diff options
Diffstat (limited to '36948-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 36948-0.txt | 4496 |
1 files changed, 4496 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/36948-0.txt b/36948-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec5a081 --- /dev/null +++ b/36948-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4496 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 36948 *** + + + + +The Gamekeeper At Home +Sketches of Natural History and Rural Life +By Richard Jefferies +Published by Smith, Elder & Co, London. +This edition dated 1878. +The Gamekeeper At Home, by Richard Jefferies. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME, BY RICHARD JEFFERIES. + + +PREFACE. + +Those who delight in roaming about amongst the fields and lanes, or have +spent any time in a country house, can hardly have failed to notice the +custodian of the woods and covers, or to observe that he is often +something of a "character." The Gamekeeper forms, indeed, so prominent +a figure in rural life as almost to demand some biographical record of +his work and ways. From the man to the territories over which he bears +sway--the meadows, woods, and streams--and to his subjects, their furred +and feathered inhabitants, is a natural transition. The enemies against +whom he wages incessant warfare--vermin, poachers, and trespassers-- +must, of course, be included in such a survey. + +Although, for ease and convenience of illustration, the character of a +particular Keeper has been used as a nucleus about which to arrange +materials that would otherwise have lacked a connecting link, the facts +here collected are really entirely derived from original observation. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +R.J. + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE MAN HIMSELF--HIS HOUSE, AND TOOLS. + +The keeper's cottage stands in a sheltered "coombe," or narrow hollow of +the woodlands, overshadowed by a mighty Spanish chestnut, bare now of +leaves, but in summer a noble tree. The ash wood covers the slope at +the rear; on one side is a garden, and on the other a long strip of +meadow with elms. In front, and somewhat lower, a streamlet winds, +fringing the sward, and across it the fir plantations begin, their dark +sombre foliage hanging over the water. A dead willow trunk thrown from +bank to bank forms a rude bridge; the tree, not even squared, gives +little surface for the foot, and in frosty weather a slip is easy. From +this primitive contrivance a path, out of which others fork, leads into +the intricacies of the covers, and from the garden a wicket gate opens +on the ash wood. The elms in the meadow are full of rooks' nests, and +in the spring the coombe will resound with their cawing; these black +bandits, who do not touch it at other times, will then ravage the garden +to feed their hungry young, despite ingenious scarecrows. A row of +kennels, tenanted by a dozen dogs, extends behind the cottage: lean +retrievers yet unbroken, yelping spaniels, pointers, and perhaps a few +greyhounds or fancy breeds, if "young master" has a taste that way. + +Beside the kennels is a shed ornamented with rows upon rows of dead and +dried vermin, furred and feathered, impaled for their misdeeds; and over +the door a couple of horseshoes nailed for luck--a superstition yet +lingering in the by-ways of the woods and hills. Within are the ferret +hutches, warm and dry; for the ferret is a shivery creature, and likes +nothing so well as to nozzle down in a coat-pocket with a little hay. +Here are spades and billhooks, twine and rabbit nets, traps, and other +odds and ends scattered about with the wires and poacher's implements +impounded from time to time. + +In a dark corner there lies a singular-looking piece of mechanism, a +relic of the olden times, which when dragged into the light turns out to +be a man-trap. These terrible engines have long since been disused-- +being illegal, like spring-guns--and the rust has gathered thickly on +the metal. But, old though it be, it still acts perfectly, and can be +"set" as well now as when in bygone days poachers and thieves used to +prod the ground and the long grass, before they stepped among it, with a +stick, for fear of mutilation. + +The trap is almost precisely similar to the common rat-trap or gin still +employed to destroy vermin, but greatly exaggerated in size, so that if +stood on end it reaches to the waist, or above. The jaws of this iron +wolf are horrible to contemplate--rows of serrated projections, which +fit into each other when closed, alternating with spikes a couple of +inches long, like tusks. To set the trap you have to stand on the +spring--the weight of a man is about sufficient to press it down; and, +to avoid danger to the person preparing this little surprise, a band of +iron can be pushed forward to hold the spring while the catch is put +into position, and the machine itself is hidden among the bushes or +covered with dead leaves. Now touch the pan with a stout +walking-stick--the jaws cut it in two in the twinkling of an eye. They +seem to snap together with a vicious energy, powerful enough to break +the bone of the leg; and assuredly no man ever got free whose foot was +once caught by these terrible teeth. + +The keeper will tell you that it used to be set up in the corner of the +gardens and orchard belonging to the great house, and which in the +pre-policemen days were almost nightly robbed. He thinks there were +quite as many such traps set in the gardens just outside the towns as +ever there were in the woods and preserves of the country proper. He +recollects but one old man (a mole-catcher) who actually had experienced +in his youth the sensation of being caught; he went lame on one foot, +the sinews having been cut or divided. The trap could be chained to its +place if desired; but, as a matter of fact, a chain was unnecessary, for +no man could possibly drag this torturing clog along. + +Another outhouse attached to the cottage contains a copper for preparing +the food for both quadrupeds and birds. Some poultry run about the +mead, and perhaps with them are feeding the fancy foreign ducks which in +summer swim in the lake before the hall. + +The cottage is thatched and oddly gabled--built before "improvements" +came into fashion--yet cosy; with walls three feet thick, which keep out +the cold of winter and the heat of summer. This is not solid masonry; +there are two shells, as it were, filled up between with rubble and +mortar rammed down hard. + +Inside the door the floor of brick is a step below the level of the +ground. Sometimes a peculiar but not altogether unpleasant odour fills +the low-pitched sitting room--it is emitted by the roots burning upon +the fire, hissing as the sap exudes and boils in the fierce heat. When +the annual fall of timber takes place the butts of the trees are often +left in the earth, to be afterwards grubbed and split for firewood, +which goes to the great house or is sold. There still remain the roots, +which are cut into useful lengths and divided among the upper employes. +From elm and oak and ash, and the crude turpentine of the fir, this +aromatic odour, the scent of the earth in which they grew, is exhaled as +they burn. + +The ceiling is low and crossed by one huge square beam of oak, darkened +by smoke and age. The keeper's double-barrelled gun is suspended from +this beam: there are several other guns in the house, but this, the +favourite, alone hangs where it did before he had children--so strong is +habit; the rest are yet more out of danger. It has been a noble weapon, +though now showing signs of age--the interior of the breech worn larger +than the rest of the barrel from constant use; so much so that, before +it was converted to a breech-loader, the wad when the ramrod pushed it +down would slip the last six inches, so loosely fitting as to barely +answer its purpose of retaining the shot; so that when cleaned out, +before the smoke fouled it again, he had to load with paper. This in a +measure anticipated the "choke-bore," and his gun was always famous for +its killing power. The varnish is worn from the stock by incessant +friction against his coat, showing the real grain of the walnut-wood, +and the trigger-guard with the polish of the sleeve shines like silver. +It has been his companion for so many years that it is not strange he +should feel an affection for it; no other ever fitted the shoulder so +well, or came with such delicate precision to the "present" position. +So accustomed is he to its balance and "hang" in the hand that he never +thinks of aiming; he simply looks at the object, still or moving, throws +the gun up from the hollow of his arm, and instantly pulls the trigger, +staying not a second to glance along the barrel. It has become almost a +portion of his body, answering like a limb to the volition of will +without the intervention of reflection. The hammers are chased and +elegantly shaped--perfectly matching: when once the screw came loose, +and the jar of a shot jerked one off among the dead leaves apparently +beyond hope of recovery, he never rested night or day till by continuous +search and sifting the artistic piece of metal was found. Nothing +destroys the symmetry of a gun so much as hammers which are not pairs; +and well he knew that he should never get a smith to replace that +delicate piece of workmanship, for this gun came originally from the +hands of a famous maker, who got fifty, or perhaps even seventy guineas +for it years ago. It did not shoot to please the purchaser--guns of the +very best character sometimes take use to get into thorough order--and +was thrown aside, and so the gun became the keeper's. + +These fine old guns often have a romance clinging to them, and sometimes +the history is a sad one. Upstairs he still keeps the old copper +powder-flask curiously chased and engraved, yet strong enough to bear +the weight of the bearer, if by chance he sat down upon it while in his +pocket, together with the shot-belt and punch for cutting out the wads +from cardboard or an old felt hat. These the modern system of loading +at the breech has cast aside. Here, also, is the apparatus for filling +empty cartridge-cases--a work which in the season occupies him many +hours. + +Being an artist in his way, he takes a pride in the shine and polish of +his master's guns, which are not always here, but come down at intervals +to be cleaned and attended to. And woe be to the first kid gloves that +touch them afterwards; for a gun, like a sardine should be kept in fine +oil, not thickly encrusting it, but, as it were, rubbed into and oozing +from the pores of the metal and wood. Paraffin is an abomination in his +eyes (for preserving from rust), and no modern patent oil, he thinks, +can compare with a drop of gin for the locks--the spirit never congeals +in cold weather, and the hammer comes up with a clear, sharp snick. He +has two or three small screwdrivers and gunsmith's implements to take +the locks to pieces; for gentlemen are sometimes careless and throw +their guns down on the wet grass, and if a single drop of water should +by chance penetrate under the plate it will play mischief with the +works, if the first speck of rust be not forthwith removed. + +His dog-whistle hangs at his buttonhole. His pocket-knife is a basket +of tools in itself, most probably a present from some youthful sportsman +who was placed under his care to learn how to handle a gun. The +corkscrew it contains has seen much service at luncheon-time, when under +a sturdy oak, or in a sheltered nook of the lane, where the hawthorn +hedge and the fern broke the force of the wind, a merry shooting party +sat down to a well-packed hamper and wanted some one to draw the corks. +Not but what the back of the larger blade has not artistically tapped +off the neck of many a bottle, hitting it gently upwards against the +rim. Nor must his keys be forgotten. The paths through the preserves, +where they debouch on a public lane or road, are closed with +high-sparred wicket gates, well pitched to stand the weather, and +carefully locked, and of course he has a key. His watch, made on +purpose for those who walk by night, tells him the time in the densest +darkness of the woods. On pressing a spring and holding it near the +ear, it strikes the hour last past, then the quarters which have since +elapsed; so that even when he cannot see an inch before his face he +knows the time within fifteen minutes at the outside, which is near +enough for practical purposes. + +In personal appearance he would be a tall man were it not that he has +contracted a slight stoop in the passage of the years, not from weakness +or decay of nature, but because men who walk much lean forward somewhat, +which has a tendency to round the shoulders. The weight of the gun, and +often of a heavy game-bag dragging downwards, has increased this defect +of his figure, and, as is usual after a certain age, even with those who +lead a temperate life, he begins to show signs of corpulency. But these +shortcomings only slightly detract from the manliness of his appearance, +and in youth it is easy to see that he must have been an athlete. There +is still plenty of power in the long sinewy arms, brown hands, and +bull-neck, and intense vital energy in the bright blue eye. He is an +ash-tree man, as a certain famous writer would say; hard, tough, +unconquerable by wind or weather, fearless of his fellows, yielding but +by slow and imperceptible degrees to the work of time. His neck has +become the colour of mahogany; sun and tempest have left their indelible +marks upon his face; and he speaks from the depths of his broad chest, +as men do who talk much in the open air, shouting across the fields and +through the copses. There is a solidity in his very footstep, and he +stands like an oak. He meets your eye full and unshirkingly, yet +without insolence; not as the labourers do, who either stare with sullen +ill-will or look on the earth. In brief, freedom and constant contact +with nature have made him every inch a man; and here in this nineteenth +century of civilised effeminacy may be seen some relic of what men were +in the old feudal days when they dwelt practically in the woods. The +shoulder of his coat is worn a little where the gun rubs, and so is his +sleeve; otherwise he is fairly well dressed. + +Perfectly civil to every one, and with a willing manner towards his +master and his master's guests, he has a wonderful knack of getting his +own way. Whatever the great house may propose in the shooting line, the +keeper is pretty certain to dispose of in the end as he pleases; for he +has a voluble "silver" tongue, and is full of objections, reasons, +excuses, suggestions, all delivered with a deprecatory air of superior +knowledge which he hardly likes to intrude upon his betters, much as he +would regret to see them go wrong. So he really takes the lead, and in +nine cases in ten the result proves he is right, as minute local +knowledge naturally must be when intelligently applied. + +Not only in such matters as the best course for the shooting party to +follow, or in advice bearing upon the preserves, but in concerns of a +wider scope, his influence is felt. A keen, shrewd judge of +horseflesh--(how is it that if a man understands one animal he seems to +instinctively see through all?)--his master in a careless way often asks +his opinion before concluding a bargain. Of course the question is not +put direct, but "By-the-by, when the hounds were here you saw +so-and-so's mare; what do you think of her?" The keeper blurts out his +answer, not always flattering or very delicately expressed; and his view +is not forgotten. For when a trusted servant like this accompanies his +master often in solitary rambles for hours together, dignity must unbend +now and then, however great the social difference between them; and thus +a man of strong individuality and a really valuable gift of observation +insensibly guides his master. + +Passing across the turnips, the landlord, who perhaps never sees his +farms save when thus crossing them with a gun, remarks that they look +clean and free from weeds; whereupon the keeper, walking respectfully a +little in the rear, replies that so-and-so, the tenant, is a capital +farmer, a preserver of foxes and game, but has suffered from the +floods--a reply that leads to inquiries, and perhaps a welcome reduction +of rent. On the other hand, the owner's attention is thus often called +to abuses. In this way an evilly-disposed keeper may, it is true, do +great wrongs, having access to the owner and, in familiar phrase, "his +ear." I am at present delineating the upright keeper, such as are in +existence still, notwithstanding the abuse lavished upon them as a +class--often, it is to be feared, too well deserved. It is not +difficult to see how in this way a man whose position is lowly may in an +indirect way exercise a powerful influence upon a large estate. + +He is very "great" on dogs (and, indeed, on all other animals); his +opinion is listened to and taken by everybody round about who has a dog, +and sometimes he has three or four under treatment for divers ills. By +this knowledge many "tips" are gained, and occasionally he makes a good +thing by selling a pup at a high price. He may even be seen, with his +velveteen jacket carefully brushed, his ground-ash stick under his arm, +and hat in hand, treading daintily for fear of soiling the carpet with +his shoe, in the anteroom, gravely prescribing for the ailing pug in +which the ladies are interested. + +At the farmhouses he is invited to sit down and take a glass, being +welcome for his gossip of the great house, and because, having in the +course of years been thrown into the society of all classes, he has +gradually acquired a certain tact and power of accommodating himself to +his listener. For the keeper, when he fulfils his duty in a quiet way +as a man of experience does, is by no means an unpopular character. It +is the too officious man who creates a feeling among the tenants against +himself and the whole question of game. But the quiet experienced hand, +with a shrewd knowledge of men as well as the technicalities of his +profession, grows to be liked by the tenantry, and becomes a local +authority on animal life. + +Proud, and not without reason, of his vigour and strength, he will tell +you that though between fifty and sixty he can still step briskly +through a heavy field-day, despite the weight of reserve ammunition he +carries. He can keep on his feet without fatigue from morn till eve, +and goes his rounds without abating one inch of the distance. In one +thing alone he feels his years--i.e. in pace; and when "young master," +who is a disciple of the modern athletic school, comes out, it is about +as much as ever he can do to keep up with him over the stubble. Never +once for the last thirty years has he tossed on a bed of sickness; never +once has he failed to rise from his slumber refreshed and ready for his +labour. His secret is--but let him tell it in his own words: + +"It's indoors, sir, as kills half the people; being indoors three parts +of the day, and next to that taking too much drink and vittals. +Eating's as bad as drinking; and there ain't nothing like fresh air and +the smell of the woods. You should come out here in the spring, when +the oak timber is throwed (because, you see, the sap be rising, and the +bark strips then), and just sit down on a stick fresh peeled--I means a +trunk, you know--and sniff up the scent of that there oak bark. It goes +right down your throat, and preserves your lungs as the tan do leather. +And I've heard say as folk who work in the tan-yards never have no +illness. There's always a smell from trees, dead or living--I could +tell what wood a log was in the dark by my nose; and the air is better +where the woods be. The ladies up in the great house sometimes goes out +into the fir plantations--the turpentine scents strong, you see--and +they say it's good for the chest; but, bless you, you must live in it. +People go abroad, I'm told, to live in the pine forests to cure 'em: I +say these here oaks have got every bit as much good in that way. I +never eat but two meals a day--breakfast and supper: what you would call +dinner--and maybe in the middle of the day a hunch of dry bread and an +apple. I take a deal for breakfast, and I'm rather lear [hungry] at +supper; but you may lay your oath that's why I'm what I am in the way of +health. People stuffs theirselves, and by consequence it breaks out, +you see. It's the same with cattle; they're overfed, tied up in stalls +and stuffed, and never no exercise, and mostly oily food too. It stands +to reason they must get bad; and that's the real cause of these here +rinderpests and pleuro-pneumonia and what-nots. At least that's my +notion. I'm in the woods all day, and never comes home till +supper--'cept, of course, in breeding-time, to fetch the meal and stuff +for the birds--so I gets the fresh air, you see; and the fresh air is +the life, sir. There's the smell of the earth, too--'specially just as +the plough turns it up--which is a fine thing; and the hedges and the +grass are as sweet as sugar after a shower. Anything with a green leaf +is the thing, depend upon it, if you want to live healthy. I never +signed no pledge; and if a man asks me to take a glass of ale, I never +says him no. But I ain't got no barrel at home; and all the time I've +been in this here place, I've never been to a public. Gentlemen give me +tips--of course they does; and much obliged I be; but I takes it to my +missus. Many's the time they've axed me to have a glass of champagne or +brandy when we've had lunch under the hedge; but I says no, and would +like a glass of beer best, which I gets, of course. No; when I drinks, +I drinks ale: but most in general I drinks no strong liquor. Great +coat!--cold weather! I never put no great coat on this thirty year. +These here woods be as good as a topcoat in cold weather. Come off the +open field with the east wind cutting into you, and get inside they firs +and you'll feel warm in a minute. If you goes into the ash wood you +must go in farther, because the wind comes more between the poles." +Fresh air, exercise, frugal food and drink, the odour of the earth and +the trees--these have given him, as he nears his sixtieth year, the +strength and vitality of early manhood. + +He has his faults: notably, a hastiness of temper towards his undermen, +and towards labourers and wood-cutters who transgress his rules. He is +apt to use his ground-ash stick rather freely without thought of +consequences, and has got into trouble more than once in that way. When +he takes a dislike or suspicion of a man, nothing will remove it; he is +stubbornly inimical and unforgiving, totally incapable of comprehending +the idea of loving an enemy. He hates cordially in the true pagan +fashion of old. He is full of prejudices, and has some ideas which +almost amount to superstitions; and, though he fears nothing, has a +vague feeling that sometimes there is "summat" inexplicable in the dark +and desolate places. Such is this modern man of the woods. + +The impressions of youth are always strongest with us, and so it is that +recollecting the scenes in which he passed his earlier days he looks +with some contempt upon the style of agriculture followed in the +locality; for he was born in the north, where the farms are sometimes of +a great area, though perhaps not so rich in soil, and he cannot forgive +the tenants here because they have not got herds of three or four +hundred horned cattle. Before he settled down in the south he had many +changes of situation, and was thus brought in contact with a wonderful +number of gentlemen, titled or otherwise distinguished, whose +peculiarities of speech or appearance he loves to dwell upon. If the +valet sees the hero or the statesman too closely, so sometimes does the +gamekeeper. A great man must have moments when it is a relief to fling +off the constant posturing necessary before the world; and there is +freshness in the gamekeeper's unstudied conversation. The keeper thinks +that nothing reveals a gentleman's character so much as his "tips." + +"Gentlemen is very curious in tips," he says, "and there ain't nothing +so difficult as to know what's coming. Most in general them as be the +biggest guns, and what you would think would come out handsome, chucks +you a crown and no more; and them as you knows ain't much go in the way +of money slips a sovereign into your fist. There's a deal in the way of +giving it too, as perhaps you wouldn't think. Some gents does it as +much as to say they're much obliged to you for kindly taking it. Some +does it as if they were chucking a bone to a dog. One place where I +was, the governor were the haughtiest man as ever you see. When the +shooting was done--after a great party, you never knowed whether he were +pleased or not--he never took no more notice of you than if you were a +tree. But I found him out arter a time or two. You had to walk close +behind him, as if you were a spaniel; and by-and-by he would slip his +hand round behind his back--without a word, mind--and you had to take +what was in it, and never touch your hat or so much as `Thank you, sir.' +It were always a five-pound note if the shooting had been good; but it +never seemed to come so sweet as if he'd done it to your face." + +The keeper gets a goodly number of tips in the course of the year, from +visitors at the great house, from naturalists who come now and then, +from the sportsmen, and regularly from the masters of three packs of +hounds; not to mention odd moneys at intervals in various ways, as when +he goes round to deliver presents of game to the chief tenants on the +estate or to the owner's private friends. Gentlemen who take an +interest in such things come out every spring to see the young broods of +pheasants--which, indeed, are a pretty sight--and they always leave +something behind them. In the summer a few picnic parties come from the +town or the country round about, having permission to enter the grounds. +In the winter half a dozen young gentlemen have a turn at the +ferreting; a great burrow is chosen, three or four ferrets put in at +once without any nets, so that the rabbits may bolt freely, and then the +shooting is like volleys of musketry fire. For sport like this the +young gentlemen tip freely. After the rook-shooting party in the spring +from the great house, with their rook-rifles and sometimes crossbows, +have had the pick of the young birds, some few of the tenants are +admitted to shoot the remainder--a task that spreads perhaps over two or +even three days, and there is a good deal of liquor and silver going +about. Then gentlemen come to fish in the mere, having got the +necessary permission, and they want bait and some attention, which the +keeper's lad, being an adept himself, can render better than any one +else; and so he too gets his share. Besides which, being swift of foot, +and with a shrewd idea which way the fox will run when the