If it should happen to be a propitious year for beech-mast--the great attraction to pheasants on the Downs, as is the acorn in the weald--you may procure partridges, pheasants, hares, and rabbits in perhaps equal proportions, with half a dozen woodcocks to crown the bag.
[Illustration: _East Lavant._] "The extensive, undulating commons and heaths dotted with broken patches of Scotch firs and hollies on the ferruginous sand north of the Downs, afford--where the manorial rights are enforced--still greater variety of sport.

On this wild ground, accompanied by my spaniels and an old retriever, and attended only by one man, to carry the game, I have enjoyed as good sport as mortal need desire on this side of the Tweed.
Here is a rough sketch of a morning's work.
[Sidenote: PARTRIDGE AND WOODCOCK] "Commencing operations by walking across a turnip-field, two or three coveys spring wildly from the farther end, and fly, as I expect, to the adjoining common, where they are marked down on a brow thickly clothed with furze.

Marching towards them with spaniels at heel, up jumps a hare under my nose, then another, then a rabbit.

I reload rapidly, and on reaching the gorse 'put in' the dogs.

Whirr! there goes a partridge! The spaniels drop to the report of my gun, but the fluttering wings of the dying bird rouse two of his neighbours before I am ready, and away they fly, screaming loudly.