delight to cultivate after the newest and best fashion; for which, I
promise thee, he hath received much praise from good judges, as well as
some ridicule from those who think it folly to improve on the customs of
our ancestors.'

As she spoke, she opened a low door, leading through a moss and
ivy-covered wall, the boundary of the pleasure-ground, into the open
fields; through which we moved by a convenient path, leading, with good
taste and simplicity, by stile and hedgerow, through pasturage, and
arable, and woodland; so that in all ordinary weather, the good man
might, without even soiling his shoes, perform his perambulation round
the farm. There were seats also, on which to rest; and though not
adorned with inscriptions, nor quite so frequent in occurrence as those
mentioned in the account of the Leasowes, their situation was always
chosen with respect to some distant prospect to be commanded, or some
home-view to be enjoyed.

But what struck me most in Joshua's domain was the quantity and the
tameness of the game. The hen partridge scarce abandoned the roost, at
the foot of the hedge where she had assembled her covey, though the path
went close beside her; and the hare, remaining on her form, gazed at us
as we passed, with her full dark eye, or rising lazily and hopping to
a little distance, stood erect to look at us with more curiosity than
apprehension. I observed to Miss Geddes the extreme tameness of these
timid and shy animals, and she informed me that their confidence arose
from protection in the summer, and relief during the winter.

'They are pets,' she said, 'of my brother, who considers them as the
better entitled to his kindness that they are a race persecuted by the
world in general. He denieth himself,' she said, 'even the company of a
dog, that these creatures may here at least enjoy undisturbed security.
Yet this harmless or humane propensity, or humour, hath given offence,'
she added, 'to our dangerous neighbours.'

She explained this, by telling me that my host of the preceding night
was remarkable for his attachment to field-sports, which he pursued
without much regard to the wishes of the individuals over whose property
he followed them. The undefined mixture of respect and fear with which
he was generally regarded induced most of the neighbouring land-holders
to connive at what they would perhaps in another have punished as a
trespass; but Joshua Geddes would not permit the intrusion of any