozen, the youth in great numbers go to divert themselves on the ice. Some, taking a small run, for an increment of velocity, place their feet at a proper distance, and are carried sliding sideways a great way. Others will make a large cake of ice; and, seating one of their companions upon it, they take hold of his hands, and draw him along, when it happens that, moving swiftly on so slippery a plain, they all fall headlong. Others there are who are still more expert in these amusements on the ice. They place certain bones-the leg-bones of animals-under the soles of their feet, by tying them round their ankles; and then, taking a pole shod with iron into their hands, they push themselves forward by striking it against the ice, and are carried on with a velocity equal to the flight of a bird, or a bolt discharged from a crossbow. These fields were, until the year 1780, the haunt of most motley amusements, and some of not the most innocent nature. Among them was every allurement to low gaming, by little fraudulent tricks. It was likewise the great gymnasium of our capital, the resort of wrestlers, boxers, runners, and football players, and every manly recreation. Here the mountebanks set up their stages, and dispensed infallible medicines for every species of disease to the gaping gulls who surrounded them. On the north part of these fields stood the Dogge House, in which were kept the hounds for the amusement of the Lord Mayor. Here resided the Common

as my master's very particular, and if I don't inform on you he's very likely to turn me off; but look here, I'll run my chance of that if you'll promise to attend to your work, and not come bothering after the game.' He gave his word as he wouldn't, and said he shouldn't have come then, but they put up a young rabbit while they were mowing, and he run after it, and got to the plantation just in time to see it go into the old cross wall.

"Harry was very much obliged by my letting him off, and I took care to let the General know what I had done. He rather blamed me for not going on with it, but I told him I thought good 'ud come of it, as Harry might some day do me a good turn. I couldn't quite make my master see it, and he talked about a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush. However, he let me do as I thought right, and it came back to me in a way I certainly never could have expected.

"I'd forgot all about it, till one night in November I happened to be giving some medicine to a dog of the General's as was very ill, when a knock came at the door, and I went to open it, and there I found my friend Harry Lawless. It was a terrible wet night, and I asked him what could have brought him out. He say, 'If you don't mind my keeping you up for half-an-hour, I'll tell you, Thornton, what's brought me.'

"He took a seat and began. Do you know Turner and Joddrell, and Elvett and Wilmot, Thornton ?' Know 'em!' I says; like I do; why, they're the biggest poachers in the county.' So they are,' he says, ' and it's them as I want to tell you on. About two months sin' two of 'em comes to me, and they says, "Can you make a hair-gun ?” "Like I can," I "Well, then," says they, says. 66 we wanten one with three barrels like in a star,' two above and one under. They must hold a good big shot each, about as big as a blacklead' (meaning a lead pencil). The gun must have a rattling great globe to it, so as to send out a lot of air at a time; and the barrels must be spread out a bit, so as to send the bullets into a spot about as big as your hand at a matter of six yards. Can you make it ?" I tell'd 'em I could, but it 'ud cost a sight o' brass. "How much?" says they. I thought a bit, and then says, "Eight pound." Eight pound!" they says; "nought o' the sort; why we could get it made in Birmingham for five.' 66 Well," I says, then get it made, but don't ask me to pump it for yer." I knowed, you see, Thornton, as if they got it done cheap it 'ud burst. Well, after a great deal of bother and baiting me down, I said I'd make it 'em for seven pound ten. They come for it about three o'clock this afternoon, and blessed if the black guards didn't offer me four pound! and at last I got 'em to allow five; but I says to myself, "I'll be even with yer, you beggars!" Now, look here, Thornton, you behaved very good-natured about that rabbit, for I heard as you'd a sore time to bring the old General round, and I says to myself, if I can do Thornton a good turn I will. I don't say, mind you, that I would have told of these chaps if they'd behaved right like, but as they have done so shabby, I've made up my mind to take it out of 'em. They'll take the gun home and see what it'll do at a mark first, and then you see they'll try it among the pheasants. There's Frank Addy

'll tell me the night they mean coming over here, and as soon as he knows I'll incense you about it. Mind, I can't say no more can Frank-whereabout they mean going. You must have middling of strength out that night, and run your chance of falling in with 'em.'`

"The next morning, about ten o'clock, Harry came again, and said that that night was the one fixed for a trial of the air-gun, and consequently we were out very strong, but could making nothing of it. I had taken care to put down' the pheasants in every wood but one, and I was quite puzzled to know how it was they had not been. I could not go to Lawless, because it might get out that I was being put up' to something or other, and then he'd have been in a mess with the poachers, and I knew 'em to be a desperate lot, as 'ud stick at nothing if he did blow upon 'em.