hunt is up, +he is to the fore when a lady or some timid gentleman wants a gate +opened--a service not performed in vain. For breaking-in dogs also the +keeper is often paid well; and, in short, he is one of those fortunate +individuals whom all the world tips. + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +HIS FAMILY AND CASTE. + +The interior of the cottage is exquisitely clean; it has that bright +pleasant appearance which is only possible when the housewife feels a +pride in her duties, and goes about them with a cheerful heart. Not a +speck of dust can be seen upon the furniture, amongst which is a large +old-fashioned sofa: the window panes are clear and transparent--a +certain sign of loving care expended on the place, as on the other hand +dirty windows are an indication of neglect, so much so that the +character of the cottager may almost be guessed from a glance at her +glass. The keeper's wife is a buxom vivacious dame, whose manners from +occasional contact with the upper ranks--the ladies from the great house +sometimes look in for a few minutes to chat with so old a servant of the +family--are above what are usually found in her station. She receives +her callers--and they are many--with a quiet, respectful dignity: +desirous of pleasing, yet quite at her ease. + +Across the back of the sofa there lies a rug of some beautiful fur which +catches the eye, but which at first the visitor cannot identify. Its +stripes are familiar, and not unlike the tiger's, but the colour is not +that of the forest tyrant. She explains that this rug comes within her +special sphere. It is a carriage-rug of cat-skin; the skins carefully +selected to match exactly, and cured and prepared in the same way as +other more famous furs. They have only just been sewn together, and the +rug is now spread on the sofa to dry. She has made rugs, she will tell +you, entirely of black cat skins, and very handsome they looked; but not +equal to this, which is wholly of the tabby. Certainly the gloss and +stripe, the soft warmth and feel to the hand, seem to rival many foreign +and costly importations. Besides carriage-rugs, the gamekeeper's wife +has made others for the feet--some many-coloured, like Joseph's coat. + +All the cats to which these skins belonged were shot or caught in the +traps set for vermin by her husband and his assistants. The majority +were wild--that is, had taken up their residence in the woods, reverting +to their natural state, and causing great havoc among the game. +Feasting like this and in the joys of freedom, many had grown to a truly +enormous size, not in fat, as the domestic animal does, but in length of +back and limb. These afforded the best skins; perhaps out of eight or +nine killed but two would be available or worth preserving. + +This gives an idea of the extraordinary number of cats which stray +abroad and get their living by poaching. They invariably gravitate +towards the woods. The instance in point is taken from an outlying +district far from a town, where the nuisance is comparatively small; but +in the preserves say from ten to twenty miles round London the cats thus +killed must be counted by thousands. Families change their homes, the +cat is driven away by the new comer and takes to the field. In one +little copse not more than two acres in extent, and about twelve miles +from Hyde Park Corner, fifteen cats were shot in six weeks, and nearly +all in one spot--their favourite haunt. When two or three wild or +homeless animals take up their abode in a wood, they speedily attract +half a dozen hitherto tame ones; and, if they were not destroyed, it +would be impossible to keep either game or rabbits. + +She has her own receipts for preserving furs and feathers, and long +practice has rendered her an adept. Here are squirrels' skins also +prepared; some with the bushy tail attached, and some without. They +vary in size and the colour of the tail, which is often nearly white, in +others more deeply tinged with red. The fur is used to line cloaks, and +the tail is sometimes placed in ladies' hats. Now and then she gets a +badger-skin, which old country folk used to have made into waistcoats, +said to form an efficacious protection for weak chests. She has made +rugs of several sewn together, but not often. + +In the store-room upstairs there are a few splendid fox-skins, some with +the tails tipped with white, others tipped with black. These are used +for ladies' muffs, and look very handsome; the tail being occasionally +curled round the muff. This sounds a delicate matter, and dangerously +near the deadly sin of vulpecide. But it is not so. In these extensive +woods, with their broad fringes of furze and heath, the foxes now and +then become inconveniently numerous, and even cub-hunting will not kill +them off sufficiently, especially if a great "head" of game is kept up, +for it attracts every species of beast of prey. + +Besides the damage to game, the concentration of too many foxes in one +district is opposed to the interest of the hunt--first, because the +attendant destruction of neighbouring poultry causes an unpleasant +feeling; next, because when the meet takes place the plethora of foxes +spoils the sport. The day is wasted in "chopping" them at every corner; +the pack breaks up into several sections, despite whip, horn, and voice; +and a good ran across country cannot be obtained. So that once now and +then a judicious thinning-out is necessary; and this is how the skins +come into the hands of the keeper's wife. The heads go to ornament +halls and staircases; so do the pads and occasionally the brush. The +teeth make studs, set in gold; and no part of Reynard is thrown away, +since the dogs eagerly snap up his body. + +Once or twice she has made a mole-skin waistcoat for a gentleman. This +is a very tedious operation. Each little skin has to be separately +prepared, and when finished hardly covers two square inches of surface. +Consequently it requires several scores of skins, and the work is a year +or more about. There is then the sewing together, which is not to be +accomplished without much patience and skill. The fur is beautifully +soft and glossy, with more resemblance to velvet than is possessed by +any other natural substance; and very warm. Mittens for the wrists are +also made of it, and skull-caps. Mole-skin waistcoats used to be +thought a good deal of, but are now only met with occasionally as a +curiosity. + +The old wooden mole-trap is now almost extinct, superseded by the modern +iron one, which anybody can set up. The ancient contrivance, a cylinder +of wood, could only be placed in position by a practised hand, and from +his experience in this the mole-catcher--locally called "oont-catcher"-- +used to be an important personage in his way. He is now fast becoming +extinct also--that is, as a distinct handicraftsman spending his whole +time in such trapping. He was not unfrequently a man who had once +occupied a subordinate place under a keeper, and when grown too feeble +for harder labour, supported himself in this manner: contracting with +the farmers to clear their fields by the season. + +Neither stoats' nor weasels' skins are preserved, except now and then +for stuffing to put under a glass case, though the stoat is closely +allied to the genuine ermine. Polecats, too, are sometimes saved for +the same purpose; in many woods they seem now quite extinct. The otter +skin is valuable, but does not often come under the care of the keeper's +wife. The keeper now and then shoots a grebe in the mere where the +streamlet widens out into a small lake, which again is bordered by water +meadows. This bird is uncommon, but not altogether rare; sometimes two +or three are killed in the year in this southern inland haunt. He also +shoots her some jays, whose wings--as likewise the black-and-white +magpie--are used for the same decorative purposes. Certain feathers +from the jay are sought by the gentlemen who visit the great house, to +make artificial flies for salmon-fishing. Of kingfishers she preserves +a considerable number for ladies' hats, and some for glass cases. Once +or twice she has been asked to prepare the woodpecker, whose plumage and +harsh cry entitle him to the position of the parrot of our woods. +Gentlemen interested in natural history often commission her husband to +get them specimens of rare birds; and in the end he generally succeeds, +though a long time may elapse before they cross his path. For them she +has prepared some of the rare owls and hawks. She has a store of +peacocks' feathers--every now and then people, especially ladies, call +at the cottage and purchase these things. Country housewives still use +the hare's "pad" for several domestic purposes--was not the hare's foot +once kept in the printing-offices? + +The keeper's wife has nothing to do with rabbits, but knows that their +skins and fur are still bought in large quantities. She has heard that +geese were once kept in large flocks almost entirely for their feathers, +which were plucked twice a year, she thinks; but this is not practised +now, at least not in the south. She has had snakes' skins, or more +properly sloughs, for the curious. It is very difficult to get one +entire; they are fragile, and so twisted in the grass where the snake +leaves them as to be generally broken. Some country folk put them in +their hats to cure headache, which is a very old superstition; but more +in sport than earnest. There are no deer now in the park. There used +to be a hundred years ago, and her husband has found several cast +antlers in the wood. The best are up at the great house, but there is +one on her staircase. Will I take a few chestnuts? It is winter--the +proper time--and these are remarkably fine. No tree is apparently so +capricious in its yield as the chestnut in English woods: the fruit of +many is so small as to be worthless, or else it does not reach maturity. +But these large ones are from a tree which bears a fine nut: her +husband has them saved every year. Here also are half-a-dozen truffles +if I will accept them: most that are found go up to the great house; but +of late years they have not been sought for so carefully, because coming +in quantities from abroad. These truffles are found, she believes, in +the woods where the soil is chalky. She used to gather many native +herbs; but tastes have changed, and new seasonings and sauces have come +into fashion. + +Out of doors in his work the assistant upon whom the gamekeeper places +his chief reliance is his own son--a lad hardly taller than the gun he +carries, but much older than would be supposed at first sight. + +It is a curious physiological fact that although open-air life is so +favourable to health, yet it has the apparent effect of stunting growth +in early youth. Let two children be brought up together, one made to +"rough" it out of doors, and the other carefully tended and kept within; +other things being equal, the boy of the drawing-room will be taller and +to all appearance more developed than his companion. The labourer's +children, for instance, who play in the lonely country roads and fields +all day, whose parents lock their cottage doors when leaving for work in +the morning so that their offspring shall not gain entrance and get into +mischief, are almost invariably short for their age. In their case +something may be justly attributed to coarse and scanty food; but the +children of working farmers exhibit the same peculiarity, and although +their food is not luxurious in quality, it is certainly not stinted in +quantity. Some of the ploughboys and carters' lads seem scarcely fit to +be put in charge of the huge cart-horses who obey their shouted orders, +their heads being but a little way above the shafts--mere infants to +look at. Yet they are fourteen or fifteen years of age. With these, +and with the sons of farmers who in like manner work in the field, the +period of development comes later than with town-bred boys. After +sixteen or eighteen, after years of hesitation as it were, they suddenly +shoot up, and become great, hulking, broad fellows, possessed of immense +strength. So the keeper's boy is really much more a man than he +appears, both in years and knowledge--meaning thereby that local +intelligence, technical ability, and unwritten education which is the +resultant of early practice and is quite distinct from book-learning. + +From his father he has imbibed the spirit of the woods and all the +minutiae of his art. First he learned to shoot; his highest ambition +being satisfied in the beginning when permitted to carry the +double-barrel home across the meadow. Then he was allowed occasionally +to fire off the charges left in after the day's work, before the gun was +hung against the beam. Next, from behind the fallen trunk of an oak he +took aim at a sitting rabbit which had raised himself on his +hind-quarters to listen suspiciously--resting the heavy barrels on the +tree, and made nervous by the whispered instructions from the keeper +kneeling on the grass out of sight behind, "Aim at his shoulder, lad, if +he be sitting sidelong; if a' be got his back to 'ee aim at his poll." +From this it was but a short step to be trusted with the single-barrel, +and finally with the double; ultimately having one of his own and +walking his own distinct rounds. + +He is now a keen shot, even better than his father; for it is often +observed that at a certain age young beginners in most manual arts reach +an excellence which in later years fails them. Perhaps the muscles are +more elastic, and respond instantaneously to the eye. This mere boy at +snap-shooting in the "rough" will beat crack sportsmen hollow. At the +trap with pigeons he would probably fail; but in a narrow lane where the +rabbits, driven out by the ferrets, just pop across barely a yard of +open ground, where even a good shot may miss repeatedly, he is "death" +itself to the "bunnies." So, too, with a wood-hare--i.e. those hares +that always lie in the woods as others do in the open fields and on the +uplands. They are difficult to kill. They slip quietly out from the +form in the rough grass under the ashstole, and all you have for +guidance is the rustling and, perhaps, the tips of the ears, the body +hidden by the tangled dead ferns and "rowetty" stuff. When you try to +aim the barrel knocks against the ash-poles, which are inconveniently +near together, or the branches get in the way, and the hare dodges round +a tree, and your cartridge simply barks a bough and cuts a tall dead +thistle in twain. But the keeper's lad, who had waited for your fire, +instantly follows, as it seems hardly lifting his gun to his shoulder, +and the hare is stopped by the shot. + +Rabbit-shooting, also, in an ash wood like this is trying to the temper; +they double and dodge, and if you wait, thinking that the brown rascals +must presently cross the partially open space yonder, lo! just at the +very edge up go their white tails and they dive into the bowels of the +earth, having made for hidden burrows. There is, of course, after all, +nothing but a knack in these things. Still it is something to have +acquired the knack. The lad, if you ask him, will proudly show off +several gun tricks, as shooting left-handed, placing the butt at the +left instead of the right shoulder and pulling the trigger with the left +finger. He will knock over a running rabbit like this; and at short +distances can shoot with tolerable certainty from under the arm without +coming to the "present," or even holding the gun out like a pistol with +one hand. + +By slow degrees he has obtained an intimate acquaintance with every +field on the place, and no little knowledge of natural history. He will +decide at once, as if by a kind of instinct, where any particular bird +or animal will be found at that hour. + +He is more bitter than his father against poachers, and would like to +see harder measures dealt out to them; but his chief use is in watching +or checking the assistants, who act as beaters, ferreters, or keep up +the banks and fences about the preserves, etc. Without a doubt these +men are very untrustworthy, and practise many tricks. For instance, +when they are set to ferret a bank, what is to prevent them, if the +coast is clear, from hiding half a dozen dead rabbits in a burrow? +digging has frequently to be resorted to, and thus they can easily cast +earth over and conceal the entrance to a hole. Many a wounded hare and +pheasant that falls into the hands of the beaters never makes it +appearance at the table of the sportsman; and doubtless they help +themselves to the game captured in many a poacher's wire before giving +notice of the discovery to the head man. + +Some of these assistants wear waistcoats of calfskin with the hair on +it. The hair is outside, and the roan-and-white colour has a curious +appearance: the material is said to be very warm and durable. Such +waistcoats were common years ago; but of late the looms and spindles of +the manufacturing districts have reduced the most outlying of the +provinces to a nearly dead uniformity of shoddy. + +One pair of eyes cannot be everywhere at once; consequently the keeper, +as his son grew up, found him a great help in this way: while he goes +one road the lad goes the other, and the undermen never feel certain +that some one is not about. Perhaps partly for this reason the lad is +not a favourite in the village, and few if any of the other boys make +friends with him. He is too loyal to permit of their playing trespass-- +he looks down on them as a little lower in the scale. Do they ever +speak, even in the humblest way, to the proprietor of the place? In +their turn they ostracise him after their fashion; so he becomes a +silent, solitary youth, self-reliant, and old for his years. + +He is a daring climber: as after the hawk's nest, generally made in the +highest elms or pines--if that species of tree is to be found--taking +the young birds to some farmhouse where the children delight in living +creatures. Some who are not children, or are children of "a larger +growth," like to have a tame hawk in the garden, clipping the wings so +that it shall not get away. Hawks have most amusing tricks, and in time +become comparatively tame, at least to the person who feeds them. The +beauty of the hawk's eye can hardly be surpassed: full, liquid, and +piercing. In this way the keeper's boy often gets a stray shilling; +also for young owls, which are still kept in some country houses, in the +sheds or barns, to destroy the mice. When the corn was threshed with +the flail, and was consequently exposed to the ravages of these +creatures (if undisturbed they multiply in such numbers as would +scarcely be credited) owls were almost domestic birds, being domiciled +in every barn. Now they are more objects of curiosity, though still +useful when large teams of horses are kept and require grain. + +The keeper's boy sells, too, young squirrels from time to time, and the +eggs of the rarer birds. In short, he has imbibed all the ways of the +woods, and is an adept at everything, from "harling" a rabbit upwards. +By-the-bye, what is the etymology of "harling," which seems to have the +sense of entangling? It is done by passing the blade of the knife +between the bone of the thigh and the great sinew--where there is +nothing but skin--and then thrusting the other foot through the hole +thus made. The rabbit or hare can then be conveniently carried by the +loop thus formed, or slung on a stick or the gun-barrel across the +shoulder. Of course the "harling" is not done till the animal is dead. + +The book-learning of the keeper's boy is rather limited, for he was +taught by the parish clerk and schoolmaster before the Education Acts +were formulated. Still, he can read, and pores over the weekly paper of +rural sports, etc, taken for the guests at the great house and when out +of date sent down to the keeper's cottage. In fact, he shows a little +too much interest in the turf columns to be quite satisfactory to his +father, who is somewhat anxious about his acquaintance with the jockeys +from the training-stables on the downs hard by--an acquaintance he +discourages as tending to no good. Like his father, he is never seen +abroad without a pair of leathern gaiters, and, if not a gun, a stout +gnarled ground-ash stick in his hand. + +The gamekeeper's calling naturally tends to perpetuate itself and become +hereditary in his family. The life is full of attraction to boys--the +gun alone is hardly to be resisted; and, in addition, there are the +animals and birds with which the _office_ is associated, and the +comparative freedom from restraint. Therefore one at least of his lads +is sure to follow in his father's steps, and after a youth and early +manhood spent out of doors in the woods it is next to impossible for him +ever to quit the course he has taken. His children, again, must come +within reach of similar influences, and thus for a lengthened period +there must be a predisposition towards this special occupation. + +Long service in one particular situation is not so common now as it used +to be. Men move about from place to place, but wherever they are they +still engage in the same capacity; and once a gamekeeper always a +gamekeeper is pretty nearly true. Even in the present day instances of +families holding the office for more than one or two generations on the +same estate may be found; and years ago such was often the case. +Occasionally the keeper's family has in this way by the slow passage of +time become in a sense associated with that of his employer; many years +of faithful service sensibly abridging the social gulf between master +and servant. The contrary holds equally true; and so at the present day +short terms of service and constant changes are accompanied by a sharp +distinction separating employer and employe. + +In such cases of long service the keeper holds a position more nearly +resembling the retainer of the olden time than perhaps any other +"institution" of modern life. Pensioned off in his old age in the +cottage where he was born, or which, at any rate, he first entered as a +child, he potters about under his own vine and fig-tree--i.e. the pear +and damson trees he planted forty years before--and is privileged now +and then to give advice on matters arising out of the estate. He can +watch the young broods of pheasants still, and superintend the mixing of +their food: his trembling hand, upon the back of which the corded sinews +are so strongly marked now the tissue has wasted, and over which the +blue veins wander, can set a trap when the vermin become too +venturesome. + +He is yet a terror to evil-doers, and in no jot abates the dignity of +more vigorous days; so that the superannuated ancients whose task it is +to sweep the fallen leaves from the avenue and the walks near the great +house, or to weed the gravel drive in feeble acknowledgment of the +charitable dole they receive, fall to briskly when they see him coming +with besom and rusty knife wherewith to "uck" out the springing grass. +He daily gossips with the head gardener (nominal), as old or older than +himself; but his favourite haunt is a spot on the edge of a fir +plantation where lies a fallen "stick" of timber. Here, sheltered by +the thick foliage of the fir and the hawthorn hedge at his back from the +wind, he can sit on the log, and keep watch over a descending slope of +meadow bounding the preserves and crossed by footpaths, along which +loiterers may come. His sturdy son now sways the sceptre of ash over +the old woods, and other descendants are employed about the place. + +Sometimes in the great house there may be seen the counterfeit +presentment of such a retainer limned fifty years ago, with dog and gun, +and characteristic background of trees. His wife has perhaps survived +till recently--strong and hale almost to the last; the most voluble +gossip of the hamlet, full of traditions relating to the great house and +its owners; a virago if crossed. It is recorded that upon one occasion +in her prime she confronted a couple of poachers, and, by dint of tongue +and threats of assistance close at hand, forced them to retire. It was +at night that, her husband being from home and hearing shots in the +wood, she sallied forth armed with a gun, faced the poachers, and +actually drove them away, doubtless as much from fear of recognition as +of bodily injury, though even that she was capable of inflicting, being +totally fearless. + +Nothing can be more natural than that when a man has shown an earnest +desire to give satisfaction and proved himself honest and industrious, +his employer should exhibit an interest in the welfare of his family. +Now and then a small farm may be found in the hands of a man descended +from or connected with a keeper. To successfully work a tenancy of such +narrow limits it is necessary that the occupier should himself labour in +the field from morn till dewy eve--the capacity to work being even more +essential than capital; and so it happens that the smaller farms are +occasionally held by men who have risen from the lower classes. The +sons of keepers also become gentlemen's servants, as grooms, etc, in or +out of the house. + +A proposal was not long since made that gentlemen who had met with +misfortune or were unable to obtain congenial employment should take +service as gamekeepers--after the manner in which ladies were invited to +become "helps." The idea does not appear to have received much +practical support, nor does it seem feasible looking at the altered +relations of society in these days. A gentleman "out of luck," and with +a taste for outdoor life and no objection to work, could surely do far +better in the colonies, where he could shoot for his "own hand," and in +course of time achieve an independence, which he could never hope to +attain as a gamekeeper. + +In the olden times, no doubt, younger brothers did become, in fact, +gamekeepers, head grooms, huntsmen, etc, to the head of the family. +There was less of the sense of servitude and loss of dignity when the +feeling of clanship was prevalent, when the great house was regarded as +the natural and proper resource of every cadet of the family. But all +this is changed. And for a man of education to descend to trapping +vermin, filling cartridges, and feeding pheasants all his life would be +a palpable absurdity with Australia open to him and the virgin soil of +Central Africa eager for tillage. + +Neither is every man's constitution capable of withstanding the wear and +tear of a keeper's life. I have delineated the more favourable side +already; but it has its shadows. Robust health, power of bearing +fatigue, and above all of sustaining constant exposure in our most +variable climate, are essential. No labourer is so exposed as the +keeper: the labourer does not work in continued wet, and he is sure of +his night's rest. The keeper is often about the best part of the night, +and he cannot stay indoors because it rains. + +The woods are lovely in the sunshine of summer; they are full of charm +when the leaves are bursting