"  You  know  best  how  much  game  your  land  will  carry
without  serious  damage  to  the  crops,"  he  used  to  say. "  I  like
to  show  my  friends  a  fair  day's  sport  when  they  are  with  me,
and  to  have  enough  game  to  supply  the  house  and  make  a  few
presents. Beyond  that  it  is  no  affair  of  mine. You  can  course
whenever  you  like  ;  and  let  me  know  when  you  want  a  day's
shooting,  and  you  shall  have  it."  Under  this  system  the  yeo-
men became  keen  sportsmen  ;  they  and  all  their  laborers  took
an  interest  in  preserving,  and  the  whole  district  would  have
risen  on  a  poacher. The  keeper's  place  became  a  sinecui-e,  and
the  squire  had  as  much  game  as  he  wanted  witliout  expense,
and  was,  moreover,  the  most  popular  man  in  the  county. Even
after  the  new  man  came,  and  all  was  changed,  that  mere  revoca-
tion of  their  sporting  liberties,  and  the  increase  of  game,  un-
popular as  these  things  were,  would  not  alone  have  made  the
farmers  so  bitter,  and  have  raised  that  sense  of  outraged  justice
in  them. But  with  these  changes  came  in  a  custom  new  in  the
country — the  custom  of  selling  the  game. At  first  the  report
was  not  believed  ;  but  soon  it  became  notorious  that  no  head
of  game  from  the  Grange  estates  was  ever  given  away,  that
not  only  did  the  tenants  never  get  a  brace  of  birds  or  a  hare,
or  the  laborers  a  rabbit,  but  not  one  of  the  gentlemen  who
helped  to  kill  the  game  ever  found  any  of  the  bag  in  his  dog-
cart after  the  day's  shooting. Nay,  so  shameless  had  the  sys-
tem become,  and  so  highly  was  the  art  of  turning  the  game  to
account  cultivated  at  the  Grange,  that  the  keepers  sold  pow-
der and  shot  to  any  of  the  guests  who  had  emptied  their  own
belts  or  flasks  at  something  over  the  market  retail  price. 