He wired that gentleman's hares and rabbits in his own hedges.

He went out with his gun every sunny afternoon, and shot a brace or two of pheasants, without disturbing the rest; for he took no dog with him to run and yelp, but a little boy, who quietly tapped the hedgerows and walked the sunny banks and shaws.

They never came home empty-handed.
But on those rarer occasions when Sir Charles and his friends beat the Bassett woods Richard was sure to make a large bag; for he was a cool, unerring shot, and flushed the birds in hedgerows, slips of underwood, etc., to which the fairer sportsmen had driven them.
These birds and the surplus hares he always sold in the market-town, and put the money into a box.

The rabbits he ate, and also squirrels, and, above all, young hedgehogs: a gypsy taught him how to cook them, viz., by inclosing them in clay, and baking them in wood embers; then the bristles adhere to the burned clay, and the meat is juicy.

He was his own gardener, and vegetables cost him next to nothing.
So he went on through all the winter months, and by the spring his health and strength were restored.