forth in spring or turning brown with the +early autumn frosts; but in wet weather in the winter they are the most +wretched places conceivable in which to stroll about. The dead fern and +the long grass are soaked with rain, and cling round the ankles with +depressing tenacity. Every now and then the feet sink into soddened +masses of decaying leaves--a good deal, too, of the soil itself is soft +and peaty, being formed from the decomposed vegetation of years; while +the boughs against which the passer-by must push fly back and send a +cold shower down the neck. In fog as well as in rain the trees drip +continuously; the boughs condense the mist and it falls in large drops-- +a puff of wind brings down a tropical shower. + +In warm moist weather the damp steam that floats in the atmosphere is +the reverse of pleasant. But a thaw is the worst of all, when the snow +congealed on the branches and against the trunks on the windward side, +slips and comes down in slushy, icy fragments, and the south-west or +south-east wind, laden with chilling moisture, penetrates to the very +marrow. Even Robin Hood is recorded to have said that he could stand +all kinds of weather with impunity, except the wind which accompanies a +thaw. Wet grass has a special faculty for saturating leather. The very +boots with which you may wade into a stream up to your ankles in perfect +comfort are powerless to keep out the dew or raindrops on the +grass-blades. The path of the keeper is by no means always strewn with +flowers. + +Probably the number of keepers has much increased of recent years, since +the flood-tide of commercial prosperity set in. Every successful +merchant naturally purchases an estate in the country, and as naturally +desires to see some game upon it. This necessitates a keeper and his +staff. Then game itself--meaning live game--has become a marketable +commodity, bought and sold very much as one might buy a standing crop of +wheat. + +Owners of land, whose properties are hardly extensive enough to enable +them to live in the state which is understood by the expression "country +seat," frequently now resort to certain expedients to increase their +incomes. They maintain a head of game large in comparison with the +acreage: of course this must be attended to by a resident keeper; and +they add to the original mansion various attractive extra buildings-- +i.e. a billiard-room, conservatories, and a range of modern stabling. +The object, of course, is to let the house, the home farm, and the +shooting for the season; including facilities for following the hunt. +The proprietor is consequently only at home in the latter part of the +spring and in the summer--sometimes not even then. + +Again, there are large properties, copyhold, or held under long leases +from corporate bodies, the tenants having the right to shoot. Instead +of exercising the power themselves, they let the shooting. It consists +mainly of partridges, hares, and rabbits; and one of their men looks +after the game, combining the keeping a general watch with other duties. +Professional men and gentlemen of independent income residing in county +towns frequently take shooting of this kind. The farmers who farm their +own land often make money of their game in the same way. + +Gentlemen, too, combine and lease the shooting over wide areas, and of +course find it necessary to employ keepers to look after their +interests. The upper class of tradesmen in county and provincial towns +where any facilities exist now sometimes form a private club or party +and rent the shooting over several farms, having a joint-stock interest +in one or more keepers. Poor land which used to be of very little value +has, by the planting of covers and copses and the erection of a cottage +for the keeper and a small "box" for temporary occupation, in many cases +been found to pay well if easily accessible from towns. Game, in short, +was never so much sought after as at present; and the profession of +gamekeeping is in no danger of falling into decay from lack of demand +for the skill in woodcraft it implies. + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +IN THE FIELDS. + +Much other work besides preventing poaching falls upon the keeper, such +as arranging for the battue, stopping fox "earths" when the hounds are +coming, feeding the young birds and often the old stock in severe +weather, and even some labour of an agricultural character. + +A successful battue requires no little _finesse_ and patience exercised +beforehand; weeks are spent in preparing for the amusement of a few +hours. The pheasants are sometimes accustomed to leave the wood in a +certain direction chosen as specially favourable for the sport--some +copses at a little distance are used as feeding places, so that the +birds naturally work that way. Much care is necessary to keep a good +head of game together, not too much scattered about on the day fixed +upon. The difficulty is to prevent them from wandering off in the early +morning; and men are stationed like sentinels at the usual points of +egress to drive them back. The beaters are usually men who have +previously been employed in the woods and possess local knowledge of the +ground, and are instructed in their duties long before: nothing must be +left to the spur of the moment. Something of the skill of the general +is wanted to organise a great battue: an instinctive insight into the +best places to plant the guns, while the whole body of sportsmen, +beaters, keepers with ammunition, should move in concert. + +The gamekeeper finds his work fall upon him harder now than it used to +do: first, sportsmen look for a heavier return of killed and wounded; +next, they are seldom willing to take much personal trouble to find the +game, but like it in a manner brought to them; and, lastly, he thinks +the shooting season has grown shorter. Gentlemen used to reside at home +the greater part of the winter and spread their shooting over many +months. Now, the seaside season has moved on, and numbers are by the +beach at the time when formerly they were in the woods. Then others go +abroad; the country houses now advertised as "to let" are almost +innumerable. Time was when the local squire would have thought it +derogatory to his dignity to make a commodity of his ancient mansion; +now there seems quite a competition to let, and absenteeism is a reality +of English as well as Irish country life. At least, such is the +gamekeeper's idea, and he finds a confirmation of it in the sudden rush, +as it were, made upon his preserves. Gentlemen who once spent weeks at +the great house, and were out with him every day till he grew to +understand the special kind of sport which pleased them most, and could +consequently give them satisfaction, are now hardly arrived before they +are gone again. With all his desire to find them game he is often +puzzled, for game has its whims and fancies and will not accommodate +itself to their convenience. + +Then the keeper thinks that shooting does not begin so early as it once +did. Partridges may be found in the market on the morning of the +glorious First of September; but if you ask him how they get there, your +reply is a pod and a wink. Nobody gets up early enough in the morning +for that now: very often the first day passes by without a single shot +being fired. The eagerness for the stubble and its joys is not so +marked. This last season the late harvest interfered very much with +shooting; you cannot walk through wheat or barley, and while the crops +are standing the partridges have too much cover. + +Many gentlemen again keep their pheasants till nearly Christmas: October +goes by frequently without a bird being brought down in some preserves. +Early in the new year, if the weather be mild, as it has been so often +latterly, the birds begin to show signs of a disposition to pair off, +and in consequence the guns are laid aside before the certificates +expire. So that the keeper thinks the actual shooting season has grown +shorter and the sport is more concentrated, and taken in rushes, as it +were. This causes additional work and anxiety. If the family are away +they still require a regular and sometimes a large supply of game for +the table, which he has to keep up himself--assistants could hardly be +trusted: the opportunity is too tempting. + +Though a loyal and conscientious man, in his secret heart he does not +like the hounds: and though of course he gets tipped for stopping the +earths, yet it is a labour not exactly to his taste. The essence of +game preserving is quiet, repose; the characteristic of the hunt is +noise, horn, whoop, whip, the cry of the hounds, and the crash of the +bushes as the field takes a jump. Students and bookworms like the quiet +dust which settles in their favourite haunts--the housemaid's broom is +fatal to retrospective thought: so the gamekeeper views the squadrons +charging through his cherished copses, "poaching" up the greensward of +the winding "drives," breaking down the fences, much as the artist views +the sacrilegious broom "putting his place to rights." Pheasant, and +hare, and rabbit all are sent helter-skelter anywhere, and take a day or +two to settle down again. + +Yet it is not so much the real genuine hunt that he dislikes: it is the +loafers it brings together on foot. Roughs from the towns, idle fellows +from the villages, cobblers, tinkers, gipsies, the nondescript +"residuum," all congregate in crowds, delighted at the chance of +penetrating into the secret recesses of woods only thrown open two or +three times a year. It is impossible to stay the inroad--the gates are +wide open, the rails pulled down, and trespass is but a fiction for the +hour. To see these gentry roaming at their ease in his woods is a +bitter trial to the keeper, who grinds his teeth in silence as they pass +him with a grin, perfectly aware of and enjoying his spleen. Somehow or +other these fellows always manage to get in the way just where the fox +was on the point of breaking cover; if he makes a clear start and heads +for the meadows, before he has passed the first field a ragged jacket +appears over the hedge, and then the language of the huntsman is not +always good to listen to. + +The work of rearing the young broods of pheasants is a trying and +tedious one. The keeper has his own specific treatment, in which he has +implicit faith, and laughs to scorn the pheasant-meals and +feeding-stuffs advertised in the papers. He mixes it himself, and likes +no one prying about to espy his secret, though in reality his success is +due to watchful care and not to any particular nostrum. The most +favourable spot for rearing is a small level meadow, if possible without +furrows, which has been fed off close to the ground and is situated high +and dry, and yet well sheltered with wood all round. Damp is a great +enemy of the brood, and long grass wet with dew in the early morning +sometimes proves fatal if the delicate young birds are allowed to drag +themselves through it. + +Besides the coops, here and there bushes, cut for the purpose, are piled +in tolerably large heaps. The use of these is for the broods to run +under if a hawk appears in the sky; and it is amusing to watch how soon +the little creatures learn to appreciate this shelter. In the spring +the greater part of the keeper's time is occupied in this way: he spends +hours upon hours in the hundred and one minutiae which ensure success. +This breeding-time is _the_ great anxiety of the year: on it all the +shooting depends. He shakes his head if you hint that perhaps it would +save trouble to purchase the pheasants ready for shooting from the +dealers who now make a business of supplying them for the battue. He +looks upon such a practice as the ruin of all true woodcraft, and a +proof of the decay of the present generation. + +In addition to the pheasants, the partridges, wild as they are, require +some attention--the eggs have to be looked after. The mowers in the +meadows frequently lay their nests bare beneath the sweep of the scythe: +the old bird sometimes sits so close as to have her legs cut off by the +sharp steel. Occasionally a rabbit, in the same way, is killed by the +point of the blade as he lingers in his form. The mowers receive a +small sum for every egg they bring, the eggs being placed under brood +hens, kept for the purpose. But as a partridge's egg from one field is +precisely like one from another field, the keeper may find, if he does +not look pretty sharp after the mowers on the estate, that they have +been bribed by a trifle extra to carry the eggs to another man at a +distance. A very unpleasant feeling often arises from suspicions of +this kind. + +His agricultural labour consists in superintending the cultivation of +the small squares left for the growth of grain in the centre of the +copses, to feed and attract the pheasants, and to keep them from +wandering. These have to be dug up with the spade--there would be no +room for using a plough--and spade-husbandry is rather slow work. An +eye has therefore to be kept on the labourers thus employed lest they +get into mischief. The grain (on the straw) is sometimes given to the +birds laid across skeleton trestles, roughly made of stout ash sticks, +so as to raise it above the ground and enable them to get at it better. + +Ash woods are cut every year, or rather they are mapped out into so many +squares, the poles in which come to maturity in succession--while one is +down another is growing up, and thus in a fixed course of years the +entire wood is thrown and renovated. A certain time has, of course, to +be allowed for purchasers to remove their property, and, as the roads +through the woods are often axle-deep in mud, in a wet spring it has +frequently to be extended. So many men being about, the keeper has to +be about also: and then when at last the gates are nailed up, the cattle +turned out to grass in the adjacent fields often break in and gnaw the +young ash-shoots. In this way a trespassing herd will throw back acres +of wood for a whole year, and destroy valuable produce. Properly +speaking, this should come under the attention of the bailiff or steward +of the demesne; but as the keeper and his men are so much more likely to +discover the cattle first, they are expected to be on the watch. + +After spending so many years of his life among trees, it is natural that +the keeper should feel a special interest, almost an affection for them. +A branch ruthlessly torn down, a piece of bark stripped from the trunk +with no possible object save destruction, a nail driven in--perhaps to +break the teeth of the saw when at last the tree comes to be cut up into +planks--these things annoy him almost as much as if the living wood were +human and could feel. For this reason, he too, like the members of the +hunt, cordially detests the use of wire for fencing, now becoming so +frequent. It cuts into the trees, and checks their growth and spoils +their symmetry, if it does not actually kill them. + +Sometimes the wire, which is stout and strong, is twisted right round +the stem of a young oak, say a foot or more in diameter, which is thus +made to play the part of a post. A firmer support could not be found; +but as the tree swells with the rising sap, and expands year by year, +the iron girdle circling about it does not "give" or yield to this slow +motion. It bites into the bark, which in time curls over and so +actually buries the metal in the growing wood. Now this cannot but be +injurious to the tree itself, and it is certainly unsightly. + +One wire is seldom thought enough. Two or three are stretched along, +and each of these causes an ugly scar. If allowed to remain long +enough, the young wood will solidify and harden about the wire, which +then cannot be withdrawn; and in consequence when taken finally to the +sawpit, some three or four feet of the very "butt" and best part of the +trunk will be found useless. No sawyer will risk his implement--which +requires some hours' work to sharpen--in wood which he suspects to +contain concealed iron. So that, besides the injury to the appearance +of the tree, there is a pecuniary loss. Even when the wires are not +twisted round, but merely rub against one side of the bark, the same +scars are caused there, though not to such an extent. Rough and strong +as the bark seems to the touch, it speedily abrades under the constant +pressure of the metal. + +The keeper thinks that all those owners of property who take a pleasure +in their trees should see to this and prevent it. There is nothing so +detestable as this wire fencing in his idea. You cannot even sit upon +it for rest, as you can on the old-fashioned post and rails. The +convenient gaps which used to be found in every hedge at the corner are +blocked now with an ugly rusty iron string stretched across, awkward to +get over or under; while as for a horseman getting by, you cannot pull +it down as you could "draw" a wooden rail, and if you try to uncoil it +from the blackthorn stem to which it is attached the jagged end is +tolerably certain to scrape the skin from your fingers. + +The keeper looks upon this simply as another sign of the idleness and +dislike of taking trouble characteristic of the times. To set up a line +of posts and rails requires some little skill; a man must know his +business to stop a gap with a single rail or pole, fixing the ends +firmly in among the underwood; even to fit thorn bushes in properly, so +as to effectually bar the way, needs some judgment: but anybody can +stretch a wire along and twist it round a tree. Hedge-carpentering was, +in fact, a distinct business, followed by one or two men in every +locality; but iron now supplants everything, and the hedges themselves +are disappearing. + +When the hedgers and ditchers were put to work to cut a hedge--the turn +of every hedge comes round once in so many years--they used to be +instructed, if they came across a sapling oak, ash, or elm, to spare it, +and cut away the bushes to give it full play. But now they chop and +slash away without remorse, and the young forest-tree rising up with a +promise of future beauty falls before the billhook. In time the +full-grown oaks and elms of the hedgerow decay, or are felled; and in +consequence of this careless destruction of the saplings there is +nothing to fill their place. The charm of English meadows consisted in +no small degree in the stately trees, whose shadows lengthened with the +declining sun and gave such pleasant shelter from the heat. Soon, +however, if the rising generation of trees is thus cut down, they must +become bare, open, and unlovely. + +There is another mistake, often committed by owners of timber, who go to +the other extreme, and in their intense admiration of trees refuse to +permit the felling of a single one. Now in the forest or the woodlands, +away from the park or pleasure-grounds, the old hollow trees are things +of beauty, and to cut them down for firewood seems an act of vandalism. +But it is quite another thing with an avenue or those groups which dot +the surface of a park. Here, if a tree falls and there is no other to +take its place, a gap is the result, which cannot be filled up, perhaps, +under fifty or sixty years. + +Let any one stroll along beneath a stately avenue of elm or beech, such +as are not difficult to find in rural districts, and are the pride and +boast--and justly so--of this country, and, examining the trees with +critical eye, what will he see? Three or four elms, I will say, are +passed, and are evidently sound; but the fifth--a careless observer +might go by it without remarking anything unusual--is really rotten to +the centre. At the foot of the huge trunk, and growing out of it, is a +bunch of sickly-looking fungi. Thrust your walking-stick sharply +against the black wood there and it penetrates easily, and with a little +pushing goes in a surprising distance; the tree seems undermined with +rottenness. This decay really runs up the trunk perpendicularly: look, +there are signs of it above at the knot-hole, thirty feet high, where +more fungus is flourishing, as it always does in dead damp wood. The +rain soaks in there, and filtrates slowly down the trunk, whose very +heart as it were is eaten away, while outside all is fair enough. + +Presently there arises a mighty wind, the tree snaps clean off twenty +feet above the ground, and the upper part falls, a ponderous ruin, +carrying with it one of the finest boughs of its nearest companion, and +destroying its symmetry also. When examined, it appears that the trunk +is totally useless as timber: this noble-seeming elm is fit for nothing +but fuel. Or, perhaps, if there be water meadows on the estate, the +farmers may be glad of it to act as a huge pipe to convey the +fertilising stream across a ditch, or over a brook lying at a lower +level. For this purpose, of course, the rotten part is scooped out: +often the trunk is sawn down the middle, so as to make a double length. + +But what a gap it has left in the great avenue! In a minute the growth +of a century gone, the delight of generations swept away, and no living +man, hardly the heir in his cradle, can hope to see that unsightly gap +filled up. + +The keeper does not hesitate to say that of the great trees in the +avenues numbers stand in constant danger of such overthrow; and so it is +that by slow degrees so many of the kings of the forest have disappeared +without leaving successors. No care is taken to plant fresh saplings, +no care is taken to select and remove the trees which have passed the +meridian of their existence, and the final result is the extinction of +the avenue or group. Perhaps the temper of the times is to blame for +this neglect: men look only to the day and live fast. There is a sense +of uncertainty in the atmosphere of the age: no one can be sure that the +acorns he plants will be permitted to reach their prime, the hoofs of +the "iron horse" may trample them down as fresh populations grow. So +the avenues die out, and the keeper mourns to think that in the days to +come their place will be vacant. + +Suddenly he pauses in his walk, stoops, and points out to me in the +grass the white, smooth, round knob-like tops of several young mushrooms +which are pushing their way up. He carefully covers these with some +pieces of dead bark and desiccated dung, so that none of "them lurching +fellows as comes round shan't see 'em"--with a wink at his own cunning-- +so as to preserve them till they have grown larger. He advises me never +to partake of mushrooms unless certain that they have not grown under +oak trees: he will have it that even the true edible mushroom is hurtful +if it springs beneath the shadow of the oak. And he is not singular in +this belief. + +Chatting about trees, he points out one or two oaks, not at all rotten, +but split half-way up the trunk--the split is perfectly visible--yet +they have not been struck by lightning; and he cannot explain it. +Looking back upon the wood as we leave it with intense pride in his +trees, he gives me a rough version of the old story: how a knight of +ancient days, who had done the king some great service, was rewarded +with a broad tract of land which he was to hold for three crops. He +sowed acorns, and thus secured himself and descendants a tenure of +almost 3,000 years, at least, according to Dryden:-- + + The monarch oak, the patriarch of trees, + Shoots, rising up, and spreads by slow degrees; + Three centuries he grows, and three he stays + Supreme in state, and in three more decays. + +The keeper wishes he had such an opportunity. The knight, in his idea, +reached the acme of wisdom with his three crops of nearly a thousand +years each. + +His own kingdom may be said to begin with the park, and the land "in +demesne" to quote the quaint language of the Domesday Book: a record not +without its value as an outline picture of English scenery eight +centuries ago, telling us that near this village was a wood, near that a +stretch of meadow and a mill, here again arable land and corn waving in +the breeze, and everywhere the park and domain of the feudal lords. The +beauty of the park consists in its "breadth" as an artist would say--the +meadows with their green frames of hedges are cabinet pictures, lovely, +but small; this is life size, a broad cartoon from the hand of Nature. +The sward rises and rolls along in undulations like the slow heave of an +ocean wave. Besides the elms there is a noble avenue of limes, and +great oaks scattered here and there, under whose ample shade the cattle +repose in the heat of the day. + +In summer from out the leafy chambers of the limes there falls the +pleasant sound of bees innumerable, the voice of whose trembling wings +lulls the listening ear as the drowsy sunshine weighs the eyelid till I +walk the avenue in a dream. It leads out into the park--no formal +gravel drive, simply a footpath on the sward between the flowering +trees: a path that becomes less and less marked as I advance, and +finally fades away, where the limes cease, in the broad level of the +opening "greeny field." These honey-bees seem to fly higher and to +exhibit much more activity than the great humble-bee: here in the limes +they must be thirty feet above the ground. Wasps also frequently wing +their way at a considerable elevation, and thus it is that the hive-bee +and the wasp so commonly enter the upper windows of houses. When its +load of honey is completed, the bee, too, returns home in a nearly +straight line, high enough in the air to pass over hedges and such +obstacles without the labour of rising up and sinking again. + +The heavy humble-bee is generally seen close to the earth, and often +goes down into the depths of the dry ditches, and may there be heard +buzzing slowly along under the arch of briar and bramble. He seems to +lose his way now and then in the tangled undergrowth of the woods; and +if a footstep disturbs and alarms him, it is amusing to see his +desperate efforts to free himself hastily from the interlacing +grass-blades and ferns. + +When the sap is rising, the bark of the smaller shoots of the lime-tree +"slips" easily--i.e. it can be peeled in hollow cylinders if judiciously +tapped and loosened by gentle blows from the back of a knife. The +ploughboys know this, and make whistles out of such branches, as they do +also from the willow, and even the sycamore in the season when the sap +comes up in its flood-tide. + +It is difficult to decide at what time of the year the park is in its +glory. The may-flower on the great hawthorn trees in spring may perhaps +claim the pre-eminence, filling the soft breeze with exquisite odour. +These here are trees, not bushes, standing separate, with thick gnarled +stems so polished by the constant rubbing of cattle as almost to shine +like varnish. The may-bloom, pure white in its full splendour, takes a +dull reddish tinge as it fades, when a sudden shake will bring it down +in showers. A flowering tree, I fancy, looks best when apart and not +one of a row. In the latter case you can only see two sides and not all +round it. Here