all in all. You will, however, discover in Oxford many kind-hearted seniors-ourselves, in all modesty, being included-who will generously consent, on your providing a team, to instruct you, by driving to some distant place (smoking your cigars on the road); and who having comfortably dined (at your expense) will restore you to your college, as safe (and as silly) as when you set forth.

Amongst all the vermin which adventitious circumstances have allowed to intrude themselves upon the society of men of a more liberal and energetic disposition, I know of none more contemptible than those assinine beings who hover about the world merely for the sake of getting rid of the tedium of their own spiritless existence. Nature has allotted to these epicenes a love for nothing but a display of dress, or the admiration of their own persons; perfectly useless to the rest of the world, from a total ignorance of all manly accomplishments, they are ever discontented, and at the same time they are in every body's way. Without pursuits, mental or corporeal, their grovelling natures recoil upon themselves, and they become envious without an object, and frequently malignant without previous injury. We won't now moralize about sincerity, for I begin to think that produce of "El Dorado" is not often to be met with in this life; but what makes the true man of the world so agreeable is, the perfect facility and grace with which he adapts his conversation and habits to suit, for the time being, all the classes and degrees of society into which chance may have thrown him. The more accomplishments a young man is master of, and the more agreeable he makes himself in general society, the greater proportionable number of friends will he be able to enumerate. No man, I should suppose, was a better judge of such matters than the celebrated Lord Lyttleton, who justly observes, when speaking of the acquirements of young men, in his letters, "I should most sincerely counsel every young man, who is entering on the theatre of the world, to merit the good opinion of mankind, by an easy, unaffected, and amiable deportment to all, which will do much to make his way through life respectable and happy." Now, this is all right and proper as regards the common herd of men, but with respect to that superior degree of enjoyment, which is hoped to be met with in society, it must ever be the result of taste and habits, alone emanating from minds of the same congenial tendency and growth. These useless, ephemeral beings, of whom we were before speaking, are termed, by the author of "the hints" above referred to, "The Peripatetics;" which, he says, "are so called, from no excellence in pedestrian pursuits, but because their constitution and courage render walking their sole and favourite exercise. They are good-looking generally, although effeminate in appearance; are frequently men of good connections and expectations; but are vulgarly, though truly said, to be inadequately baked.' The species is scarce; but in genial weather you may see a leash or so of them progressing up High-street, about four in the afternoon, and at the rate of one mile per hour. They will be got up' with a lavish disregard to expense, and will contemplate their boots from time to time with the most tender fondness. They bear with them the newest fashions in canes, the silver tops of which they diligently gnaw.

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They are redolent of perfume; and if they could be taught to run and jump, they would furnish a superior 'drag.' Their forte is supposed to be lying in bed, which they practise extensively, having medical certificates forbidding chapel. They have a dressing-case about the size of a plate-chest; and their morning-gown has a carpet pattern transplanted to velvet. Malicious 'scouts' have hinted at stays, and valets dismissed have sworn to curl-papers. They rally each other on being fast-men,' which shews they possess much imaginative power. They allude, obscurely, to certain excesses in the country of a dark (and fictitious) character. They rarely take a degree, nor is it ascertained what becomes of them after they leave the University. There is an extravagant theory that they are converted into Peacocks."

THE PLEASURES OF PARTRIDGE SHOOTING.

BY ORNITHER.

"Lo! into view from yonder ferny glade

Stalks the brown sportsman, questing for his game;
With gun bright glancing in the morning sun,
And bounding dogs."

THE GEORGO-BION MS. POEM.

Over sportsmen of every denomination in this country, not excepting the fisherman, though he, indeed, reckons many varieties of finny prey, the gunner has equally an advantage in the multitude of species, and consequent diversity in form, of his quarry, and in the charming mutations of scenery, which the pursuit of the several branches of his amusement affords him.

Without entering here upon the vexata questio as to what fieldsport contributes the largest amount of pleasurable excitement to its followers-a dispute which, after all, every man will decide according to the bias of his own peculiar taste, regardless of the most conclusive arguments that can be advanced in favour of a sport he does not relish-we may be allowed to sustain this our position by briefly comparing, in these respects, with shooting, the other predatory sports of Great Britain.

