The Squire has discountenanced the killing of any hawks in his
neighbourhood, but gives a liberal bounty for all that are brought him
alive; so that the Hall is well stocked with all kinds of birds of
prey. On these he and Master Simon have exhausted their patience and
ingenuity, endeavouring to "reclaim" them, as it is termed, and to
train them up for the sport; but they have met with continual checks
and disappointments. Their feathered school has turned out the most
untractable and graceless scholars: nor is it the least of their
trouble to drill the retainers who were to act as ushers under them,
and to take immediate charge of these refractory birds. Old Christy
and the gamekeeper both, for a time, set their faces against the whole
plan of education; Christy having been nettled at hearing what he
terms a wild-goose chase put on a par with a fox-hunt; and the
gamekeeper having always been accustomed to look upon hawks as arrant
poachers, which it was his duty to shoot down, and nail, in terrorem,
against the out-houses.
Christy has at length taken the matter in hand, but has done still
more mischief by his intermeddling. He is as positive and wrong-headed
about this, as he is about hunting.
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