tall horse-chestnut trees stand single--one great +silvery candelabrum of blossom. Wood-pigeons appear to have a liking +for this tree. Nor must the humble crab-tree be forgotten; a crab-tree +in bloom is a lovely sight. + +The idea of a park is associated with peace and pleasure, yet even here +there is one spot where the passions of men have left their mark. As +previously hinted, the gamekeeper, like most persons with little +book-learning and who take their impressions from nature, is somewhat +superstitious, and regards this place as "unkid"--i.e. weird, uncanny. +One particular green "drive" into the wood opening on the park had +always been believed to be a part of a military track used many ages +ago, but long since ploughed up for the greater part of its length, and +only preserved here by the accident of passing through a wood. At last +some labourers grubbing trees near the mouth of the drive came upon a +number of human skeletons, close beneath the surface, and in their +confused arrangement presenting every sign of hasty interment, as if +after battle. Since then the keeper avoids the spot; nor will he, hardy +as he is, go near it at night; not even in the summer moonlight, when +the night is merely a prolongation of the day. + +There is nothing unusual in such a discovery: skeletons are found in all +manner of places. I recollect seeing one dug out from the bank of a +brook within two feet of the stream. The place was perhaps in the olden +time covered with forest (traces of forest are to be found everywhere, +as in the names of hamlets), and therefore more concealed than at +present. Or, possibly, the stream, in the slow passage of centuries, +may have worn its way far from its original bed. + +It is strange to think of, yet it is true enough, that, beautiful as the +country is, with its green meadows and graceful trees, its streams and +forests and peaceful homesteads, it would be difficult to find an acre +of ground that has not been stained with blood. A melancholy reflection +this, that carries the mind backwards, while the thrush sings on the +bough, through the nameless skirmishes of the Civil War, the cruel +assassinations of the rival Roses, down to the axes of the Saxons and +the ghastly wounds they made. Everywhere under the flowers are the +dead. + +Not this park in particular, but others as well form pages of history. +The keeper, in fact, can claim an ancient origin for his office, dating +back to the forester with a "mark" a year and a suit of green as his +wages, and numbering in his predecessors Joscelin, the typical keeper in +Scott's novel of "Woodstock," who aided the escape of King Charles. +Ever since the days of the Norman King who loved the tall deer as if he +were their father--in the words of his contemporary--and set store by +the hares that they too should go free, the keeper has not ceased out of +the land. + +There are always more small birds at the edge or just outside a wood +than inside it; so that after leaving a meadow with blackbird, thrush, +and finches merry in the hedges, the wood seems quite silent and +deserted save by a solitary robin. This is speaking of the smaller +birds. The great missel-thrush especially delights in the open space of +the park dotted with groups of trees. The missel-thrush is a lonely +bird, and somehow seems like an outlaw--as if, though not precisely +dangerous, he was looked upon with suspicion by the other birds, which +will frequently quit a bush or tree directly he alights upon it. Yet he +builds near houses, and year after year in the same spot. I knew a +large yew-tree which stood almost in front and within a few yards of a +sitting-room window in which the missel-thrush had regularly built its +nest for twelve successive years. These birds are singularly bold in +defence of the nest, flying round and chattering at those who would +disturb it. + +In the ha-ha wall of the park, which is made of loose stones or without +mortar, the tomtit, or titmouse, has his nest. He creeps in between the +stones, following the crannies for a surprising distance. Near here the +partridges roost on the ground; they like an open space far from hedges, +afraid, perhaps, of weasels and rats. On the other side, where the wood +comes up, if you watch quietly, the pheasants step in lordly pride out +into the grass; so that there is no place without its especial class of +life. + +Perhaps with the exception of our parks and hills, there is scarcely any +portion of southern England now where a grand charge of cavalry could +take place--scarcely any open champaign country fit for operations of +that kind with horse. In the Civil War even, how constantly we read of +"lining the hedge with match," and now with enclosures everywhere the +difficulty would apparently be great, despite good roads. + +Park-fed beef is thought by many to be superior, because the cattle run +free--almost wild--the entire year through, winter and summer, and have +nothing but their natural food, grass and hay: in strong contrast with +the bullocks shut up in stalls and forced forward with artificial food. +A great number of parks have been curtailed in size as land became more +valuable--the best ground being selected and hedged off for purely +agricultural purposes; so that it not uncommonly happens that the actual +park is the poorest soil in the district, having for that reason +remained longest in a condition nearly resembling the original state of +the country. So that when agitators of Communistic views lay stress +upon the waste of land used for pleasure purposes they frequently +declaim in utter ignorance of the facts, which are in exact opposition +to their theories. + +Like animals and birds, plants have their favourite haunts: violets love +a bank with a southern aspect, especially if there be a hedge at the +back for further shelter. Where you have by chance lighted upon a wild +flower once you may generally reckon upon finding it again next year-- +such as the white variety of the bluebell or wild hyacinth, for which, +unless you mark the place, you may search in vain amid the crowded blue +bloom of the commoner sort. The orchis, with its purple flower and dark +green spotted leaf, in the virtue of whose roots as a love-potion the +old people still believe, the strange-looking adder's tongue, the modest +wild strawberry, with its tiny but piquant flavoured fruit, all have +their special resorts. Even the cowslips have their ways: by brooks +sometimes a larger variety grows; nor is there a sweeter flower than its +delicate yellow with small velvety brown spots, like moles on beauty's +cheek. + +In autumn, when the leaves turn colour, the groups of trees in the park +are more effective in an artistic point of view than those in the woods +(unless overlooked from a hill close by, when it is like glancing along +a roof of gold), because they stand out clear, and are not confused or +lost in the general glow. But it is evening now; and see--yonder the +fox steals out from the cover, wending his way down into the meadows, +where he will follow the furrows along their course, mousing as he goes. + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +HIS DOMINIONS:--THE WOODS--MEADOWS--AND WATER. + +There is a part of the wood where the bushes grow but thinly and the +ash-stoles are scattered at some distance from each other. It is on a +steep slope--almost cliff--where the white chalk comes to the surface. +On the edge above rise tall beech trees with smooth round trunks, whose +roots push and project through the wall of chalk, and bend downwards, +sometimes dislodging lumps of rubble to roll headlong among the bushes +below. A few small firs cling half-way up, and a tangled, matted mass +of briar and bramble climbs nearly to them, with many a stout thistle +flourishing vigorously. + +To get up this cliff is a work of some little difficulty: it is done by +planting the foot on the ledges of rubble, or in the holes which the +rabbits have made, holding tight to roots which curl and twist in +fantastic shapes, or to the woodbine hanging in festoons from branch to +branch. The rubble under foot crumbles and slips, the roots tear up +bodily from the thin soil, the branches bend, and the woodbine "gives," +and the wayfarer may readily descend much more rapidly than he desires. +Not that serious consequences would ensue from a roll down forty feet of +slope; but the bed of briar and bramble at the bottom is not so soft as +it might be. The rabbits seem quite at home upon the steepest spot; +they may be found upon much higher and more precipitous chalk cliffs +than this, darting from point to point with ease. + +Once at the summit under the beeches, and there a comfortable seat may +be found upon the moss. The wood stretches away beneath for more than a +mile in breadth, and beyond, it winds the narrow mere glittering in the +rays of the early spring sunshine. The bloom is on the blackthorn, but +not yet on the may; the hedges are but just awakening from their long +winter sleep, and the trees have hardly put forth a sign. But the rooks +are busily engaged in the trees of the park, and away yonder at the +distant colony in the elms of the meadows. + +The wood is restless with life: every minute a pigeon rises, clattering +his wings, and after him another; and so there is a constant fluttering +and motion above the ash-poles. The number of wood-pigeons breeding +here must be immense. Later on, if you walk among the ash, you may find +a nest every half-dozen yards. It is formed of a few twigs making a +slender platform, on which the glossy white egg is laid, and where the +bird will sit till you literally thrust her off her nest with your +walking-stick. Such slender platforms, if built in the hedgerow, so +soon as the breeze comes would assuredly be dashed to pieces; but here +the wind only touches the tops of the poles, and causes them to sway +gently with a rattling noise, and the frail nest is not injured. When +the pigeon or dove builds in the more exposed hedgerows the nest is +stronger, and more twigs seem to be used, so that it is heavier. + +Boys steal these eggs by scores, yet it makes no difference apparently +to the endless numbers of these birds, who fill the wood with their +peculiar hoarse notes, which some country people say resemble the words +"Take two cows, Taffy." The same good folk will have it that when the +weather threatens rain the pigeon's note changes to "Joe's toe bleeds, +Betty." The boys who steal the eggs have to swarm up the ash-poles for +the purpose, and in so doing often stain their clothes with red marks. +Upon the bark of the ash are innumerable little excrescences which when +rubbed exude a small quantity of red juice. + +The keeper detests this bird's-nesting; not that he cares much about the +pigeons, but because his pheasants are frequently disturbed just at the +season when he wishes them to enjoy perfect quiet. It is easy to tell +from this post of vantage if any one be passing through the section of +the wood within view, though they may be hidden by the boughs. The +blackbirds utter a loud cry and scatter; the pigeons rise and wheel +about; a pheasant gets up with a scream audible for a long distance, and +goes with swift flight skimming away just above the ash-poles; a pair of +jays jabber round the summit of a tall fir tree, and thus the intruder's +course is made known. But the wind, though light, is still too cold and +chilly as it sweeps between the beech trunks to remain at this +elevation; it is warmer below in the wood. + +At the foot of the cliff a natural hollow has been further scooped out +by labour of man, and shaped into a small cave large enough for three or +four to sit in. It is partly supported by strong wooden pillars, and at +the mouth a hut of slabs, thickly covered by furze-faggots, has been +constructed, with a door, and with roof thatched with reeds from the +lake. A rude bench runs round three sides; against the fourth some +digging tools recline--strong spades and grub-axes for rooting out a +lost ferret, left here temporarily for convenience. The place, rough as +it is, gives shelter, and, throwing the door open, there is a vista +among the ash-poles and the hazel bushes overtopped with great fir trees +and more distant oaks. In the later spring this is a lovely spot, the +ground all tinted with the shimmering colour of the bluebells, and the +hazel musical with the voice of the nightingale. + +Outside the wood, where the downland begins to rise gradually there +stretches a broad expanse of furze growing luxuriantly on the thin +barren soil, and a mile or more in width. It has a beauty of its own +when in full yellow blossom--a yellow sea of flower, scenting the air +with an almost overpowering odour as of a coarser pineapple, and full of +the drowsy hum of the bees busy in the interspersed thyme. It has +another beauty later on when the thick undergrowth of heath is in bloom, +and a pale purple carpet spreads around. Here rabbits breed and sport, +and hares hide, and the curious furze-chats fly to and fro; and lastly, +but not leastly, my lord Reynard the Fox loves to take his ease, till he +finally meets his fate in the jaws of clamouring hounds, or is +assassinated with the aid of "villainous saltpetre." He is not easily +shot, and will stand a charge fired broadside at a short distance +without the slightest injury or apparent notice, beyond a slight +quickening of his pace. His thick fur and tough skin turn the pellets. +Even when mortally wounded, life will linger for hours. + +The ordinary idea of the fox is that of a flying frightened creature +tearing away for bare existence; he is really a bold and desperate +animal. The keeper will tell you that once when for some purpose he was +walking up a deep dry ditch his spaniel and retriever suddenly "chopped" +a fox, and got him at bay in a corner, when he turned, and in an instant +laid the spaniel helpless and dying and severely handled the retriever. +Seeing his dogs so injured and the fox as it were under his feet, the +keeper imprudently attempted to seize him, but could not retain his +hold, and got the sharp white teeth clean through his hand. + +Though but once actually bitten, he recollects being snapped at +viciously by another fox, whom he found in broad daylight asleep in the +hollow of a double mound with scarcely any shelter and within sixty +yards of a house. Reynard was curled up on the ivy which in the hedges +trails along the ground. The keeper crawled up on the bank and stopped, +admiring the symmetry of the creature, when, purposely breaking a twig, +the fox was up in a second, and snarled and snapped at his face, then +slipped into the ditch and away. The fox is, in fact, quite as +remarkable for boldness as for cunning. Last summer I met a fine fox on +the turnpike road and close to a tollgate, in the middle of the day. He +came at full speed with a young rabbit in his jaws, evidently but just +captured, and did not perceive that he was observed till within twenty +yards, when, with a single bound he cleared the sward beside the road, +alighting with a crash in the bushes, carrying his prey with him. + +Hares will sometimes, in like manner, come as it were to meet people on +country roads. Is it that the eyes, being placed towards the side of +the head, do not so readily catch sight of dangers in front as on the +flanks, especially when the animal is absorbed in its purpose? Hares +are peculiarly fond of limping at dusk along lonely roads. + +Foxes, when they roam from the woods into the meadow-land, prefer to +sleep during the day in those osier-beds which are found in the narrow +corners formed by the meanderings of the brooks. Between the +willow-wands there shoots up a thick undergrowth of sedges, long coarse +grass, and reeds; and in these the fox makes his bed, turning round and +round till he has smoothed a place and trampled down the grass; then +reclining, well sheltered from the wind. A dog will turn round and +round in the same way before he lies down on the hearthrug. + +These reeds sometimes grow to a great height, as much as ten or twelve +feet. Along the Thames they are used, bound in bundles, to pitch the +barges; when the hull has been roughly coated with pitch, one end of the +bundle of reeds (thickest end preferred) is set on fire and passed over +it to make it melt and run into the chinks. So, mayhap, the Saxon and +Danish rovers may have used them to pitch the bottoms of their "ceols" +when worn from constantly grounding on the shallows and eyots. + +Here in the furze too is the haunt of the badger. This animal becomes +rarer year after year--the disuse of the great rabbit-warrens being one +cause; still he lingers, and may be traced in the rabbit "buries," where +he enlarges a hole for his habitation, sleeps during the day, and comes +forth in the gloaming. In summer he digs up the wasps' nests, not, as +has been supposed, for the honey, but for the white larvae they contain: +the wasp secretes no honey at all, and her nest is simply a series of +cells in which the grubs mature. Some credit the fox with a fondness +for the same food; and even the hornet's nest is said to be similarly +ravaged. It is the nest of the humble-bee which the badger roots up for +the honey. The humble-bee uses a tiny hole in a dry bank, sometimes a +crack made by the heat in the earth, and really deposits true honey in +the comb. It is very sweet, like that of the hive-bee, but a little +darker in colour and much less in quantity. The haymakers search for +these nests along the hedgerows in their dinner-hour, and eat the honey. +There seem to be several sub-species of humble-bee, differing in size +and habit. One has its nest as deep as possible in a hole; another +makes a nest with scarcely any protection beyond the thick moss of the +bank, almost on the surface of the ground. The badger's hole has before +it a huge quantity of sand, which he has thrown out, and upon which the +imprint of his foot will be found, a mark, perhaps, more like the spoor +of the large game of tropical forests than that left by any other +English animal. When seen it can ever afterwards be instantly +identified by the most careless observer. + +In the meadows lower down, bounding the wood, the hay is gone or is +piled in summer ricks, which lean one one way and another the other, and +upon whose roofs, sloping at an obtuse angle, the green snakes lie +coiled in the sunshine. Often when the waggon comes, and the little +rick is loaded, the "pitch" of hay on the prong as it is flung up +carries with it a snake whirling in the air. He falls on the sward and +is instantly pounced upon by the farmer's dog, who worries him, seizes +him by the middle and shakes him, while the snake twists and hisses in +vain. Some dogs will not touch snakes, others seem to enjoy destroying +them; but it is noticeable that a dog which previously has passed or +avoided snakes, if once he kills one, never passes another without +slaughtering it. A slime from the snake's skin froths over the dog's +jaws, and the sight is very unpleasant. + +I have often tried to discover how the snakes get upon these summer +ricks. Solomon could not understand the "way of a serpent upon the +rock," and the way of a common snake up the summer rick seems almost as +inexplicable. Though the roof or "top" is often very much out of the +proper conical shape, and sometimes sinks down nearly to a level, the +sides for a height of three or four feet are generally perpendicular, +affording no projection of any kind whatever; hay is slippery, and the +rick is, of course, too large for the snake to encircle it. Yet there +they are commonly found to the intense alarm of the labouring women, who +never can get over their dislike of snakes, though they see them so +frequently. The only way I can imagine by which they climb up is by +means of the holes, or galleries, used by field-mice. In summer ricks +there are sometimes many mice, and in pursuit of these the snake may +find its way up through their "runs." Toads are also occasionally found +on these ricks, and it is not exactly clear how they get there either; +but their object is plain--i.e. the insects which swarm on the hay. + +The thick hedgerows of these woodland meads are full of trees, and +others stand out in groups in the grass, some of them hollow. Elms +often become hollow, and so do oaks; the latter have such large cavities +sometimes that one or more persons may easily crouch therein. This is +speaking of an ordinary-sized tree; there are many instances of +patriarchs of the forest within whose capacious trunks a dozen might +stand upright. + +These hollow trees, according to woodcraft, ought to come down by the +axe without further loss of time. Yet it is fortunate that we are not +all of us, even in this prosaic age, imbued with the stern utilitarian +spirit; for a decaying tree is perhaps more interesting than one in full +vigour of growth. The starlings make their nests in the upper +knot-holes; or, lower down, the owl feeds her young; and if you chance +to pass near, and are not aware of the ways of owls, you may fancy that +a legion of serpents are in the bushes, so loud and threatening is the +hissing noise made by the brood. The woodpecker comes for the insects +that flourish on the dying giant; so does the curious little +tree-climber, running up the trunk like a mouse; and in winter, when +insect-life is scarce, it is amusing to watch there the busy tomtit. He +hangs underneath a dead branch, head downwards, as if walking on a +ceiling, and with his tiny but strong bill chips off a fragment of the +loose dead bark. Under this bark, as he well knows, woodlice and all +kinds of creeping things make their home. With the fragment he flies to +an adjacent twig, small enough to be grasped by his claws and so give +him a firm foothold. There he pecks his morsel into minute pieces and +lunches on the living contents. Then, with a saucy chuckle of delight +in his own cleverness, he returns to the larger bough for a fresh +supply. As the bough decays the bark loosens, and is invaded by insects +which when it was green could not touch it. + +For the acorns the old oak still yields come rooks, pigeons, and stately +pheasants, with their glossy feathers shining in the autumn sun. +Thrushes carry wild hedge-fruit up on the broad platform formed by the +trunk where the great limbs divide, and, pecking it to pieces, leave the +seeds. These take root in the crevices which widen out underneath into +a mass of soft decaying "touchwood;" and so from the crown of the tree +there presently streams downwards long trailing briars, bearing in June +the sweet wild roses and in winter red oval fruit. Ivy comes creeping +up, and in its thick warm coverts nests are built. Below, among the +powdery "touchwood" which lines the floor of this living hut, great +fungi push their coloured heads up to the light. And here you may take +shelter when the rain comes unexpectedly pattering on the leaves, and +listen as it rises to a roar within the forest. Sometimes wild bees +take up their residence in the hollow, slowly filling it with comb, +buzzing busily to and fro; and then it is not to be approached so +carelessly, though so ready are all creatures to acknowledge kindness +that ere now I have even made friends with the inhabitants of a wasp's +nest. + +A thick carpet of dark green moss grows upon one side of the tree, and +over it the tall brake fern rears its yellow stem. In the evening the +goat-sucker or nightjar comes with a whirling phantom-like flight, +wheeling round and round: a strange bird, which will roost all day on a +rail, blinking or sleeping in the daylight, and seeming to prefer a rail +or a branch without leaves to one that affords cover. Here also the +smaller bats flit in the twilight, and, if you stand still, will pursue +their prey close to your head, wheeling about it so that you may knock +them down with your hand if you wish. The labouring people call the bat +"bat-mouse." Here also come many beetles; and sometimes on a summer's +day the swallows will rest from their endless flight on the dying upper +branches, for they too like a bough clear or nearly clear of leaves. +All the year through the hollow tree is haunted by every kind of living +creature, and therefore let us hope it may yet be permitted to linger +awhile safe from the axe. + +The lesser roots of the elm are porous like cane, and are sometimes +smoked as cigars by the ploughboys. The leaf of the coltsfoot, which +grows so luxuriously in many places and used to be regularly gathered +and dried by the lower classes for the pipe, is now rarely used since +the commoner tobaccos have become universally accessible. + +Often and often, when standing in a meadow gateway partly hidden by the +bushes, watching the woodpecker on the ant-hills, of whose eggs, too, +the partridges are so fond (so that a good ant year, in which their +nests are prolific, is also a good partridge year) you may, if you are +still, hear a slight faint rustle in the hedge, and by-and-by a weasel +will steal out. Seeing you he instantly pauses, elevates his head, and +steadily gazes: move but your eyes and he is back in the hedge; remain +quiet, still looking straight before you as if you saw nothing, and he +will presently recover confidence, and actually cross the gateway almost +under you. + +This is the secret of observation: stillness, silence, and apparent +indifference. In some instinctive way these wild creatures learn to +distinguish when one is or is not intent upon them in a spirit of +enmity; and if very near, it is always the eye they watch. So long as +you observe them, as it were, from the corner of the eyeball, sideways, +or look over their heads at something beyond, it is well. Turn your +glance full upon them to get a better view, and they are gone. + +When waiting in a dry ditch with a gun on a warm autumn afternoon for a +rabbit to come out, sometimes a bunny will suddenly appear at the mouth +of a hole which your knee nearly touches. He stops dead, as if +petrified with astonishment, sitting on his haunches. His full dark eye +is on you with a gaze of intense curiosity; his nostrils work as if +sniffing; his whiskers move; and every now and then he thumps with his +hind legs upon the earth with a low dull thud. This is evidently a sign +of great alarm, at the noise of which any other rabbit within hearing +instantly disappears in the "bury." Yet there your friend sits and +watches you as if spell-bound, so long as you have the patience neither +to move hand or foot nor to turn your eye. Keep your glance on a frond +of the fern just beyond him, and he will stay. The instant your eye +meets his or a finger stirs, he plunges out of sight. + +It is so also with birds. Walk across a meadow swinging a stick, even +humming, and the rooks calmly continue their search for grubs within +thirty yards; stop to look at them, and they rise on the wing directly. +So, too, the finches in the trees by the roadside. Let the wayfarer +pass beneath the bough on which they are singing, and they will sing on, +if he moves without