Chief among the hunter's quarry are the stag, the fox, and the hare; for the otter, limited in numbers and to few localities, does not often form the object of his deliberate pursuit. His choice of amusements, then, is narrow enough; and, whichsoever he may select, the scenery that the chace unfolds to him, though frequently abounding in beauty, is strictly inland.

The patient "brother of the angle," too, if he rejoices in the many kinds of fish his art hath mastered, from the "stately salmon" to the

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dappled minnow," must content himself with the river or the loch. True, there open up to him occasionally grand glimpses of scenery, still he has ever before him water: it is with that his business lies, and to that he must give attention; and clear, fresh, and lightreflecting as water is, the fisherman's eye is often awearied of its glitter ere the day closes.

A far wider privilege, in every sense, is the gunner's; for land, sky, and water, teeming with life, yield tribute to him. The princely stag in the forest, the graceful roebuck in the upland shaws, the hare in the woods, the rabbit in the furze bushes, the grouse and plover on the mountains, the pheasant in the coverts, the partridge on the plains, the woodcock at the sheltered springs, the snipe in the marshes, the wild-duck on the rivers and lakes, with an endless variety of fowl on the sea-flats and in the cliffs-all these, with every bird that "spreads the wing," are available to his skill and subject to his pleasure. What a delightful succession of scenery, what a change in the art of capture, does the pursuit of so many creatures afford! How suggestive of contemplation in the shooter is the speaking fact which meets him at every turn, that in nature there is no void! He finds the land peopled with busy life, and so the water, and so the air. How provocative, moreover, of admiration, is the adaptation of structure to its purposes he daily witnesses in his quarry! how beautiful their form, and the colours wherein they have been arrayed! Were it simply then on no other grounds than these, commend us, we say, to the occupation of the gunner: it is our weakness or our strength, as the prejudice or sympathy of the reader shall determine.

To confine our remarks, however, to a single pastime out of the many the shooter follows, we select one which, at this season of the year, has an especial interest, namely, the sport of partridge shooting.

From the termination of the cold, bleak month of January, when the sportsman cheerfully laid by his darling gun, a period of seven months has elapsed when the joy-imparting privilege of shooting is again accorded him. During the interval necessary for the important work of reproduction in the animals of the chace, and therefore not only unbegrudgingly allowed, but jealously respected by every true lover of the sport, the coveys have multiplied in a ten-fold ratio, and now, arrived at maturity, await in happy ignorance of their coming fate, the advent of the fowler. Meanwhile, the sportsman has been all anxiety, and latterly is full of eager anticipation. Has the season been dry or wet, favourable or otherwise, his sympathies have gone with it; he hopes and fears, doubts and questions; but his curiosity is never satisfied, until, the wheat crops cleared away, he tests by personal examination the true state of the case, knows the number and strength of the game, and limits his expectations, and adopts his measures accordingly. Nor can there well be a better preparative for the long sustained exertion demanded of the shooter, than is afforded by the toilsome beats he generally undertakes prior to the commencement of the season: besides inuring him to fatigue, they serve other and valuable purposes. They give him (what is most desirable to be learnt) a correct knowledge of the favourite haunts of

his game; they impart to him a steadiness often wanting in those who neglect to accustom themselves to the springing of birds, before they come to them with the gun in their hands; and lastly, they enable him to bring his dogs to that steady discipline, and familiarity with their duties, which so long a desuetude to the field had in some degree loosened. For our own part, we have annually derived both experience and pleasure from these and the minor preparations for the season, and we doubt not that others have done the same.

Most opportunely for heightening its attractions, the sport of partridge-shooting commences, at, perhaps, the most charming period of the year: save by those who, constrained by circumstances, may not cast off the world's harness wherein they toil, the month of September would seem dedicated by general acclaim to enjoyment and recreation. The oppressive heats of the dog-days have declined, the air is singularly balmy and invigorating, and nature, as if aware of their approaching severance, appears to clasp summer in a last embrace. The fruits of the earth for the most part are gathered in, and tokens of plenty and gladness are visible throughout the land. Not unwise is he who, shunning the frivolous gaieties, the follies, and dissipations of fashionable watering-places, betakes himself to the gun, and seeks a healthful spirit-recruiting pleasure in the country.

