ant! a
superb cock pheasant! Nothing is more certain than Dash's questing,
whether in a hedgerow or covert, for a better spaniel never went into
the field; but I fancied that it was a hare afoot, and was almost as
much startled to hear the whirring of those splendid wings, as the
princely bird himself would have been at the report of a gun. Indeed, I
believe that the way in which a pheasant goes off, does sometimes make
young sportsmen a little nervous, (they don't own it very readily, but
the observation may be relied on nevertheless), until they get as it
were broken in to the sound; and then that grand and sudden burst of
wing becomes as pleasant to them as it seems to be to Dash, who is
beating the hedgerow with might and main, and giving tongue louder, and
sending the leaves about faster than ever--very proud of finding the
pheasant, and perhaps a little angry with me for not shooting it; at
least looking as if he would be angry if I were a man; for Dash is a
dog of great sagacity, and has doubtless not lived four years in the
sporting world without making the discovery, that although gentlemen do
shoot, ladies do not.

The Loddon at last! the beautiful Loddon! and the bridge, where every
one stops, as by instinct, to lean over the rails, and gaze a moment
on a landscape of surpassing loveliness,--the fine grounds of the Great
House, with their magnificent groups of limes, and firs, and poplars
grander than ever poplars were; the green meadows opposite, studded with
oaks and elms; the clear winding river; the mill with its picturesque
old buildings, bounding the scene; all glowing with the rich colouring
of autumn, and harmonised by the soft beauty of the clear blue sky, and
the delicious calmness of the hour. The very peasant whose daily path it
is, cannot cross that bridge without a pause.

But the day is wearing fast, and it grows colder and colder. I really
think it will be a frost. After all, spring is the pleasantest season,
beautiful as this scenery is. We must get on. Down that broad yet
shadowy lane, between the park, dark with evergreens and dappled with
deer, and the meadows where sheep, and cows, and horses are grazing
under the tall elms; that lane, where the wild bank, clothed with fern,
and tufted with furze, and crowned by rich berried thorn, and thick
shining holly on the one side, seems to vie in beauty with the
picturesque old paling, the bright laurels, and the plumy cedars, on
the other;--dow