apparent interest; should he pause to listen, their +wings glisten in the sun as they fly. + +The meadows lead down to the shores of the mere, and the nearest fields +melt almost insensibly into the green margin of the water, for at the +edge it is so full of flags, and rushes, and weeds as at a distance to +be barely distinguishable there from the sward. As we approach, the +cuckoo sings passing over head; "she cries as she flies" is the common +country saying. + +I used to imagine that the cuckoo was fond of an echo, having noticed +that a particular clump of trees overhanging some water, the opposite +bank of which sent back a clear reply, was a specially favourite resort +of that bird. The reduplication of the liquid notes, as they travelled +to and fro, was peculiarly pleasant: the water, perhaps, lending, like a +sounding-board, a fulness and roundness to her song. She might possibly +have fancied that another bird was answering; certainly she "cried" much +longer there than in other places. Morning after morning, and about the +same time--eleven o'clock--a cuckoo sang in that group of trees, from +noting which I was led to think that perhaps the cuckoo, though +apparently wandering aimlessly about, really has more method and +regularity in her habits than would seem. + +Country people will have it that cuckoos are growing scarcer every year, +and do not come in the numbers they formerly did; and, whether it be the +chance of unfavourable seasons or other causes, it is certainly the fact +in some localities. I recollect seeing as many as four at once in a +tall elm--a tree they love--all crying and gurgling, as it were, in the +throat together; this was some years since, and that district is now +much less frequented by these birds. + +There was a superstition that where or in whatever condition you +happened to be when you heard the cuckoo the first time in the spring, +so you would remain for the next twelvemonth; for which reason it was a +misfortune to hear her first in bed, since it might mean a long illness. +This, by-the-by, may have been a pleasant fable invented to get +milkmaids up early of a morning. + +The number of coarse fish in the brook which flows out of the shallow +mere bounding one edge of the keeper's domain of woods has, he thinks, +very much decreased of recent years. When he first came here the stream +seemed full of fish, notwithstanding very little care had till then been +taken with their preservation. They used to net it once now and then, +and he has seen a full hundredweight of fair-sized jack, perch, tench, +etc, taken out of the water in a very short time, besides quantities of +smaller fry which were put back again. But although the brook, so far +as his jurisdiction goes, has since been comparatively well preserved, +yet he feels certain the fish have diminished. + +There are no chemical works to account for this with the subtle poison +of their waste, neither are there mills to prevent the fish coming up-- +perhaps it would be better if there were some mills, as they would stop +the fish going down. I have noticed that where old water-wheels have +ceased working the fish have almost disappeared. This, of course, may +be but a purely local phenomenon, but it is certainly the case in some +districts. Comparatively little wheat now is ground in rural places; +the greater portion is carried away to the towns and turned into flour +by steam. So that in walking up a brook you will now and then come upon +an ancient mill whose business has departed: the fabric itself is +tenanted by two or three cottage families, and their garden covers the +site of the old mill-pond. In the depths of that pool there were +formerly plenty of fish, with deep, dark spots in which to hide. Their +natural increase was not swept away by floods; neither could they +wander, because of the dam and grating. They were also under the eye of +the miller, and so preserved. But when the dam was levelled and the +stream allowed to follow its course, this resting-place, so to say, was +abolished, and the fish dispersed were lost or captured. + +Upon the particular brook which I have now in view there are no mills; +but there used to be several large ponds--distinct from the stream, yet +communicating by a narrow channel. These likewise sheltered the fish, +and were favourable to their propagation. Improvements, however, have +swept them away; they are filled up, every inch of ground having become +valuable for agricultural purposes. Then there were vast ditches +running up beside the hedgerows, and ending in the brook; perfect +storehouses these of all aquatic life. Fish used to go up them for +shelter (they were as deep or deeper than the brook itself, and it was a +good jump for a man across) and to feed on the insects blown off the +overhanging trees and bushes or brought down by the streamlet draining +the field above. Wild duck made their nests among the rushes, sitting +there while their beautiful consorts, the mallards, swam lonely in the +mere. Moorhens were busy in the weeds, or came out to feed upon the +sward. + +Such great ditches are now filled up, and drains take their place. It +is better so, no doubt, in a purely utilitarian sense, but the fish +haunt the spot no more. Some of the reaches of the brook, where the +ground was flat and boggy, used to resemble a long narrow lake, +extremely shallow, with the deeper current running yards away from the +shore: and here the snipe came in the winter. But the banks are now +made up higher by artificial means, and the marsh is dry. All these +changes diminish those aquatic nooks and corners in which fish love to +linger. + +Finally came the weed said to have been imported from America, pushing +its way up-stream, and filling it with an abominable mass of vegetable +matter that no fish could enter. Hereabouts, however, this pest has of +late shown signs of exhaustion--it does not grow with its former vigour, +and its progress seems checked. The brook, after winding for several +miles, the lower course being beyond the keeper's boundaries, empties +itself into a canal; before the canal was made it ran much further, and +itself increased in volume almost to a river. Now this canal is fished +day and night by people on the tow-path: there is nominally a close +time, but no one observes it, and the riparian owners, having discovered +that they had a right so to do, net it mercilessly. The consequence is +that the fish which go down the stream and enter the canal are speedily +destroyed, while the canal on its part sends no fish to the upper +waters. This is how the decrease of fish is accounted for, and it is +the same with perhaps half-a-dozen other brooks in the same locality, +all of which now fall into the canal, which is so incessantly plied with +rod and net and nightline that little escapes. + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +SOME OF HIS SUBJECTS: DOGS, RABBITS, "MICE, AND SUCH SMALL DEER." + +When a dog, young and yet unskilled, follows his master across the +meadows, it often happens that he meets with difficulties which sorely +try the capacity of the inexperienced brain. The two come to a broad +deep brook. The man glances at the opposite bank, and compares in his +mind the distance to the other side with other distances he has +previously leaped. The result is not quite satisfactory; somehow a +latent doubt develops itself into a question of his ability to spring +over. He cranes his neck, looks at the jump sideways to get an angular +measurement, retires a few paces to run, shakes his head, deliberates, +instinctively glances round as if for assistance or advice, and +presently again advances to the edge. No; it will not do. He recalls +to mind the division of space into yards, feet, and inches, and +endeavours to apply it without a rule to the smooth surface of the +water. He can judge a yard on the grass, because there is something to +fix the eye on--the tall bennet or the buttercup yonder; but the water +affords no data. + +On second thoughts, yes--even the smooth flowing current has its marks. +Here, not far from the steep bank, is a flag, bowed or broken, whose +pennant-like tongue of green floats just beneath the surface, slowly +vibrating to and fro, as you wave your hand in token of farewell. This +is mark one--say three feet from the shore. + +Somewhat farther there is a curl upon the water, not constant, but +coming every few seconds in obedience to the increase or decrease of the +volume of the stream, which there meets with some slight obstacle out of +sight. For, although the water appears level and unvarying, it really +rises and sinks in ever so minute a degree with a rhythmic alternation. +If you will lie down on the sward, you may sometimes see it by fixing a +steady gaze upon the small circular cave where the gallery of a +water-rat opens on this the Grand Canal of his Venice. Into it there +rises now and again a gentle swell--barely perceptible--a faint pulse +rising and falling. The stream is slightly fuller and stronger at one +moment than another; and with each swell the curl, or tiny whirlpool, +rotates above the hidden irregularity of the bottom. If you sit by the +dam higher up the brook, and watch the arch of the cataract rolling +over, it is perhaps more visible. Every now and then a check seems to +stay the current momentarily: and at night, when it is perfectly still, +listening to the murmur of the falling water from a distance. Under the +apple-trees in the garden it runs a scale--now up, then down; each +variation of volume changing the musical note. This faint undulation is +more visible in some brooks than others. + +A third mark is where a branch, as it was carried along, grounded on a +shallow spot; and one mast, as it were, of the wreck protruding upwards, +catches the stray weeds as they swim down and holds them. Thus, step by +step, the mind of the man measures the distance, and assures him that it +is a little beyond what he has hitherto attempted; yet will not extra +exertion clear it?--for having once approached the brink, shame and the +dislike of giving up pull him forward. He walks hastily twenty yards up +the brook, then as many the other way, but discovers no more favourable +spot; hesitates again; next carefully examines the tripping place, lest +the turf, undermined, yield to the sudden pressure, as also the landing, +for fear of falling back. Finally he retires a few yards, and pauses a +second and runs. Even after the start, uncertain in mind and but half +resolved, it is his own motion which impels the will, and he arrives on +the opposite shore with a sense of surprise. Now comes the dog, and +note his actions; contrast the two, and say which is instinct, which is +mind. + +The dog races to the bank--he has been hitherto hunting in a hedge and +suddenly misses his master--and, like his lord, stops short on the +brink. He has had but little experience in jumping as yet; water is not +his natural element, and he pauses doubtfully. He looks across +earnestly, sniffs the air as if to smell the distance, then whines in +distress of mind. Presently he makes a movement to spring, checks it, +and turns round as if looking for advice or encouragement. Next he runs +back a short way as if about to give it up; returns, and cranes over the +brink; after which he follows the bank up and down, barking in +excitement, but always coming back to the original spot. The lines of +his face, the straining eye, the voice that seems struggling to +articulate in the throat, the attitude of the body, all convey the idea +of intense desire which fear prevents him from translating into action. +There is indecision--uncertainty--in the nervous grasp of the paws on +the grass, in the quick short coursings to and fro. Would infallible +instinct hesitate? He has no knowledge of yards, feet and inches--yet +he is clearly trying to judge the distance. Finally, just as his master +disappears through a gateway, the agony of his "mind" rises to the +highest pitch. He advances to the very brink--he half springs, stays +himself, his hinder paws slip down the steep bank, he partly loses his +balance, and then makes a great leap, lights with a splash in +mid-stream, and swims the remainder with ease. There is, at least, a +singular coincidence in the outward actions of the two. + +The gamekeeper, with dogs around him from morning till night, associated +with them from childhood, has no doubts upon the matter whatever, but +with characteristic decision is perfectly certain that they think and +reason in the same way as human beings, though of course in a limited +degree. Most of his class believe, likewise, in the reasoning power of +the dog: so do shepherds; and so, too, the labourers who wait on and +feed cattle are fully persuaded of their intelligence, which, however, +in no way prevents them throwing the milking-stool at their heads when +unruly. But the concession of reason is no guarantee against ill-usage, +else the labourer's wife would escape. + +The keeper, without thinking it perhaps, affords a strong illustration +of his own firm faith in the mind of the dog. His are taught their +proper business thoroughly; but there it ends. "I never makes them +learn no tricks," says he, "because I don't like to see 'em made fools +of." I have observed that almost all those whose labour lies in the +field, and who go down to their business in the green meadows, admit the +animal world to a share in the faculty of reason. It is the cabinet +thinkers who construct a universe of automatons. + +No better illustration of the two modes of observation can be found than +in the scene of Goethe's "Faust" where Faust and Wagner walking in the +field are met by a strange dog. The first sees something more than a +mere dog; he feels the presence of an intelligence within the outward +semblance--in this case an evil intelligence, it is true, but still a +something beyond mere tail and paws and ears. To Wagner it is a dog and +nothing more--that will sit at the feet of his master and fawn on him if +spoken to, who can be taught to fetch and carry or bring a stick; the +end, however, proves different. So one mind sees the outside only; +another projects itself into the mind of the creature, be it dog or +horse or bird. + +Experience certainly educates the dog as it does the man. After long +acquaintance and practice in the field we learn the habits and ways of +game--to know where it will or not be found. A young dog in the same +way dashes swiftly up a hedge, and misses the rabbit that, hearing him +coming, doubles back behind a tree or stole; an old dog leaves nothing +behind him, searching every corner. This is acquired knowledge. +Neither does all depend upon hereditary predisposition as exhibited in +the various breeds--the setter, the pointer, the spaniel, or greyhound-- +and their especial drift of brain; their capacity is not wholly confined +to one sphere. They possess an initiating power--what in man is called +originality, invention, discovery: they make experiments. + +I had a pointer that exhibited this faculty in a curious manner. She +was weakly when young, and for that reason, together with other +circumstances, was never properly trained: a fact that may perhaps have +prevented her "mind" from congealing into the stolidity of routine. She +became an outdoor pet, and followed at heel everywhere. One day some +ponds were netted, and of the fish taken a few chanced to be placed in a +great stone trough from which cattle drank in the yard--a common thing +in the country. Some time afterwards, the trough being foul, the fish-- +they were roach, tench, perch, and one small jack--were removed to a +shallow tub while it was being cleansed. In this tub, being scarcely a +foot deep though broad, the fish were of course distinctly visible, and +at once became an object of the most intense interest to the pointer. +She would not leave it; but stood watching every motion of the fish, +with her head now on one side now on the other. There she must have +remained some hours, and was found at last in the act of removing them +one by one and laying them softly, quite unhurt, on the grass. + +I put them back into the water, and waited to see the result. She took +a good look, and then plunged her nose right under the surface and +half-way up the neck completely submerging the head, and in that +position groped about on the bottom till a fish came in contact with her +mouth and was instantly snatched out. Her head must have been under +water each time nearly a minute, feeling for the fish. One by one she +drew them out and placed them on the ground, till only the jack +remained. He puzzled her, darting away swift as an arrow and seeming to +anticipate the enemy. But after a time he, too, was captured. + +They were not injured--not the mark of a tooth was to be seen--and swam +as freely as ever when restored to the water. So soon as they were put +in again the pointer recommenced her fishing, and could hardly be got +away by force. The fish were purposely left in the tub. The next day +she returned to the amusement, and soon became so dexterous as to pull a +fish out almost the instant her nose went under water. The jack was +always the most difficult to catch, but she managed to conquer him +sooner or later. When returned to the trough, however, she was done-- +the water was too deep. Scarcely anything could be imagined apparently +more opposite to the hereditary intelligence of a pointer than this; and +certainly no one attempted to teach her, neither did she do it for food. +It was an original motion of her own: to what can it be compared but +mind proceeding by experiment? They can also adjust their conduct to +circumstances, as when they take to hunting on their own account: they +then generally work in couples. + +If a spaniel, for instance, one of those allowed to lie loose about +farmhouses, takes to hunting for herself, she is almost always found to +meet a canine friend at a little distance from the homestead. It is +said that spaniels when they go off like this never bark when on the +heels of a rabbit, as they would do if a sportsman was with them and the +chase legitimate. This suppression of what must be an almost +uncontrollable inclination shows no little intelligence. If they gave +tongue, they would be certainly detected, and as certainly thrashed. To +watch the sneaking way in which a spaniel will come home after an +unlawful expedition of this kind is most amusing. She makes her +appearance on the road or footpath so as not to look as if coming from +the hedges, and enters at the back; or if any movement be going on, as +the driving of cattle, she will join in it, displaying extraordinary +zeal in assisting: anything to throw off suspicion. + +Of all sport, if a man desires to widen his chest, and gain some idea of +the chase as it was in ancient days, let him take two good greyhounds +and "uncouple at the timorous flying hare," following himself on foot. +A race like this over the elastic turf of the downs, inhaling with +expanded lungs air which acts on the blood as strong drink on the brain, +stimulating the pulse, and strengthening every fibre of the frame, is +equal to another year of life. Coursing for the coursing's sake is +capital sport. A hare when sorely tried with the hot breath from the +hounds' nostrils on his flanks, will sometimes puzzle them by dashing +round and round a rick. Then in sweeping circles the trio strain their +limbs, but the hare, having at the corners the inner side and less +ground to cover, easily keeps just ahead. This game lasts several +minutes, till presently one of the hounds is sharp enough to dodge back +and meet the hare the opposite way. Even then his quick eye and ready +turn often give him another short breathing space by rushing away at a +tangent. + +Rabbits, although of "low degree" in comparison with the pheasant, +really form an important item in the list of the keeper's charges. +Shooting generally commences with picking out the young rabbits about +the middle or towards the end of the hay harvest, according as the +season is early or late. Some are shot by the farmers, who have the +right to use a gun, earlier than this, while they still disport in the +mowing grass. It requires experience and skill to select the young +rabbit just fit for table from the old bucks, the does which may yet +bring forth another litter, and those little bunnies that do not exceed +the size of rats. + +The grass conceals the body of the animal, and nothing is visible beyond +the tips of the ears; and at thirty yards distance one pair of ears is +very like another pair. The developed ear is, however, less pointed +than the other; and in the rabbit of a proper size they are or seem to +be wider apart. The eye is also guided by the grass itself and the +elevation of the rabbit's head above it when lifted in alarm at a chance +sound: if the animal is full grown of course the head stands higher. In +motion the difference is at once seen; the larger animal's back and +flanks show boldly, while the lesser seems to slip through the grass. +By these signs, and by a kind of instinct which grows upon one when +always in the field, it is possible to distinguish between them even in +tall grass and in the gloaming. + +This sort of shooting, if it does not afford the excitement of the +pheasant battue, or require the alertness necessary in partridge +killing, is not without its special pleasures. These are chiefly to be +attributed to the genial warmth of the weather at that season, when the +reapers have only just begun to put the tall corn to the edge of their +crooked swords, and one can linger by the hedge-side without dread of +wintry chills. + +The aftermath in which the rabbits feed is not so tall as the mowing +grass, and more easy and pleasant to walk through, though it is almost +devoid of flowers. Neither does it give so much shelter; and you must +walk close to the hedge, gliding gently from bush to bush, the slower +the better. Rabbits feed several times during the day--i.e. in the very +early morning, next about eleven o'clock, again at three or four, and +again at six or seven. Not that every rabbit comes out to nibble at +those hours, but about that time some will be seen moving outside the +buries. + +As you stroll beside the hedge, brushing the boughs, a rabbit feeding +two hundred yards away will lift his head inquiringly from the grass. +Then stop, and remain still as the elm tree hard by. In a minute or +two, reassured, the ears perked up so sharply fall back, and he feeds +again. Another advance of ten or twenty yards, and up go the ears--you +are still till they drop once more. The rabbit presently turns his back +towards you, sniffing about for the tenderest blades; this is an +opportunity, and an advance of forty or fifty paces perhaps is +accomplished. Now, if you have a rook-rifle you are near enough; if a +smooth-bore, the same system of stalking must be carried farther yet. +If you are patient enough to wait when he takes alarm, and only to +advance when he feeds, you are pretty sure to "bag" him. + +Sometimes, when thus gliding with stealthy tread, another rabbit will +suddenly appear out of the ditch within easy reach; it is so quiet he +never suspected the presence of an enemy. If you pause and keep quite +still, which is the secret of all stalking, he will soon begin to feed, +and the moment he turns his back towards you up goes the gun; not +before, because if he sees your arm move he will be off to the ditch. +True, a snap-shot might be made as he runs, which at first sight would +appear more sportsmanlike than "potting;" but it is not so, for it is +ten chances to one that you do not kill him dead on the spot in the +short distance he has to traverse. Perhaps the hind legs will be +broken; well, then he will drag them along behind him, using the fore +paws with astonishing rapidity and power. Before the second barrel can +be emptied he will gain the shelter of the fern that grows on the edge +of the bank and dive into a burrow, there to die in misery. So that it +is much better to steadily "pot" him. Besides which, if a rabbit dies +in a burrow all the other animals in that particular burrow desert it +till nature's scavengers have done their work. A dog cannot well be +taken while stalking--not that dogs will not follow quietly, but because +a rabbit, catching sight of a dog, is generally stricken with panic even +if a hundred yards away, and bolts immediately. + +I have seen a rabbit whose back was broken by shot drag itself ten yards +to the ditch. If the forelegs are broken, then he is helpless: all the +kicks of the hind legs only tumble him over and over without giving him +much progress. The effects of shot are very strange, and sometimes +almost inexplicable: as when a hare which has received a pellet through +the edge of the heart runs a quarter of a mile before dropping. It is +noticed that hares and rabbits, hit in the vital organs about the heart, +often run a considerable distance, and then, suddenly in the midst of +their career, roll head over heels dead. Both hares and rabbits are +occasionally killed with marks of old shot wounds, but not very often, +and they are but of a slight character--the pellets are found just under +the skin, with a kind of lump round them. Shot holes through the ears +are frequently seen, of course doing no serious harm. + +Now and then a rabbit hit in the head will run round and round in +circles, making not the slightest attempt to escape. The first time I +saw this, not understanding it, I gave the creature the second barrel; +but next time I let the rabbit do as he would. He circled round and +round, going at a rapid pace. I stood in his way, and he passed between +my legs. After half a dozen circles the pace grew slower. Finally, he +stopped, sat up quite still for a minute or so, and then drooped and +died. The pellet had struck some portion of the brain. + +I once, while looking for snipe with charges of small shot in the +barrels, roused a fine hare, and fired without apparent effect. But +after crossing about half of the field with a spaniel tearing behind, he +began to slacken speed, and I immediately followed. The hare dodged the +spaniel admirably, and it was with the utmost difficulty I secured him +(refraining from firing the second barrel on purpose). He had been +stopped by one single little pellet in the great sinew of the hind leg, +which had partly cut it through. Had it been a rabbit he would +certainly have escaped into a bury, and there, perhaps died, as shot +wounds frequently fester: so that in stalking rabbits, or waiting for +them behind a tree or bush, it is much better to take a steady aim at +the head, and so avoid torturing the creature. + +"Potting" is hardly sport, yet it has an advantage to those who take a +pleasure in observing the ways of bird and animal. There is just +sufficient interest to induce one to remain quiet and still, which is +the prime condition of seeing anything; and in my own case the rabbits +so patiently stalked have at last often gone free, either from their own +amusing