birds in the water.

At two o'clock we sat down to a most capital dinner,--a joint of
roast-beef, fine fish, and Canvass-backs, that had been on the wing
within a couple of hours, together with the Red-head, Teal, and two or
three other specimens; all excellent in their way, but not comparable
for delicacy, fat, or flavour with that inimitable work of nature the
right Canvass-back duck of these waters, where the wild celery on which
they love to feed abounds, and to which they owe the delicate aromatic
flavour so prized by the _gourmand_.

At five o'clock P.M., after witnessing some sport, S----r gave the word
to mount, and off we set for Mr. Oliver's. An hour's ride brought us
within his domain, where lofty deer-fences, blackthorn hedge-rows,
well-made drives, and carefully cultivated land, formed a striking
change from the wild but beautiful forest-country through which we had
ridden.

We first came upon the farm-yard and offices of the estate, all
well-arranged and in good order: here we left our horses, and walked on
to the house,--a plain sporting-lodge, without any outward appearance or
pretension. It is well situated upon a gentle eminence overlooking a
couple of fine reaches of the Gunpowder river; on the land side the
deer-park spreads away to the forest, being divided from the lawn by an
invisible fence.

Himself an ardent lover of the sports of the field, Mr. Oliver, for a
time, took infinite pains to cultivate a legitimate taste for it; but, I
believe, without much success, although he pursued his plans on a scale
and at a cost not often imitated in this country. Indeed, to say truth,
men of fortune have little encouragement here to be liberal in this way;
since, when a gentleman has surrounded himself with all the appliances
to sporting, it is next to impossible to bring them fairly into play;
or, however social his own spirit may be, yet harder to find persons
possessing the time and taste for their enjoyment.

The worthy old sportsman gave me a grievous list of difficulties which
he had encountered from a desire to promote on this fine estate the
breed of certain animals and birds. Keepers were provided from Europe
with first-rate characters; but they found all their ancient habits were
to be unlearned here, and were soon completely at fault.

The foxes killed his pheasants; the neighbouring farmers, or boatmen
from the rivers, had decoyed his dogs and shot down his deer; and, after
a hopeless str