very chance of
shooting is eagerly snatched at. In May the young rooks are shot, after
which the gun is put aside for a while. At the end of July some of the
young rabbits are ready, and are occasionally knocked over. Very few
tenant farmers shoot game even when they could do so, leaving that for
some neighbouring gentleman with whom they are friendly, and this too
without any remuneration, the fact being that winged game does little
damage. But they wage unceasing war on the rabbits, with dog and gun
and ferret. All the winter long they are hunted in every possible way.
This is, of course, on farms where the tenant has permission to kill the
rabbits. Whist and post and pair are the staple indoor amusements.

Of all businesses that of agriculture is peculiarly adapted to descend
from father to son. In point of fact, farms so frequently pass from the
father to the son as to be looked upon almost as a certain inheritance.
In agriculture, then, it must be expected that the effects of inherited
instincts and ideas should be very plainly shown. From this cause arises
the persistent and unreasoning Conservatism of the mass of
agriculturists. Out of a list of one hundred farmers, I find that one
resides upon a farm which has been in the occupation of members of the
same family for three hundred years. He possessed a series of documents,
receipts, special agreements, and so on, proving that descent beyond all
cavil; but with the usual want of proper appreciation for antiquities,
most of these papers have been committed to the flames; still there is
no question of the fact, which can still be shown from the landlord's
family archives. Nominally that farm has been in the occupation of one
family for ten generations, reckoning by the ordinary calculation of
thirty years to each. But this average is not fairly applicable to the
agricultural life, which is generally long, and occasionally extends
into extreme old age. There were probably about eight successors if the
line was unbroken; if not, there may of course have been treble that
number. A man may be excused some amount of pride when he thinks of such
a continuance as this in one spot, for it means not only an exceptional
vitality of race, but an exceptional perseverance in the paths of
honesty and straightforwardness. But with this pride it also engenders a
stubborn unchangeableness, a dislike and hatred of all things new and
unfamiliar, a nervous dread of reform. Faithful to t