antics, or because the noise of the explosion would disturb +something else under observation. In winter it is too cold; then you +step quietly and yet briskly up to a fence or a gateway, and glance +over, and shoot at once; or with the spaniels hunt the bunnies from the +fern upon the banks, yourself one side of the hedge and the keeper the +other. + +In excavating his dwelling, the rabbit, thoughtless of science, +constructs what may be called a natural auditorium singularly adapted +for gathering the expiring vibrations of distant sound. His round +tunnel bored in a sandy bank is largest at the opening, like the mouth +of a trumpet, and contracts within--a form which focusses the +undulations of the air. To obtain the full effect the ear should listen +some short way within; but the sound, as it is thrown backwards after +entering, is often sufficiently marked to be perceptible when you listen +outside. The great deep ditches are dry in summer; and though shooting +be not the object, yet a gun for knocking over casual vermin is a +pleasant excuse for idling in a reclining position shoulder-high in +fern, hidden like a skirmisher in such an entrenchment. A mighty root +bulging from the slope of the bank forms a natural seat. There is a +cushion of dark green moss to lean against, and the sand worked out from +the burrows--one nearly on a level with the head and another lower +down--has here filled up the ditch to some height, making a footstool. + +In the ditch lie numbers of last year's oak leaves, which so sturdily +resist decay. All the winter and spring they were soaked by the water +from the "land-springs"--as those which only run in wet weather are +called--draining into it, and to that water they communicated a peculiar +flavour, slightly astringent. Even moderate-sized streamlets become +tainted in the latter part of the autumn by the mass of leaves they +carry down, or filter through, in woodland districts. Often the +cottagers draw their water from a small pool filled by such a ditch, and +coated at the bottom with a thick layer of decomposing leaves. The +taste of this water is strong enough to overcome the flavour of their +weak tea, yet they would rather use such water than walk fifty yards to +a brook. It must, however, be admitted that the brooks at that time are +also tinctured with leaf, and there seems to be no harm in it. + +Out from among these dead leaves in the ditch protrudes a crooked branch +fallen long since from the oak, and covered with grey lichen. On the +right hand a tangled thicket of bramble with its uneven-shaped stems +closes the spot in, and on the left a stole of hazel rises with the +parasitical "hardy fern" fringing it near the earth. The outer bark of +the hazel is very thin; it is of a dark mottled hue; bruise it roughly, +and the inner bark shows a bright green. The lowly ivy creeps over the +bank--its leaves with five angles, and variegated with grey streaks. +Through the hawthorn bushes above comes a faint but regular sound--it is +the parting fibres of the grass-blades in the meadow on the other side +as the cows tear them apart, steadily eating their way onwards. The +odour of their breath floats heavy on the air. The sun is sinking, and +there is a hush and silence. + +But the rabbit-burrow here at my elbow is not silent; it seems to catch +and heighten faint noises from a distance. A man is walking slowly home +from his work up the lane yonder; the fall of his footsteps is +distinctly rendered by the hole here. The dull thuds of a far-off +mallet or "bitel" (beetle) driving in a stake are plainly audible. The +thump-thump of a horse's hoofs cantering on the sward by the roadside, +though deadened by the turf, are reproduced or sharpened. Most distinct +of all comes the regular sound of oars against the tholepins or rowlocks +of a boat moving on the lake many fields away. So that in all +probability to the rabbit his hole must be a perfect "Ear of Dionysius," +magnifying a whisper--unless, indeed, its turns and windings confuse the +undulations of sound. It is observable that before the rabbit ventures +forth he stays and listens just within the entrance of his burrow, where +he cannot _see_ any danger unless absolutely straight before him--a +habit that may have unconsciously grown up from the apparent resonance +of sound there. + +Sitting thus silently on the root of the oak, presently I hear a slight +rustling among the dead leaves at the bottom of the ditch. They heave +up as if something was pushing underneath; and after a while, as he +comes to the heap of sand thrown out by the rabbits, a mole emerges, and +instantly with a shiver, as it were, of his skin throws off the +particles of dust upon his fur as a dog fresh from the water sends a +shower from his coat. The summer weather having dried the clay under +the meadow turf and made it difficult to work, he has descended into the +ditch, beneath which there is still a certain moistness, and where he +can easily bore a tunnel. + +It is rather rare to see a mole above ground; fortunately for him he is +of diminutive size, or so glossy a fur would prove his ruin. As it is, +every other old pollard willow tree along the hedge is hung with +miserable moles, caught in traps, and after death suspended--like +criminals swinging on a gibbet--from the end of slender willow boughs. +Moles seem to breed in the woods: first perhaps because they are less +disturbed there, next because under the trees the earth is usually +softer, retains its moisture longer, and is easier to work. From the +woods their tracks branch out, ramifying like the roads which lead from +a city. They have in addition main arteries of traffic, king's +highways, along which they will journey one after the other; so that the +mole-catcher, if he can discover such a road, slaughters many in +succession. The heaps they throw up are awkward in mowing grass, the +scythe striking against them; and in consequence of complaints of their +rapid multiplication in the woods the keeper has to employ men to reduce +their numbers. It is curious to note how speedily the mole buries +himself in the soil; it is as if he suddenly dived into the earth. + +Another slight rustling--a pause, and it is repeated; this time on the +bank, among the dry grass. It is mice; they have a nervous habit of +progressing in sharp, short stages. They rush forward seven or eight +inches with lightning-like celerity--a dun streak seems to pass before +your eye; then they stop short a moment or two, and again make another +dash. This renders it difficult to observe them, especially as a single +dead brown leaf is sufficient to hide one. It is so silent that they +grow bold, and play their antics freely, darting to and fro, round and +under the stoles, chasing each other. Sometimes they climb the bushes, +running along the upper surface of the boughs that chance to be nearly +horizontal. Once on a hawthorn branch in a hedge I saw a mouse +descending with an acorn; he was, perhaps, five feet from the ground, +and how and from whence he had got his burden was rather puzzling at +first. Probably the acorn, dropping from the tree, had been caught and +held in the interlacing of the bush till observed by the keen, if tiny, +eyes below. + +Mice have a magical way of getting into strange places. In some +farmhouses they still use the ancient, old-fashioned lanterns made of +tin--huge machines intended for a tallow candle, and with plates of thin +translucent horn instead of glass. They are not wholly despicable; +since if set on the ground and kicked over by a recalcitrant cow in the +sheds, the horn does not break as glass would. These lanterns, having a +handle at the top, are by it hung up to the beam in the kitchen; and +sometimes to the astonishment of the servants in the quiet of the +evening, they are found to be animated by some motive power, swinging to +and fro and partly turning round. A mouse has got in--for the grease; +but how? that is the "wonderment," as the rustic philosophers express +it; for, being hung from the beam, eight or nine feet from the +stone-flagged floor, there seems no way of approach for the mouse except +by "walking" on the ceiling or along and partly underneath the beam +itself. If so, it would seem to be mainly by the propulsive power +exerted previous to starting on the trip--just as a man can get a little +way up the perpendicular side of a rick by running at it. Occasionally, +no doubt, the mouse has entered when the lantern has been left opened +while lighted on the ground, and so got shut in; but mice have been +found in lanterns cobwebbed from long disuse. + +Suddenly there peeps out from the lower rabbit-hole the stealthy reddish +body of a weasel. I instinctively reach for the gun leaning against the +bank, and immediately the spell is broken. The mice rush to their +holes, the weasel darts back into the bowels of the earth, a rabbit that +has quietly slipped out unseen into the grass bounds with eager haste to +cover, and out of the oak overhead there rises, with a great clatter of +wings, a wood-pigeon that had settled there. + +When the pale winter sunshine falls upon the bare branches of an avenue +of elms--such as so often ornament parks--they appear lit up with a +faint rosy colour, which instantly vanishes on the approach of a shadow. +This shimmering mirage in the boughs seems due to the myriads of lesser +twigs, which at the extremities have a tinge of red, invisible at a +distance till the sunbeams illuminate the trees. Beyond this passing +gleam of colour, nothing relieves the blackness of the January +landscape, except here and there the bright silvery bark of the birch. + +For several seasons now in succession the thrush has sung on the +shortest days, as though it were spring; a little later, in the early +mornings, the blackbird joins, filling the copse with a chorus at the +dawn. But, if the wind turns to east or north, the rooks perch on the +oaks in the hedgerows in the middle of the day, puffing out their +feathers and seeming to abandon all search for food as if seized with +uncontrollable melancholy. Hardy as these birds are, a long frost kills +them in numbers, principally by slow starvation. They die during the +night, dropping suddenly from their roosting-place on the highest boughs +of the great beech- rees, with a thud distinctly heard in the silence of +the woods. The leaves of the beech decay so gradually as to lie in +heaps beneath for months, filling up the hollows, so that an unwary +passer-by may plunge knee-deep in leaves. Rooks when feeding usually +cross the field facing the wind, perhaps to prevent the ruffling of +their feathers. + +Wood-pigeons have apparently much increased in numbers of recent years; +they frequent sheltered spots where the bushes diminish the severity of +the frost. Sometimes on the hills at a lonely farmhouse, where the +bailiff has a long-barrelled ancient fowling-piece, he will lay a train +of grain for them, and with a double charge of shot, kill many at a +time. + +Men have boasted of shooting twenty at once. But with an ordinary gun +it is not credible; and the statement, without wilful exaggeration, may +arise from confusion in counting, for it is a fact that some of the +older uneducated country labourers cannot reckon correctly. It is not +unusual in parishes to hear of a cottage woman who has had twenty +children. Upon investigation the real number is found to be sixteen or +seventeen, yet nothing on earth will convince the mother that she has +not given birth to a score. They get hazy in figures when exceeding a +dozen. + +A pigeon is not easily brought down--the quills are so stiff and strong +that the shot, if it comes aslant, will glance off. Many pigeons roost +in the oaks of the hedges, choosing by preference one well hung with +ivy, and when it is a moonlit night afford tolerable sport. It requires +a gun on each side of the hedge. A stick flung up awakes the birds; +they rise with a rush and clatter, and in the wildness of their flight +and the dim light are difficult to hit. There is a belief that pigeons +are partially deaf. If stalked in the daytime they take little heed of +footsteps or slight noises which would alarm other creatures; but, on +the other hand, they are quick of eye, and are gone directly anything +suspicious appears in sight. You may get quite under them and shoot +them on the bough at night. It is not their greater wakefulness but the +noise they make in rising which renders them good protectors of +preserves; it alarms other birds and can be heard at some distance. + +When a great mound and hedgerow is grubbed up, the men engaged in the +work often anticipate making a considerable bag of the rabbits, whose +holes riddle it in every direction, thinking to dig them out even of +those innermost chambers whence the ferret has sometimes been unable to +dislodge them. But this hope is almost always disappointed; and when +the grub-axe and spade have laid bare the "buries" only recently teeming +with life, not a rabbit is found. By some instinct they have discovered +the approach of destruction, and as soon as the first few yards of the +hedge are levelled secretly depart. After a "bury" has been ferreted it +is some time before another colony takes possession: this is seemingly +from the intense antipathy of the rabbit to the smell of the ferret. +Even when shot at and pressed by dogs, a rabbit in his hasty rush will +often pass a hole which would have afforded instant shelter because it +has been recently ferreted. + +At this season the labourers are busy with "beetle" (pronounced +"bitel")--a huge mallet--and iron wedges, splitting the tough elm-butts +and logs for firewood. In old times a cottager here and there with a +taste for astrology used to construct an almanack by rule of thumb, +predicting the weather for the ensuing twelve months from the first +twelve days of January. As the wind blew on those days so the +prevailing weather of the months might be foretold. The aged men, +however, say that in this divination the old style must be adhered to, +for the sequence of signs and omens still follows the ancient reckoning, +which ought never to have been interfered with. + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +HIS ENEMIES--BIRDS AND BEASTS OF PREY--TRESPASSERS. + +There are other enemies of game life besides human poachers whose +numbers must be kept within bounds to ensure successful sport. The +thirst of the weasel for blood is insatiable, and it is curious to watch +the persistency with which he will hunt down the particular rabbit he +has singled out for destruction. Through the winding subterranean +galleries of the "buries" with their cross-passages, "blind" holes and +"pop" holes (i.e. those which end in undisturbed soil, and those which +are simply bored from one side of the bank to the other, being only used +for temporary concealment), never once in the dark close caverns losing +sight or scent of his victim, he pursues it with a species of eager +patience. It is generally a long chase. The rabbit makes a dash ahead +and a double or two, and then halts, usually at the mouth of a hole: +perhaps to breathe. By-and-by the weasel, baffled for a few minutes, +comes up behind. Instantly the rabbit slips over the bank outside and +down the ditch for a dozen yards, and there enters the "bury" again. +The weasel follows, gliding up the bank with a motion not unlike that of +the snake; for his body and neck are long and slender and his legs +short. Apparently he is not in haste, but rather lingers over the +scent. This is repeated five or six times, till the whole length of the +hedgerow has been traversed--sometimes up and down again. The chase may +be easily observed by any one who will keep a little in the background. +Although the bank be tenanted by fifty other rabbits, past whose +hiding-place the weasel must go, yet they scarcely take any notice. One +or two whom he has approached too closely bolt out and in again; but as +a mass the furry population remain quiet, as if perfectly aware that +they are not yet marked out for slaughter. + +At last, having exhausted the resources of the bank the rabbit rushes +across the field to a hedgerow, perhaps a hundred yards away. Here the +wretched creature seems to find a difficulty in obtaining admittance. +Hardly has he disappeared in a hole before he comes out again, as if the +inhabitants of the place refused to give him shelter. For many animals +have a strong tribal feeling, and their sympathy, like that of man in a +savage state, is confined within their special settlement. + +With birds it is the same: rooks, for instance, will not allow a strange +pair to build in their trees, but drive them off with relentless beak, +tearing down the half-formed nest, and taking the materials to their own +use. The sentiment, "If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, +what good shall my life do me?" appears to animate the breasts of +gregarious creatures of this kind. Rooks intermarry generation after +generation; and if a black lover brings home a foreign bride they are +forced to build in a tree at some distance. Near large rookeries +several such outlying colonies may be seen. + +The rabbit, failing to find a cover, hides in the grass and dry rushes; +but across the meadow, stealing along the furrow, comes the weasel; and, +shift his place how he may, in the end, worn out and weary, bunny +succumbs, and the sharp teeth meet in the neck behind the ear, severing +the vein. Often in the end the rabbit runs to earth in a hole which is +a _cul-de-sac_, with his back towards the pursuer. The weasel, unable +to get at the poll, which is his desire, will mangle the hinder parts in +a terrible manner--as will the civilised ferret under similar +conditions. Now and then the rabbit, scratching and struggling, fills +the hole in the rear with earth, and so at the last moment chokes off +his assailant and finds safety almost in the death-agony. In the woods, +once the rabbit is away from the "buries," the chase really does +resemble a hunt; from furze-bush to bracken, from fern to rough grass, +round and round, backwards, doubling, to and fro, and all in vain. + +At such times, eager for blood, the weasel will run right across your +path, almost close enough to be kicked. Pursue him in turn, and if +there be no hedge or hole near, if you have him in the open, he will +dart hither and thither right between your legs, uttering a sharp short +note of anger and alarm, something composed of a tiny bark and a scream. +He is easily killed with a stick when you catch him in the open, for he +is by no means swift; but if a hedge be near it is impossible to secure +him. + +Weasels frequently hunt in couples, and sometimes more than two will +work together. I once saw five, and have heard of eight. The five I +saw were working a sandy bank drilled with holes, from which the rabbits +in wild alarm were darting in all directions. The weasels raced from +hole to hole and along the sides of the bank exactly like a pack of +hounds, and seemed intensely excited. Their manner of hunting resembles +the motions of ants; these insects run a little way very swiftly, then +stop, turn to the right or left, make a short detour, and afterwards on +again in a straight line. So the pack of weasels darted forward, +stopped, went from side to side, and then on a yard or two, and repeated +the process. To see their reddish heads thrust for a moment from the +holes, then withdrawn to reappear at another, would have been amusing +had it not been for the reflection that their frisky tricks would +assuredly end in death. They ran their quarry out of the bank and into +a wood, where I lost sight of them. The pack of eight was seen by a +labourer returning down a woodland lane from work one afternoon. He +told me he got into the ditch, half from curiosity to watch them, and +half from fear--laughable as that may seem--for he had heard the old +people tell stories of men in the days when the corn was kept for years +in barns, and so bred hundreds of rats, being attacked by those vicious +brutes. He said they made a noise, crying to each other, short sharp +snappy sounds; but the pack of five I myself saw hunted in silence. + +Stoats, though not so numerous as weasels, probably do quite as much +injury, being larger, swifter, stronger, and very bold, sometimes +entering sheds close to dwelling-houses. The labouring people--at +least, the elder folk--declare that they have been known to suck the +blood of infants left asleep in the cradle upon the floor, biting the +child behind the ear. They hunt in couples also--seldom in larger +numbers. I have seen three at work together, and with a single shot +killed two out of the trio. In elegance of shape they surpass the +weasel, and the colour is brighter. Their range of destruction seems +only limited by their strength: they attack anything they can manage. + +The keeper looks upon weasel and stoat as bitter foes, to be ruthlessly +exterminated with shot and gin. He lays to their charge deadly crimes +of murder, the death of rabbits, hares, birds, the theft and destruction +of his young broods, even occasional abstraction of a chicken close to +his very door, despite the dogs chained there. They are not easily +shot, being quick to take shelter at the sight of a dog, and when hard +hit with the pellets frequently escaping, though perhaps to die. Both +weasel and stoat, and especially the latter, will snap viciously at the +dog that overtakes them, even when sore wounded, always aiming to fix +their teeth in his nose, and fighting savagely to the last gasp. The +keeper slays a wonderful number in the course of a year, yet they seem +as plentiful as ever. He traps perhaps more than he shoots. + +It is not always safe to touch a stoat caught in a trap; he lies +apparently dead, but lift him up, and instantly his teeth are in your +hand, and it is said such wounds sometimes fester for months. Stoats +are tough as leather: though severely nipped by the iron fangs of the +gin, struck on the head with the butt of the gun, and seemingly quite +lifeless, yet, if thrown on the grass and left, you will often find on +returning to the place in a few hours' time that the animal is gone. +Warned by experiences of this kind, the keeper never picks up a stoat +till "settled" with a stick or shot, and never leaves him till he is +nailed to the shed. Stoats sometimes emit a disgusting odour when +caught in a trap. The keeper has no mercy for such vermin, though he +thinks some of his feathered enemies are even more destructive. + +Twice a year the hawks and other birds of prey find a great feast spread +before them; first, in the spring and early summer, when the hedges and +fields are full of young creatures scarcely able to use their wings, and +again in the severe weather of winter when cold and hunger have +enfeebled them. + +It is difficult to understand upon what principle the hawk selects his +prey. He will pass by with apparent disdain birds that are within easy +reach. Sometimes a whole cloud of birds will surround and chase him out +of a field; and he pursues the even tenour of his way unmoved, though +sparrow and finch almost brush against his talons. Perhaps he has the +palate of an epicure, and likes to vary the dish of flesh torn alive +from the breast of partridge, chicken, or mouse. He does not eat all he +kills; he will sometimes carry a bird a considerable distance and then +drop the poor thing. Only recently I saw a hawk, pursued by twenty or +thirty finches, and other birds across a ploughed field, suddenly drop a +bird from his claws as he passed over a hedge. The bird fell almost +perpendicularly, with a slight fluttering of the wings, just sufficient +to preserve it from turning-head-over-heels, and on reaching the hedge +could not hold to the first branches, but brought up on one near the +ground. It was a sparrow, and was not apparently hurt--simply +breathless from fright. + +All kinds of birds are sometimes seen with the tail feathers gone: have +they barely escaped in this condition from the clutches of the hawk? +Blackbirds, thrushes, and pigeons are frequently struck: the hawk seems +to lay them on the back, for if he is disturbed that is the position his +victim usually remains in. Though hawks do not devour every morsel, yet +as a rule nothing is found but the feathers--usually scattered in a +circle. Even the bones disappear: probably ground vermin make away with +the fragments. + +The hawk is not always successful in disabling his prey. I have seen a +partridge dashed to the ground, get up again, and escape. The bird was +flying close to the ground when struck; the hawk alighted on the grass a +few yards further in a confused way as if overbalanced, and before he +could reach the partridge the latter was up and found shelter in a thick +hedge. + +The power to hover or remain suspended in one place in the air does not, +as some have supposed, depend upon the assistance of the wind, against +which the hawk inclines the plane of his wings like an artificial kite. +He can accomplish the feat when the air is quite still and no wind +stirring. Nor is he the only bird capable of doing this, although the +others possess the power in a much less degree. The common lark +sometimes hovers for a few moments low down over the young green corn, +as if considering upon what spot to alight. The flycatcher contrives to +suspend itself momentarily, but it is by a rapid motion of the wings, +and is done when the first snap at the insect has failed. It is the +rook that hovers by the assistance of the wind as he rises with his +broad, flat wings over a hedge and meets its full force, which +counterpoises his onward impetus and sustains him stationary, sometimes +compelling him to return with the current. + +Hawks have a habit of perching on the tops of bare poles or dead trees, +and are there frequently caught in the gin the keeper sets for them. +The cuckoo, which so curiously resembles the hawk, has the same habit, +and will perch on a solitary post in the middle of a field, or on those +upright stones sometimes placed for the cattle to rub themselves +against. Though "wild as a hawk" is a proverbial phrase, yet hawks are +bold enough to enter gardens, and even take their prey from the ivy +which grows over the gable of the house. The destruction they work +among the young partridges in early summer is very great. The keeper is +always shooting them, yet they come just the same, or nearly; for, if he +exterminates them one season, others arrive from a distance. He is +particularly careful to look out for their nests, so as to kill both the +old birds and to prevent their breeding. There is little difficulty in +finding the nest (which is built in a high tree) when the young get to +any size; their cry is unmistakable and audible at some distance. + +Against sparrow-hawk and kestrel, and the rarer kinds that occasionally +come down from the mountains of the north or the west--the magazines of +these birds--the keeper wages ceaseless war. + +So too with jay and magpie; he shoots them down whenever they cross