Has the shooter previous to the "glorious first," enjoyed the exciting sport afforded by the moors, where all is sterility, this later pastime, pursued in the luxuriant enclosures, will prove to him an agreeable change. The grouse, shunning the encroachments of civilized man, may only be hunted in the deep solitudes of the mountains, and is instinctively shy and distrustful; but the partridge, bolder and more confiding, makes his home in the labour-tilled plains, where he offers by numbers, and the peculiar qualities of his nature, a covetable source of diversion.

However, whether the maiden-shot of the season be fired at grouse or partridge, matters little; the gunner's business now is with the latter of the two, so let him commend himself to the sport with devotion and diligence.

Talk of days spent in honourable prominence before the world's eye-of race days, review days, or the other occasions on which you cut a distinguished figure-what day is there of the whole calendar that yields so wholesome and thoroughly self-satisfying a pleasure as do those spent in shooting? Take, for instance, a day's diversion in September. With the first pale glimmer of morn, the eager sportsman is astir-fortified against fatigue by a meal such as only sportsmen make, with dogs yet more impatient than himself for the approaching chace, he takes the field. The stillness of nature is unbroken, the air is cool, fresh and bracing, and a thin mist hangs low on the earth; suddenly peeps out "the flaming chariot of the world's great eye," the clouds disperse, and the fog vanishes, disclosing a dewy landscape, which glitters in the level sunbeams, and whose manifold beauties make the dullest heart swell with grateful emotion. Self-possessed and vigilant, he advances through crackling stubbles, fragrant turnip-fields, and leg-tiring potato grounds, beating carefully, and taking pride in his generalship, and finding, flushing, and

thinning many a noble covey in his way. At noon, as quaint Master Chalkhill hath sung of the fisherman

"When the sun's excessive heat

Makes the body swelter,

To an osier hedge he goes

For a friendly shelter;

Or doth sometime pass an hour
Under a green willow;

That defends him from a shower,

Making earth his pillow."

Here, surrounded by dogs and dead game, with the savoury and welcome appliances of refreshment before him, he luxuriates to his heart's content, and rises and renews the sport with recruited strength to persevere in it.

Nor are the self-gratulations arising from a judicious management of your dogs, and the feelings you experience on witnessing their almost human sagacity under various circumstances, to be overlooked in enumerating the pleasures of partridge-shooting. Dogs, like men, exhibit distinct gradations of talent and diversities of character, easily recognisable by the attentive observer. They have their aptitudes and their likings for this or that department of their duty. We once had a team so perfect in these particulars, that few sportsmen have known a better. It consisted of two pointers and a setter: of the former, one, called "Dewlap," was famous throughout the neighbourhood for his excellence at grouse and partridge; the other, called "Bess," piqued herself on recovering a wounded bird, which she never failed in, if she had but time to make him out, and was most assiduous in working out a hare; the setter, "Beau," had a penchant for a pheasant, and never crossed the stain of one but he followed it to the bird itself, or to where it had taken wing. To collect such a team as this should be the aim of all who would kill much game, and keep but few dogs.

Should a neophyte in the delectable art of shooting read this paper, let him but attend to the following advice, and we guarantee him a heavy bag. Beat scrupulously close, without neglecting what may seem the least likely place; for birds will creep anywhere, and lie sometimes on spots as bare as your hand. Keep well up with your dogs, yet allow them reasonable time; forecasting, as far as possible, to keep their heads against the wind. When you spring a covey, be sure to single out some particular bird, from which on no account suffer your eye to move till you have fired. Bring the gun not merely up to him, so that he appears resting, as it were, upon the muzzle of the piece-a sure blunder in most shooters, through which they strike the game low-but cover him well (if you see but the head so much the better); then, let but the hand respond promptly to to the eye, and your success, if the object be within proper distance, is certain. The secret of coolness, though of inestimable value, since by this men kill without shattering their game, may not be conveyed by precept; though an earnest endeavour to obtain it, backed by a moderate share of practice, will never fail to secure it for him; and it is not until that requirement is obtained that the finish of the sportsman can be termed complete

Sept. 1st., 1844.