This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...with redundant expletive, what business I as a trout-fisher had to spoil their sport? Was it because I was opulent enough to afford a split cane rod that I objected to their wielding rough poles 1 Killing was the object of both kinds of weapon; but whereas they, in knocking down swifts, were guilty of no more than ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...with redundant expletive, what business I as a trout-fisher had to spoil their sport? Was it because I was opulent enough to afford a split cane rod that I objected to their wielding rough poles 1 Killing was the object of both kinds of weapon; but whereas they, in knocking down swifts, were guilty of no more than ordinary assault with intent to kill, did not I, with my red quills, olive duns, and invisible gut, preface murder with deliberate fraud t They might have explained that, if they had but the chance, they would have infinitely preferred catching toothsome trout to killing useless swifts; and that, as for skill, perhaps one amusement called for as much practice and quickness of eye and hand as the other. So, on the whole, perhaps I did well to hold my peace. Turn to a prettier prospect. Here, on the same An Old river, a few miles above Winchester, Chalk Pit hard by Itchen Stoke, where, in February 1306, Edward r. was lodging for hunting when they brought him word of the murder of John Comyn by Robert de Brus in distant Dumfries, is a disused chalk-pit. The floor is closely carpeted with sward, spangled with bugles and buttercups, and tufted in parts with bramble and wild rose. On three sides rises the snowy cliff of chalk, draped with pendent sprays, and crowned with lofty trees that temper the intense sunlight, so that this nook is fresh and green all the summer through. One may come on many such a sunny spot among the southern downs; but the special interest presented by this one at this moment is that within a radius of twenty yards three pairs of particularly attractive birds have chosen to build their nests. Of these the first is a pair of bulfinches, of whose nest and its local exact locality the less said the better, because people in these p...
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