his +path, unless, as is sometimes the case, specially ordered to save the +latter. For the magpie of recent years has become much less common. +Though still often seen in some districts, there are other localities +where this odd bird is nearly extinct. It does not seem to breed now, +and you may ask to be shown a nest in vain. A magpie's nest in an +orchard that I knew of was thought so great a curiosity that every now +and then people came to see it from a distance. In other places the +bird may be frequently met with, almost always with his partner; and so +jays usually go in couples, even in winter. + +The jay is a handsome bird, whose chatter enlivens the plantations, and +whose bright plumage contrasts pleasantly with the dull green of the +firs. A pair will work a hedge in a sportsmanlike manner, one on one +side, the second on the other; while the tiny wren, which creeps through +the bushes as a mouse through the grass, cowers in terror, or slips into +a knot-hole till the danger is past. When the husbandman has sown his +field with the drill, hardly has he left the gateway before a legion of +small birds pours out from the hedgerows and seeks for the stray seeds. +Then you may see the jay hop out among them with an air of utter +innocence, settling on the larger lumps of clay for convenience of view, +swelling out his breast in pride of beauty, jerking his tail up and +down, as if to say, Admire me. With a sidelong hop and two flaps of the +wing, he half springs, half glides to another coign of vantage. The +small birds, sparrows, chaffinches, greenfinches--instantly scatter +swiftly right and left, not rising, but with a hasty run for a yard or +so. They know well his murderous intent, and yet are so busy they only +put themselves just out of reach, aware that, unlike the hawk, he cannot +strike at a distance. This game will continue for a long time; the jay +all the while affecting an utter indifference, yet ever on the alert +till he spies his chance. It is the young or weakly partridges and +pheasants that fall to the jay and magpie. + +The keeper also destroys owls--on suspicion. Now and then some one +argues with the keeper, assuring him that they do not touch game, but +this he regards as pure sentimentalism. "Look at his beak," is his +steady reply. "Tell me that that there bill weren't made to tear a +bird's breast to bits? Just see here--all crooked and pointed: why, an +owl have got a hooked bill like an eagle. It stands to reason as he +must be in mischief." So the poor owls are shot and trapped, and nailed +to the side of the shed. + +But upon the crow the full vials of the keeper's wrath are poured, and +not without reason. The crow among birds is like the local professional +among human poachers: he haunts the place and clears everything--it +would be hard to say what comes amiss to him. He is the impersonation +of murder. His long, stout, pointed beak is a weapon of deadly power, +wielded with surprising force by the sinewy neck. From a tiny callow +fledgling, fallen out of the thrush's nest, to the partridge or a +toothsome young rabbit, it is all one to him. Even the swift leveret is +said sometimes to fall a prey, being so buffeted by the sooty wings of +the assassin and so blinded by the sharp beak striking at his eyes as to +be presently overcome. For the crow has a terrible penchant for the +morsel afforded by another's eyes: I have seen the skull of a miserable +thrush, from which a crow rose and slowly sailed away, literally split +as if by a chisel--doubtless by the blow that destroyed its sight. +Birds that are at all diseased or weakly, as whole broods sometimes are +in wet unkindly seasons, rabbits touched by the dread parasite that +causes the fatal "rot," the young pheasant straying from the coop, even +the chicken at the lone farmstead, where the bailiff only lives and is +in the fields all day--these are the victims of the crow. + +Crows work almost always in pairs--it is remarkable that hawks, jays, +magpies, crows, nearly all birds of prey, seem to remain in pairs the +entire year--and when they have once tasted a member of a brood, be it +pheasant, partridge, or chicken, they stay till they have cleared off +the lot. Slow of flight and somewhat lazy of habit, they will perch for +hours on a low tree, croaking and pruning their feathers; they peer into +every nook and corner of the woodlands, not like the swift hawk, who +circles over and is gone and in a few minutes is a mile away. So that +neither the mouse in the furrow nor the timid partridge cowering in the +hedge can escape their leering eyes. + +Therefore the keeper smites them hip and thigh whenever he finds them; +and if he comes across the nest, placed on the broad top of a +pollard-tree--not in the branches, but on the trunk--sends his shot +through it to smash the eggs. For if the young birds come to maturity +they will remain in that immediate locality for months, working every +hedge and copse and ditch with cruel pertinacity. In consequence of +this unceasing destruction the crow has become much rarer of late, and +its nest is hardly to be found in many woods. They breed in the +scattered trees of the meadows and fields, especially where no regular +game preservation is attempted, and where no keeper goes his rounds. +Even to this day a lingering superstition associates this bird with +coming evil; and I have heard the women working in the fields remark +that such and such a farmer then lying ill would not recover, for a crow +had been seen to fly over his house but just above the roof-tree. + +Trespassers give him a good deal of trouble, for a great wood seems to +have an irresistible attraction for all sorts of semi-Bohemians, besides +those who come for poaching purposes. The keeper thinks it much more +difficult to watch a wood like this, which is continuous and all in one, +than it is to guard a number of detached plantations, though in the +aggregate they may cover an equal area. It is impossible to see into it +any distance; to walk round it is a task of time. A poacher may slink +from tree to tree and from thicket to thicket, and, unless the dogs +chance to sniff him out, may lie hidden in tangled masses of fern and +bramble, while the keeper passes not ten yards away. But plantations +laid out in regular order with broad open spaces, sometimes with small +fields between, do not afford anything like cover for human beings. If +a man is concealed in one of these copses, and finds that the keeper or +his assistants are about to go through it, he must move or be caught; +and in moving he has to pass across an open space, and is nearly sure to +be detected. In a continuous wood of large extent, if he hears the +keepers coming he has but to slip as rapidly and silently as possible to +one side, and often has the pleasure to see them pass right over the +spot where only recently he was lying. + +Therefore, although a wood is much more beautiful from an artistic point +of view, with its lovely greens in spring and yellow and browns in +autumn, its shades and recesses and fern-strewn glades, yet if a +gentleman desires to imitate the monarch who laid out the New Forest and +plant wood, and his object be simply game, the keeper is of opinion that +the somewhat stiff and trim plantations are preferable. They are +generally of fir; and fir is the most difficult of trees to slip past, +being decidedly of an obstructive turn. The boughs grow so close to the +ground that unless you crawl you cannot go under them. The trunks-- +unlike those of many other trees--will flourish so near together that +the extremities of the branches touch and almost interweave, and they +are rough and unpleasant to push through. To shoot or trap, or use a +net or other poacher's implement, is very difficult in a young fir +plantation, because of this thickness of growth; so that in a measure +the tree itself protects the game. Then the cover afforded is warm and +liked by the birds; and so for many reasons the fir has become a great +favourite, notwithstanding that it is of very little value when finally +cut down. + +For fox preserving firs are hardly so suitable, because the needles, or +small sharp leaves, quite destroy all undergrowth--not only by the +turpentine they contain, but by forming a thick mat, as it were, upon +the earth. This mass of needles takes years, to all appearance, to +decay, and no young green blade or shoot can get through it; besides +which the fir-boughs above make a roof almost impenetrable to air and +light, the chief necessities of a plant's existence. Foxes like a close +warm undergrowth, such as furze, sedges when the ground is dry, the +underwood that springs up between the ash-stoles. Although constantly +out of doors--if such a phrase be allowable--foxes seem to dislike cold +and draught, as do weasels and all their kind, notably ferrets. But for +pure game preserving, and for convenience of watching, the keeper thinks +the detached plantations of fir preferable. Doubtless he is +professionally right; and yet somehow a great wood seems infinitely more +English and appeals to the heart far more powerfully, with its noble +oaks and beeches and ash trees, its bramble-thickets and brake, and +endless beauties which a life of study will not exhaust. + +But the semi-Bohemians detested by the keeper do not prowl about the +confines of a wood with artistic views; their objects are extremely +prosaic, and though not always precisely injurious, yet they annoy him +beyond endurance. He is like a spider in the centre of a vast spreading +web, and the instant the most outlying threads--in this case represented +by fences--are broken he is all agitation till he has expelled the +intruder. Men and boys in the winter come stealing into the wood where +the blackthorn thickets are for sloes, which are reputed to be improved +by the first frosts, and are used for making sloe gin, etc. Those they +gather they sell, of course; and although the pursuit may be perfectly +harmless in itself, how is the keeper to be certain that, if opportunity +offered, these gentry would not pounce upon a rabbit or anything else? +Others come for the dead wood; and it does on the face of it seem hard +to deny an old woman who has worked all her days in the field a bundle +of fallen branches rotting under the trees. The accumulations of such +dead sticks in some places are astonishing: the soil under the ash-poles +must slowly rise from the mass of decaying wood and ultimately become +greatly enriched by this natural manure. + +When a hard clay soil is revealed by the operations for draining a +meadow, and the crust of black or reddish mould on which the sweet green +grass flourishes is seen to be but spade-deep, the idea naturally occurs +that that thin crust must have been originated by some similar process +to what is now going on in the ash wood. Those six or nine inches of +mould perhaps represent several centuries of forest. But if the keeper +admits the old woman shivering over her embers in the cottage to pick up +these dead boughs, how can he tell what further tricks others may be up +to? The privilege has often been offered and as often abused, until at +last it has been finally withdrawn--not only because of the poaching +carried on under the cloak of picking up dead wood, but because the +intruders tore down fine living branches from the trees and spoiled and +disfigured them without mercy. Sometimes gentlemen go to the expense of +having wood periodically gathered and distributed among the poor, which +is a considerate system and worthy of imitation where possible. + +Occasionally men come to search for walking-sticks, for which there is +now a regular trade. Just at present "natural" sticks--that is, those +cut from the stem with the bark on--are rather popular, both for walking +and for umbrella handles, which causes this kind of search to be +actively prosecuted. The best "natural" sticks are those which when +growing were themselves young trees, sprung up direct from seed or +shoots--saplings, which are stronger and more pliant than those cut from +a stole or pollard. To cut such a stick as this is equivalent to +destroying a future tree, and of course a good deal of mischief may be +easily done in a short time. + +Another kind of ash stick which is in demand is one round which there +runs a spiral groove. This spiral is caused by the bine of honeysuckle +or woodbine, and in some cases by wild hops. These climbing plants grow +in great profusion when they once get fixed in the soil, and twist their +tendrils or "leaders" round and round the tall, straight, young +ash-poles with so tight a grasp as to partly strangle the stick and form +a deep screw-like groove in it. When well polished, or sometimes in its +rough state, such a stick attracts customers; and so popular is this +"style" of thing that the spiral groove is frequently cut by the lathe +in more expensive woods than ash. Wild hops are common in many places, +and will almost destroy a hedge or a little copse by the power with +which they twine their coils about stem and branch. Young oak saplings, +in the same way, are frequently cut; and the potential tree which might +have grown large enough to form part of a ship's timbers is sold for a +shilling. + +Holly is another favourite wood for sticks, and fetches more money than +oak or ash, on account of its ivory-like whiteness when peeled. To get +a good stick with a knob to it frequently necessitates a considerable +amount of cutting and chopping, and does far more damage than the loss +of the stick itself represents. Neither blackthorn nor crab-tree seem +so popular as they once were for this purpose. + +In the autumn scores of men, women, and children scour the hedges and +woods for acorns, which bring a regular price per bushel or sack, +affording a valuable food for pigs. Others seek elderberries to sell +for making wine, and for a few weeks a trade is done in blackberries. +Chair-menders and basket-makers frequent the shore of the little mere or +lake looking for bulrushes or flags: the old rush-bottomed chairs are +still to be found in country houses, and require mending; and +flag-baskets are much used. + +Hazel-nuts and filberts perhaps cause more trouble than all the rest; +this fruit is now worth money, and in some counties the yield of nuts is +looked forward to in the same way as any other crop--as in Kent, where +cob-nuts are cultivated, and where the disorderly hop-pickers are great +thieves. I have heard of owners of copses losing ten or fifteen pounds' +worth of nuts by a single raid. Here, in this wood, no attempt is made +to obtain profit from the fruit, yet it gives rise to much trouble. The +nut-stealers take no care in pulling down the boughs, but break them +shamefully, destroying entire bushes; and for this reason in many +places, where nutting was once freely permitted, it is now rigidly +repressed. Just before the nuts become ripe they are gathered by men +employed on the place, and thrown down in sackfuls, making great heaps +by the public footpaths--ocular evidence that it is useless to enter the +wood a-nutting. + +The keeper thinks that these trespassers grow more coarsely mischievous +year by year. He can recollect when the wood in a measure was free and +open, and, provided a man had not got a gun or was not suspected of +poaching, he might roam pretty much at large; while the resident +labouring people went to and fro by the nearest short cut they could +find. But whether the railways bring rude strangers with no respect for +the local authorities, or whether "tramps" have become more numerous, it +is certain that only by constant watchfulness can downright destruction +be prevented. It is not only the game preserved within that closes +these beautiful woodlands to the public, but the wanton damage to tree +and shrub, the useless, objectless mischief so frequently practised. +For instance, a column of smoke, curling like a huge snake round the +limbs of a great tree and then floating away from the topmost branches, +is a singular spectacle, so opposed to the ordinary current of ideas as +to be certain of attracting the passer-by. It is the work, of course, +of some mischievous lout who has set fire to the hollow interior of the +tree. + +Such a tree, as previously pointed out, is the favourite resort of bird +and insect-life. The heedless mischief of the bird-keeping boys, or the +ploughlads rambling about on Sunday, destroys this Hotel de Ville of the +forest or hedgerow, the central house of assembly of the birds. To +light a fire seems one of the special delights of these lads, and +sometimes of men who should have learned better; and to light it in a +hollow tree is the highest flight of genius. A few handfuls of withered +grass and dead fern, half a dozen dry sticks, a lucifer-match, and the +thing is done. The hollow within the tree is shaped like an inverted +funnel, large at the bottom and decreasing upwards, where at the pointed +roof one thin streak of daylight penetrates. This formation is +admirably adapted to "draw" a fire at the bottom, and so, once lit, it +is not easily put out. The "touchwood" smoulders and smokes immensely, +and a great black column rises in the air. So it will go on smouldering +and smoking for days till nothing but a charred stump be left. Now and +then there is sufficient sap yet remaining in the bark and outer ring of +wood to check the fire when it reaches it; and finally it dies out, +being unable to burn the green casing of the trunk. Even then, so +strong is the vital force, the oak may stand for years and put forth +leaves on its branches--leaves which, when dead, will linger, loth to +fall, almost through the winter, rustling in the wind, till the buds of +spring push them off. + +Graver mischief is sometimes committed with the lucifer-match, and with +more of the set purpose of destruction. In the vast expanse of furze +outside the wood on the high ground the huntsmen are almost certain of a +find, and, if they can get between the fox and the wood, of a rattling +burst along the edge of the downs; no wonder, therefore, that both they +and the keeper set store by this breadth of "bush." To this great +covert more than once some skulking scoundrel has set fire, taking good +care to strike his match well to windward, so that the flames might +drive across the whole, and to chose a wind which would also endanger +the wood. Now nothing flares up with such a sudden fierceness as furze, +and there is no possibility of stopping it. With a loud crackling and +swaying of pointed tongues of flame visible miles away even at noontide, +and a cloud of smoke, the rift rolls on, licking up grass and fern and +heath; and its hot breath goes before it, and the blast rises behind it. +As on the beach the wave seems to break at the foot and then in an +instant the surf runs away along the sand, so from its first start the +flame widens out right and left with a greedy eagerness, and what five +minutes ago was but a rolling bonfire is now a wall of fire a quarter of +a mile broad, and swelling as it goes. + +Then happens on a lesser scale exactly the same thing that travellers +describe of the burning prairies of the Far West--a stampede of the +thousands of living creatures, bird and beast: rabbits, hares, foxes, +weasels, stoats, badgers, wild cats, all rushing in a maddened frenzy of +fear they know not whither. Often, with a strange reversal of instinct, +so to say, they will crowd together right in the way of the flames, +huddling in hundreds where the fire must pass, and no effort of voice or +presence of man will drive them away. The hissing, crackling fire +sweeps over, and in an instant all have perished. No more miserable +spectacle can be witnessed than the terror of these wretched creatures. +Birds seem to fly into the smoke and are suffocated--they fall and are +burned. Hares, utterly beside themselves, wilt rush almost into the +arms of the crowd that assembles, and, of course, picks up what it can +seize. The flames blacken and scorch the firs and trees on the edge of +the wood, and the marks of their passage are not obliterated for years. + +Apart from the torture of animals, the damage to sport--both hunting and +shooting--is immense, and takes long to remedy; for although furze and +fern soon shoot again, yet animal life is not so quickly repaired. +Sometimes a few sheep wandering from the downs are roasted alive in this +manner; and one or more dogs from the crowd watching are sure to run +into the flames, which seem to exercise a fascination over some canine +minds. The keeper's wrath bubbles up years afterwards as he recalls the +scene, and it would not be well for the incendiary if he fell into his +hands. But the mischief can be so easily done that it is rarely these +rascals are captured. + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +PROFESSIONAL POACHERS.--THE ART OF WIRING GAME. + +There are three kinds of poachers, the local men, the raiders coming in +gangs from a distance, and the "mouchers"--fellows who do not make +precisely a profession of it, but who occasionally loiter along the +roads and hedges picking up whatever they can lay hands on. +Philologists may trace a resemblance between the present provincial word +"mouching" and Shakespeare's "mitcher," who ate blackberries. Of the +three probably the largest amount of business is done by the local men, +on the principle that the sitting gamester sweeps the board. They +therefore deserve first consideration. + +It is a popular belief that the village poacher is an idle, hang-dog +ne'er-do-well, with a spice of sneaking romance in his disposition--the +Bohemian of the hamlet, whose grain of genius has sprouted under +difficulties, and produced weeds instead of wheat. This is a complete +fallacy, in our day at least. Poaching; is no longer an amusement, a +thing to be indulged in because + + It's my delight of a shiny night + In the season of the year; + +but a hard, prosaic business, a matter of _pounds, shillings, pence_, +requiring a long-headed, shrewd fellow, with a power of silence, capable +of a delicacy of touch which almost raises poaching into a fine art. +The real man is often a sober and to all appearance industrious +individual, working steadily during the day at some handicraft in the +village, as blacksmithing, hedge-carpentering--i.e. making posts and +rails, etc--cobbling, tinkering, or perhaps in the mill; a somewhat +reserved, solitary workman of superior intelligence and frequently +advanced views as to the "rights of labour." He has no appetite for +thrilling adventure; his idea is simply money, and he looks upon his +night-work precisely as he does upon his day-labour. + +His great object is to avoid suspicion, knowing that success will be +proportionate to his skill in cloaking his operations; for in a small +community, when a man is "suspect," it is comparatively easy to watch +him, and a poacher knows that if he is watched he must sooner or later +be caught. Secrecy is not so very difficult; for it is only with +certain classes that he need practise concealment: his own class will +hold their peace. If a man is seen at his work in the day, if he is +moderate in his public-house attendance, shows himself at church, and +makes friends with the resident policeman (not as a confederate, but to +know his beat and movements), he may go on for years without detection. + +Perhaps the most promising position for a man who makes a science of it +is a village at the edge of a range of downs, generally fringed with +large woods on the lower slopes. He has then ground to work +alternately, according to the character of the weather and the changes +of the moon. If the weather be wet, windy, or dark from the absence of +the moon, then the wide open hills are safe; while, on the other hand, +the woods are practically inaccessible, for a man must have the eyes of +a cat to see to do his work in the impenetrable blackness of the +plantations. So that upon a bright night the judicious poacher prefers +the woods, because he can see his way, and avoids the hills, because, +having no fences to speak of, a watcher may detect him a mile off. + +Meadows with double mounds and thick hedges may be worked almost at any +time, as one side of the hedge is sure to cast a shadow, and instant +cover is afforded by the bushes and ditches. Such meadows are the happy +hunting-grounds of the poacher for that reason, especially if not far +distant from woods, and consequently overrun with rabbits. For, since +the price of rabbits has risen so high, they are very profitable as +game, considering that a dozen or two may be captured without noise and +without having to traverse much space--perhaps in a single hedge. + +The weather most unsuitable is that kind of frost which comes on in the +early morning, and is accompanied with some rime on the grass--a duck's +frost, just sufficient to check fox-hunting. Every footstep on grass in +this condition when the sun comes out burns up as black as if the sole +of the boot were of red-hot iron, and the poacher leaves an indelible +trail behind him. But as three duck's frosts usually bring rain, a +little patience is alone necessary. A real, downright six weeks' frost +is, on the contrary, very useful--game lie close. But a deep snow is +not welcome; for, although many starved animals may be picked up, yet it +quite suspends the operations of the regular hand: he can neither use +wire, net, nor ferret. + +Windy nights are disliked, particularly by rabbit-catchers, who have to +depend a great deal upon their sense of hearing to know when a rabbit is +moving in the "buries," and where he is likely to "bolt," so as to lay +hands on him the instant he is in the net. But with the "oak's +mysterious roar" overhead, the snapping of dead branches, and the moan +of the gale as it rushes through the hawthorn, it is difficult to +distinguish the low, peculiar thumping sound of a rabbit in his +catacomb. The rabbit is not easily dislodged in rain; for this animal +avoids getting wet as much as possible: he "bolts" best when it is dry +and still. + +A judicious man rarely uses a gun, for the reason that noise is +inconvenient, and a gun is an awkward tool to carry concealed about the +person even when taken to pieces. There is a certain prejudice in rural +places against a labouring man possessing a gun; it is sure to draw +suspicion upon him. A professional poacher is pre-eminently a trapper, +relying chiefly upon the dexterous employment of the snare. If he does +shoot, by preference he chooses a misty day, knowing that the sound of +the report travels scarcely half the usual distance through fog; and he +beats the meadows rather than the preserves, where the discharge would +instantly attract attention, while in the meadows or ploughed fields it +may pass unnoticed as fired by a farmer with leave to kill rabbits. + +When the acorns are ripe and the pheasants wander great distances from +the plantations along the hedgerows is his best time for shooting; no +keepers at that period can protect them. He also observes where the +partridges which roost on the ground