Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1865-10-14
MISCELLANY.
CODLiXGHAm REGiFTI.

Mace TO spend all lute hOuf on mlu-
summer afternoon than the slope
of one of the cluster of low sandhills
which end off the strip of barren land
separating the channel of RakestOn har
Dor from the open sea. BY the time
that Won have passed the pilot-house
ON the beach, and skated for two OF
three miles across the slippery mud
fats. with an August sun overhead, you
feel that yOu can lay yOur gun down
among the bent, and throw yourself on
vour back with clear conscience, and
look straight up through your hands at
the little troubled tern as they skim
backwards and forwards above you.
The very sea seems to go to sleep. Ii
is deep water, quite up TO the shingle
bank; but the lazy rollers run too gent
" on the beach to break noisily. The
colors, like everything else, are sub
dued. The sky is paleT, and has more
rose madden mixed with its blue than
it has elsewhere, ana the sea is hardly
a different shade of the same tint:
scarcely darker than the backs of the
kittewakes which float upon it; or the
long line of shingle which stretches
away towards the wooded hills and
the purple cliffs of COdlingham, six
miles away to the right. The dry, bent
grass which covers the hills forms a col
or link between the pale yellow sand,
which half buries it everywhere, and
the sky above. RakestOn itself can be
seen mile and half off, with its doub-
le-towered church on the slopes above
the town. A flag flies from the talIest tow
er at high tide when there is water
=. l..
which come up to take the bar; and
the Thames at London bridge does not
look half SO imposing as The channel at
such times, though aG low water there is
no difficulty In wading across it quar-
ter Of mile above the sea. The whole
air of the land above the town is re-
markable, and in many respects not
unlike some of the vineyards in the
valley of the Rhone. Indeed, if good
light soil and extremes CT heat and cold
are, as they say, the chief requisites for
grape growing, the experiment might,
/ have often thought, be worth trying
there. The strawberries grown there
are celebrated.
But when along spell Of hard weather
has frozen up the bitches and ponds, in
land, and driven the wild fowl in from
the open sea when the channel is half
ehOled with floating blocks of ice, and
the fields of saltworth and sea lavender
above high-water mark are showed over,
and the cutting wind across the marsh
through which the last mile of the road
runs, gets at your marrow, through three
flannel shirts and any number of great
coats and rugs, then is the time to see
Rakeston to perfection. The soft fats,
as the tides leave them, are alive with
fovlers and whistliDg birds of twenty
sorts. Immense fiOcks of knots and
sandpipers wheel about in front, ike
dark clouds one moment, almost daz-
cling the next, as their white breasts
and bellies flash into sight; and geese
and ducks keep passing up IN long lines
or toss about out OF shot in the black
water.
Some years ago, Captain Henry Row
land, smart Young officer, and capital
company, came down to COdlingham to
take command of the coast-guard. He
had chosen the station himself as good
shelf for year or two after his mar
rage and as smuggling was still not
quite extinct theTeabOuts, expected to
find enough work TO keep himself going,
and showed every intention not to let
the men under him go TO sleep if he
could help 1t. One frosty morning in
October. not very long after his arrival,
he and L went over together to Rakes-
ton and, leaving orders for Old Jockey
West to be sent to meet MS with his
boat and some prOvender, started off
over the muds to visit the Preventive
Station, and see whether there were any
birds to he shot
Old Jockey, as he was always called,
was about the best known character in
the place. He kept a punt, and big
gun, and was always ready to attend
shooting parties with his boat, or lend
a hand at loading vessels, or any other
odd jobs about the harbor. He stood a
good six feet two IN his '.mesh boots"
and looked as strong as a steam-tug; but
appearances are deceitful and, accord
ing to his own pitiful account, he was
a martyr to bilious attacks, which made
him so weak that, Elf a little lamb ran
again him it knocked him down. at
times. He was dead shot with his old
rusty single barrel, and in harmless
way, without exception, the biggest liar
/ ever knew.
BE was at the meeting place before
us and saluted US as we came up with,
III amt got Overmuch sport to-day,
gentleman, doubt; Almost too airly
for a VERY great sight o. fowl"
Captain Rowland kicked up an old
mallard among the ditches," said.
'tand L have got couple of shanks and
ployer. How are you? / have not
seen you since i came back from Ire
land. had my big punt gun over
there, and rare sport it was. Forty Wild
geOn one shot and twenty-six anotherl
What do You think of that? Cuts out
RalIeston, ell Jockey?"
''Lawk bless yer, there amt nothin'
here now. 1t amt the same place as it
was afOre these here meshes was drain
ed; there was fowl enough then. / re-
member being down here once when /
was a boy, arter some teal as was on a
bit o. water over there among the sand
hills. / got three on 'em, and was
loading again, aud had just put in the
powder and was ramming it down, when
seed a string of fowl flying up the
channel right straight for where / was a
squatting. I had not time to shove
IN theshOt, so i pulled off the cap of
the ramrod, and let fly Just as thew was
coming on all of a line. Three couple
AID half o. mallard was strung right