"I'd fixed with my men where we were to meet that night, and was just getting my supper, when a knock came at the door, and in marches Harry again.

"Now's your time, Thornton,' he says; 'the're sure to go tonight. The reason they were not out last night was because one of 'em tried a shot with the gun, and in pumping it again (on a dusty stone, I fancy it must have been) they got a piece of grit into the valve, and it began losing air like ought, and they brought it back to me, and I was nigh till twelve o'clock last night before I could get it to hold. I know very well as they'll soon spoil it, but if it last long enough for one night's work it may do you a lot of damage; and I tell you thisyou may depend it shall be made so as it shall tire 'em of it, if you and your men can't get hold of it.'

"I thanked Harry for what he had done, and what he promised to do, and gave him some whisky-and-water, and told him to go back home as soon as possible, so as not to be suspected.

"The pheasants had been put down' again, all except in one spot, and about half-past ten I started off, and met our men as I had done before.

"We went and planted at the covert where the pheasants hadn't been disturbed, and there we waited till about half-past twelve. Every thing was quite quiet, and we began to think they had been put off again somehow. We had a terrible big extent of woods and pheasants in all of 'em, and we thought we'd go and look in some of the other woods, as of course in unroosting the pheasants we couldn't make them all safe.

"We made nothing out, however, and we come back to the planting as we'd left, and I sent two of our men, named Swindells and Bentley (two rare good ones), to hearken if they could make anything out the far side, about a quarter of a mile away.

"They come back in an hour, and said they could hear nothing, and it was getting so late in the night that I had a regular bad heart of it. We had just fixed to go home, when I fancied I heard a noise like a man knocking his hands together with gloves on. I can't think of anything else as it was just like. In three or four minutes we heard it again, quite distinct. Lads,' I says, 'they're here! Down!' I whispered; look yonder! We could see five men coming quite plain, and all of a sudden they stopped, and off goes the air-gun again. This

Hunt, an officer the second in rank among those who formed the prætorian establishment. Master Swordbearer alone took place of him: Master Common Hunt followed him, and was to wait for his Lordship's commands on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays."

If a judgment be formed of a people from their favourite sports, the higher and lower classes of England were, up to a not very distant period, far from being civilized and refined. The matching wild beasts with wild beasts, and overmatching both with dogs still delight many a savage and ferocious nation.

The Spaniard's joy, though approaching much nearer to cruelty, in seeing a bull hunted down by beasts upon four legs or upon two, still gives the miserable object of the sport a sort of fair play, and calls forth into exercise the agility, strength, and dexterity of the man; but those who can take the cock-that useful domestic creature, subjected to man's dominion for his use, but not to be abused—a creature that shelters himself under the same roof with the labouring man, becomes the cheerful herald of the rising sun, to call forth man to his labourwho has no fierceness to create danger, and of a spirit and courage, when matched with his own species, that is not exceeded, perhaps not equalled, in the whole animal creation-the Englishman who can, without feeling or remorse, tie this generous creature to a stake, throw at him with clubs, and not give over while there is any appearance of life in him, is a savage; and it is to be hoped, for the honour of human nature, a savage without a parallel. This cruel sport was a trait of barbarism which for a lengthened period disgraced our country. Happily it is now abolished. Throwing at cocks on Shrove Tuesday was one of the most barbarous sports ever introduced into this country; and for a lengthened period it prevailed to a shameful extent.

Baiting a lion by three dogs in the Tower, and bull and bear-baiting were also pursued with the greatest avidity during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, so much so that in a work published by Thomas Cartwright, in 1572, he says: "If there be an animal to be baited in the afternoon, or a jackanapes to ride on horse-back, the minister hurries the service over in a shameful manner, in order to be present at the show." Perhaps, however, the following extract from "Queen Elizabeth's Progresses" will furnish an ample account of the cruelties practised during the days of the Virgin Queen: "There is a place built in the form of a theatre, which serves for the baiting of bears and bulls; they are fastened behind, and then worried by great English bull-dogs; but not without great risk to the dogs, from the horns of the one and the teeth of the other; and it sometimes happens they are killed upon the spot; fresh ones are immediately supplied in the place of those that are wounded or tired. To this entertainment there often follows that of whipping a blinded bear, which is performed by five or six men standing circularly with whips, which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape from them because of his chain; he defends himself with all his force and skill, throwing down all who come within his reach, and are not active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips out of their hands and breaking them."

Another writer says: "Near to Paris Garden, one of the ancient play-houses of our metropolis, and the arena for Sunday bear-baitings, were the Bear Garden, and place for baiting of bulls-the British