The sport led us at some distance from the Hall, in a soft meadow, reeking with the moist verdure of spring.  A little river ran through it, bordered by willows, which had put forth their tender early foliage.  The sportsmen were in quest of herons, which were said to keep about this stream.

There was some disputing, already, among the leaders of the sport.  The Squire, Master Simon, and old Christy, came every now and then to a pause, to consult together, like the field officers in an army; and I saw, by certain motions of the head, that Christy was as positive as any old wrong-headed German commander.

As we were prancing up this quiet meadow, every sound we made was answered by a distinct echo, from the sunny wall of an old building, that lay on the opposite margin of the stream; and I paused to listen to this “spirit of a sound,” which seems to love such quiet and beautiful places.  The parson informed me that this was the ruin of an ancient grange, and was supposed, by the country people, to be haunted by a dobbie, a kind of rural sprite, something like Robin-good-fellow.  They often fancied the echo to be the voice of the dobbie answering them, and were rather shy of disturbing it after dark.  He added, that the Squire was very careful of this ruin, on account of the superstition connected with it.  As I considered this local habitation of an “airy nothing,” I called to mind the fine description of an echo in Webster’s Duchess of Malfry: 

  —­“Yond side o’ th’ river lies a wall,
  Piece of a cloister, which, in my opinion,
  Gives the best echo that you ever heard: 
  So plain in the distinction of our words,
  That many have supposed it a spirit
  That answers.”

The parson went on to comment on a pleasing and fanciful appellation which the Jews of old gave to the echo, which they called Bath-kool, that is to say, “the daughter of the voice;” they considered it an oracle, supplying in the second temple the want of the urim and thummim, with which the first was honoured.[5] The little man was just entering very largely and learnedly upon the subject, when we were startled by a prodigious bawling, shouting, and yelping.  A flight of crows, alarmed by the approach of our forces, had suddenly risen from a meadow; a cry was put up by the rabble rout on foot—­“Now, Christy! now is your time, Christy!” The Squire and Master Simon, who were beating up the river banks In quest of a heron, called out eagerly to Christy to keep quiet; the old man, vexed and bewildered by the confusion of voices, completely lost his head; in his flurry he slipped off the hood, cast off the falcon, and away flew the crows, and away soared the hawk.

[Footnote 5:  Bekker’s Monde enchante.]

I had paused on a rising ground, close to Lady Lillycraft and her escort, from whence I had a good view of the sport.  I was pleased with the appearance of the party in the meadow, riding along in the direction that the bird flew; their bright beaming faces turned up to the bright skies as they watched the game; the attendants on foot scampering along, looking up, and calling out; and the dogs bounding and yelping with clamorous sympathy.