assemble nightly as it grows dark, +easily ascertaining the spot by their repeated calls to each other, and +sometimes knocks over three or four at a shot. + +Occasionally, also, early in the season, before the legitimate sportsman +perhaps has stepped into the stubble, and while the coveys are large, he +sees a good chance, and with two or even three ounces of shot makes +havoc among them. He invariably fires at his game sitting, first, +because he cannot lose an opportunity, and, next, because he can kill +several at once. He creeps up behind a hedge, much as the sportsman in +Rubens' picture in the National Gallery is represented, stooping to get +a view, himself unseen, at the brown birds on the ground. With the +antique firelock such a practice was necessary; but nothing in our day +so stamps a man a poacher as this total denial of "law" to the game. + +When the pheasant is shot his next difficulty is with the feathers. The +fluffy, downy under-feathers fly in all directions, scattering over the +grass, and if left behind would tell an unmistakable tale. They must +therefore be collected as far as possible, and hidden in the ditch. The +best pockets for carrying game are those made in the tails of the coat, +underneath: many poachers' coats are one vast pocket behind the lining. + +When there is special clanger of being personally overhauled and +searched, or when the "bag" is large, the game is frequently hidden in a +rabbit-hole, taking care to fence the hole some distance inside with a +stout stick across it, the object of which is that if the keeper or a +sportsman should pass that way his dogs, scenting the game, will +endeavour to scratch out the earth and get in after it. This the cross +stick will prevent, and the keeper will probably thrash his dog for +refusing to obey when called off. + +A great deal of poaching used to be accomplished by nets, into which +both partridges and pheasants were driven. If skilfully alarmed--that +is, not too much hurried--these birds will run a long way before rising, +and, if their tracks are known, may be netted in considerable numbers. +But of recent years, since pheasants especially have become so costly a +luxury to keep, the preserves and roosting-places have been more +effectually watched, and this plan has become more difficult to put in +practice. In fact, the local man thinks twice before he puts his foot +inside a preserve, and, if possible, prefers to pick up outside. If a +preserve is broken into the birds are at once missed, and there is a hue +and cry; but the loss of outsiders is not immediately noticed. + +The wire is, perhaps, the regular poacher's best implement, and ground +game his most profitable source of income. Hares exist in numbers upon +the downs, especially near the localities where the great coursing +meetings are held, where a dozen may be kicked out of the grass in five +minutes. In these districts of course the downs are watched; but hares +cannot be kept within bounds, and wander miles and miles at night, +limping daintily with their odd gait (when undisturbed) along the lanes +leading into the ploughed fields on the lower slopes and plains. The +hills--wide and almost pathless, and practically destitute of fences-- +where the foot leaves no trail on the short grass and elastic turf, are +peculiarly favourable to illicit sport. + +Though apparently roaming aimlessly, hares have their regular highways +or "runs;" and it is the poacher's business to discover which of these +narrow paths are most beaten by continuous use. He then sets his wire, +as early in the evening as compatible with safety to himself, for hares +are abroad with the twilight. + +Long practice and delicate skill are essential to successful snaring. +First, the loop itself into which the hare is to run his head must be of +the exact size. If it be too small he will simply thrust it aside; if +too large his body will slip through, and his hind leg will be captured: +being crooked, it draws the noose probably. Then if caught by the hind +leg, the wretched creature, mad with terror, will shriek his loudest; +and a hare shrieks precisely like a human being in distress. The sound, +well understood by the watchers, will at once reveal what is going +forward. But there may be no watchers about; and in that case the +miserable animal will tug and tug during the night till the wire +completely bares the lower bone of the leg, and in the morning, should +any one pass, his leaps and bounds and rolls will of course be seen. +Sometimes he twists the wire till it snaps, and so escapes--but probably +to die a lingering death, since the copper or brass is pretty sure to +mortify the flesh. No greater cruelty can be imagined. The poacher, +however, is very anxious to avoid it, as it may lead to detection; and +if his wire is properly set the animal simply hangs himself, brought up +with a sudden jerk which kills him in two seconds, and with less pain +than is caused by the sting of the sportsman's cartridge. + +Experience is required to set the loop at the right height above the +ground. It is measured by placing the clenched fist on the earth, and +then putting the extended thumb of the other open hand upon it, +stretching it out as in the action of spanning, when the tip of the +little finger gives the right height for the lower bend of the loop-- +that is, as a rule; but clever poachers vary it slightly to suit the +conformation of the ground. A hare carries his head much higher than +might be thought; and he is very strong, so that the plug which holds +the wire must be driven in firmly to withstand his first convulsive +struggle. The small upright stick whose cleft suspends the wire across +the "run" must not be put too near the hare's path, or he will see it, +and it must be tolerably stiff, or his head will push the wire aside. +Just behind a "tussocky" bunch of grass is a favourite spot to set a +noose; the grass partially conceals it. + +The poacher revisits his snares very early in the morning, and if he is +judicious invariably pulls them up, whether successful or not, because +they may be seen in the day. Half the men who are fined by the +magistrates have been caught by keepers who, having observed wires, let +them remain; but keep a watch and take the offenders red-handed. The +professional poacher never leaves his wires set up all day, unless a +sudden change of weather and the duck's frost previously mentioned +prevent him from approaching them, and then he abandons those particular +snares for ever. For this reason he does not set up more than he can +easily manage. If he gets three hares a night (wholesale price _2 +shillings 6 pence_ each) he is well repaid. Rabbits are also wired in +great numbers. The loop is a trifle smaller, and should be just a span +from the ground. + +But the ferret is the poacher's chief assistant in rabbiting: it takes +two men, one on each side of the "bury," and a ferret which will not +"lie in"--i.e. stay in the hole and feast till overcome with sleep. +Ferrets differ remarkably in disposition, and the poacher chooses his +with care; otherwise, if the ferret will not come out the keepers are +certain to find him the next day hunting on his own account. Part of +the secret is to feed him properly, so that he may have sufficient +appetite to hunt well and yet be quickly satisfied with a taste of +blood. Skill is essential in setting up the nets at the mouth of the +holes; but beyond the mere knack, easily acquired, there is little to +learn in ferreting. + +The greatest difficulty with any kind of game is to get home unobserved +with the bag. Keepers are quite aware of this; and in the case of large +estates, leaving one or two assistants near the preserves, they patrol +the by-ways and footpaths, while the police watch the cross-roads and +lanes which lead to the villages. If a man comes along at an +exceptionally early hour with coat-pockets violently bulging, there is a +_prima facie_ case for searching him. One advantage of wiring or +netting over the gun is here very noticeable: anything shot bleeds and +stains the pocket--a suspicious sign even when empty; strangulation +leaves no traces. + +Without a knowledge of the policeman's beat and the keeper's post the +poacher can do nothing on a large scale. He has, however, no great +trouble in ascertaining these things; the labourers who do not +themselves poach sympathise warmly and whisper information. There is +reason to think that men sometimes get drunk, or sufficiently so to +simulate intoxication very successfully, with the express purpose of +being out all night with a good excuse, and so discovering the +policeman's ambuscade. Finding a man whom he knows to be usually sober +overtaken with drink in a lonely road, where he injures none but +himself, the policeman good-naturedly leads him home with a caution +only. + +The receivers of game are many and various. The low beer-shop keepers +are known to purchase large quantities. Sometimes a local pork-butcher +in a small way buys and transmits it, having facilities for sending +hampers, etc, unsuspected. Sometimes the carriers are the channel of +communication; and there is no doubt the lower class of game dealers in +the provincial towns get a good deal in this way. The London dealer, +who receives large consignments at once, has of course no means of +distinguishing poached from other game. The men who purchase the +rabbits ferreted by the keepers during the winter in the woods and +preserves, and who often buy 100 pounds worth or more in the season, +have peculiar opportunities for conveying poached animals, carefully +stowed for them in a ditch on their route. This fact having crept out +has induced gentlemen to remove these rabbit contracts from local men, +and to prefer purchasers from a distance, who must take some time to get +acquainted with the district poachers. + +The raiders, who come in gangs armed with guns and shoot in the +preserves, are usually the scum of manufacturing towns, led or guided by +a man expelled through his own bad conduct from the village, and who has +a knowledge of the ground. These gangs display no skill; relying on +their numbers, arms, and known desperation of character to protect them +from arrest, as it does in nine cases out of ten. Keepers and policemen +cannot be expected to face such brutes as these fellows; they do +sometimes, however, and get shattered with shot. + +The "mouchers" sneak about the hedgerows on Sundays with lurcher dogs, +and snap up a rabbit or a hare; they do not do much damage except near +great towns, where they are very numerous. Shepherds, also, +occasionally mouch--their dogs being sometimes very expert; and +ploughmen set wires in the gateways or gaps where they have noticed the +track of a hare, but it is only for their own eating, and is not of much +consequence in comparison with the work of the real local professional. +These regular hands form a class which are probably more numerous now +than ever; the reasons are--first, the high value of game and the +immense demand for it since poultry has become so dear, and, secondly, +the ease of transmission now that railways spread into the most outlying +districts and carry baskets or parcels swiftly out of reach. Poaching, +in fact, well followed, is a lucrative business. + +Some occasional poaching is done with no aid but the hand, especially in +severe weather, which makes all wild animals "dummel," in provincial +phrase--i.e. stupid, slow to move. Even the hare is sometimes caught by +hand as he crouches in his form. It requires a practised eye, that +knows precisely where to look among the grass, to detect him hidden in +the bunch under the dead, dry bennets. An inexperienced person chancing +to see a hare sitting like this would naturally stop short in walking to +get a better view; whereupon the animal, feeling that he was observed, +would instantly make a rush. You must persuade the hare that he is +unseen; and so long as he notices no start or sign of recognition--his +eye is on you from first entering the field--he will remain still, +believing that you will pass. + +The poacher, having marked his game, looks steadily in front of him, +never turning his head, but insensibly changes his course and quietly +approaches sidelong. Then, in the moment of passing, he falls quick as +lightning on his knee, and seizes the hare just behind the poll. It is +the only place where the sudden grasp would hold him in his convulsive +terror--he is surprisingly powerful--and almost ere he can shriek (as he +will do) the left hand has tightened round the hind legs. Stretching +him to his full length across the knee, the right thumb, with a peculiar +twist, dislocates his neck, and he is dead in an instant. There is +something of the hangman's knack in this, which is the invariable way of +killing rabbits when ferreted or caught alive; and yet it is the most +merciful, for death is instantaneous. It is very easy to sprain the +thumb while learning the trick. + +A poacher will sometimes place his hat gently on the ground, when first +catching sight of a sitting hare, and then stealthily approach on the +opposite side. The hare watches the hat, while the real enemy comes up +unawares, or, if both are seen, he is in doubt which way to dash. On a +dull, cold day hares will sit till the sportsman's dogs are nearly on +them, almost till he has to kick them out. At other times in the same +locality they are, on the contrary, too wild. Occasionally a labourer, +perhaps a "fogger," crossing the meadows with slow steps, finds a rabbit +sitting in like manner among the grass or in a dry furrow. Instantly he +throws himself all a-sprawl upon the ground, with the hope of pinning +the animal to the earth. The manoeuvre, however, frequently fails, and +the rabbit slips away out of his very hands. + +The poacher is never at rest; there is no season when his marauding +expeditions cease for awhile; he acknowledges no "close time" whatever. +Almost every month has its appropriate game for him, and he can always +turn his hand to something. In the very heat of the summer there are +the young rabbits, for which there is always a sale in the towns, and +the leverets, which are easily picked up by a lurcher dog. + +I have known a couple of men take a pony and trap for this special +purpose, and make a pleasant excursion over hill and dale, through the +deep country lanes, and across the open down land, carrying with them +two or three such dogs to let loose as opportunity offers. Their +appearance as they rattle along is certainly not prepossessing; the +expression of their canine friends trotting under the trap, or peering +over the side, stamps them at the first glance as "snappers up of +unconsidered trifles;" but you cannot arrest these gentlemen peacefully +driving on the "king's highway" simply because they have an ugly look +about them. From the trap they get a better view than on foot; standing +up they can see over a moderately high hedge, and they can beat a rapid +retreat if necessary, with the aid of a wiry pony. Passing by some +meadows, they note a goodly number of rabbits feeding in the short +aftermath. They draw up by a gateway, and one of them dismounts. With +the dogs he creeps along behind the hedge (the object being to get +between the bunnies and their holes), and presently sends the dogs on +their mission. The lurchers are tolerably sure of catching a couple-- +young rabbits are neither so swift nor so quick at doubling as the older +ones. Before the farmer and his men, who are carting the summer ricks +in an adjacent field, can quite comprehend what the unusual stir is +about yonder, the poachers are off, jogging comfortably along, with +their game hidden under an old sack or some straw. + +Their next essay is among the ploughed fields, where the corn is +ripening and as yet no reapers are at work, so that the coast is almost +clear. Here they pick up a leveret, and perhaps the dogs chop a weakly +young partridge, unable to fly well, in the hedge. The keeper has just +strolled through the copses bordering on the road, and has left them, as +he thinks, safe. They watch his figure slowly disappearing in the +distance from a bend of the lane, and then send the dogs among the +underwood. In the winter men will carry ferrets with them in a trap +like this. + +The desperate gangs who occasionally sweep the preserves, defying the +keepers in their strength of numbers and prestige of violence, sometimes +bring with them a horse and cart, not so much for speed of escape as to +transport a heavy bag of game. Such a vehicle, driven by one man, will, +moreover, often excite no suspicion though it may be filled with +pheasants under sacks and hay. A good deal of what may be called casual +poaching is also done on wheels. + +Some of the landlords of the low beer-houses in the country often +combine with the liquor trade the business of dealing in pigs, calves, +potatoes, etc, and keep a light cart, or similar conveyance. Now, if +any one will notice the more disreputable of these beer-houses, they +will observe that there are generally a lot of unkempt, rough-looking +dogs about them. These, of course, follow their master when he goes on +his short journeys from place to place; and they are quite capable of +mischief. Such men may not make a business of poaching, yet if in +passing a preserve the dogs stray and bring back something eatable, why, +it is very easy to stow it under the seat with the potatoes. Sometimes +a man is bold enough to carry a gun in this way--to jump out when he +sees a chance and have a shot, and back and off before any one knows +exactly what is going on. + +Somehow there always seems to be a market for game out of season: it is +"passed" somewhere, just as thieves pass stolen jewellery. So also +fish, even when manifestly unfit for table, in the midst of spawning +time, commands a ready sale if overlooked by the authorities. It is +curious that people can be found to purchase fish in such a condition; +but it is certain that they do. In the spring, when one would think +bird and beast might be permitted a breathing space, the poacher is as +busy as ever after eggs. Pheasant and partridge eggs are largely bought +and sold in the most nefarious manner. It is suspected that some of the +less respectable breeders who rear game birds like poultry for sale, are +not too particular of whom they purchase eggs; and, as we have before +observed, certain keepers are to blame in this matter also. + +Plovers' eggs, again, are an article of commerce in the spring; they are +protected now by law, but it is to be feared that the enactment is to a +great extent a dead letter. The eggs of the peewit, or lapwing, as the +bird is variously called, are sought for with great perseverance, and +accounted delicacies. These birds frequent commons where the grass is +very rough, and interspersed with bunches of rushes, marshy places, and +meadows liable to be flooded in the winter. The nest on the ground is +often made in the depression left by a horse's hoof in the soft earth-- +any slight hole, in fact; and it is so concealed, or rather differs so +little from the appearance of the general sward around, as to be easily +passed unnoticed. You may actually step on it, and so smash the eggs, +before you see it. + +Aware that the most careful observation may fail to find what he wants, +the egg-stealer adopts a simple but effective plan by which he ensures +against omitting to examine a single foot of the field. Drop a +pocket-knife or some such object in the midst of a great meadow, and you +will find the utmost difficulty in discovering it again, when the grass +is growing tall as in spring. You may think that you have traversed +every inch, yet it is certain that you have not; the inequalities of the +ground insensibly divert your footsteps, and it is very difficult to +keep a straight line. What is required is something to fix the eye-- +what a sailor would call a "bearing." This the egg-stealer finds in a +walking-stick. He thrusts the point into the earth, and then slowly +walks round and round it, enlarging the circle every time, and thus +sweeps every inch of the surface with his eye. When he has got so far +from the stick as to feel that his steps are becoming uncertain, he +removes it, and begins again in another spot. A person not aware of +this simple trick will search a field till weary and declare there is +nothing to be found; another, who knows the dodge, will go out and +return in an hour with a pocketful of eggs. + +On those clear, bright winter nights when the full moon is almost at the +zenith, and the "definition" of tree and bough in the flood of light +seems to equal if not to exceed that of the noonday, some poaching used +to be accomplished with the aid of a horsehair noose on the end of a +long slender wand. There are still some districts in the country more +or less covered with forest, and which on account of ancient rights +cannot be enclosed. Here the art of noosing lingers; the loop being +insidiously slipped over the bird's head while at roost. By constant +practice a wonderful dexterity may be acquired in this trick; men will +snare almost any bird in broad daylight. With many birds a favourite +place for a nest is in a hollow tree, access being had by a decayed +knot-hole, and they are sometimes noosed as they emerge. A thin +flexible copper wire is said to be substituted for large game. This +method of capture peculiarly suits the views of the ornithologist, with +whom it is an object to avoid the spoiling of feathers by shot. + +Every now and then a bird-catcher comes along decoying the finches from +the hedges, for sale as cage-birds in London. Some of these men, +without any mechanical assistance, can imitate the "call" note of the +bird they desire to capture so as to deceive the most practised ear. +These fellows are a great nuisance, and will completely sweep a lane of +all the birds whose song makes them valuable. In this way some +localities have been quite cleared of goldfinches, which used to be +common. The keepers, of course, will not permit them on private +property; but in all rural districts there are wide waste spaces--as +where two or more roads meet--broad bands of green sward running beside +the highway, and the remnants of what in former days were commons; and +here the bird-catcher plies his trade. It so happens that these very +waste places are often the most favourite resorts of goldfinches, for +instance, who are particularly fond of thistledown, and thistles +naturally chiefly flourish on uncultivated land. These men, and the +general class of loafers, have a wholesome dread of gamekeepers, who +look on them with extreme suspicion. + +The farmers and rural community at large hardly give the gamekeeper his +due as a protection against thieves and mischievous rascals. The +knowledge that he may at any time come round the corner, even in the +middle of the night, has a decidedly salutary effect upon the minds of +those who are prowling about. Intoxicated louts think it fine fun to +unhinge gates, and let cattle and horses stray abroad, to tear down +rails, and especially to push the coping-stones off the parapets of the +bridges which span small streams. They consider it clever to heave +these over with a splash into the water, or to throw down half a dozen +yards of "dry wall." In many places fields are commonly enclosed by the +roadside with such walls, which are built of a flat stone dug just +beneath the surface, and used without mortar. There are men who make a +business of building these walls; it requires some skill and patience to +select the stones and fit them properly. They serve the purpose very +well, but the worst is that if once started the process of destruction +is easy and quick. Much more serious offences than these are sometimes +committed, as cutting horses with knives, and other mutilations. The +fact that the fields are regularly perambulated by keepers and their +assistants night and day cannot but act as a check upon acts of this +kind. + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +THE FIELD DETECTIVE--FISH-POACHING. + +The footpaths through the plantations and across the fields have no +milestones by which the pedestrian can calculate the distance traversed; +nor is the time occupied a safe criterion, because of the varying nature +of the soil--now firm and now slippery--so that the pace is not regular. +But these crooked paths--no footpath is ever straight--really represent +a much greater distance than would be supposed if the space from point +to point were measured on a map. So that the keeper as he goes his +rounds, though he does not rival the professional walker, in the course +of a year covers some thousands of miles. He rarely does less than ten, +and probably often twelve miles a day, visiting certain points twice-- +i.e. in the morning and evening--and often in addition, if he has any +suspicions, making _detours_. It is easy to walk a mile in a single +field of no great dimensions when it is necessary to go up and down each +side of four long hedgerows, and backwards and forwards, following the +course of the furrows. + +The keeper's eye is ever on the alert for the poacher's wires; and where +the grass is tall to discover these is often a tedious task, since he +may go within a few yards and yet pass them. The ditches and the great +bramble-bushes are carefully scanned, because in these the poacher often +conceals his gun, nets, or game, even when not under immediate +apprehension of capture. The reason is that his cottage may perhaps be +suddenly searched: if not by authority, the policeman on some pretext or +other may unexpectedly lift the latch or peer into the outhouses, and +feathers and fur are apt to betray their presence in the most unexpected +manner. One single feather, one single fluffy little piece of fur +overlooked, is enough to ruin him, for these are things of which it is +impossible to give an acceptable explanation. + +In dry weather the poacher often hides his implements: especially is +this the case after a more than usually venturesome foray, when he knows +that his house is tolerably certain to be overhauled and all his motions +watched. A hollow tree is a common resource--the pollard willow +generally becomes hollow in its old age--and with a piece of the +decaying "touchwood" or a strip of dead bark his tools are ingeniously +covered up. Under the eaves of sheds and outhouses the sparrows make +holes by pulling out the thatch and roost in these sheltered places in +severe weather, warmly protected from the frost; other small birds, as +wrens and tomtits, do the same; and the poacher avails himself of these +holes to hide his wires. + +A gun has been found before now concealed in a heap of manure, such as +are frequently seen in the corners of the fields. These heaps sometimes +remain for a year or more in order that the materials may become +thoroughly decomposed, and the surface is quickly covered with a rank +growth of weeds. The poacher, choosing the side close to the hedge, +where no one would be likely to go, excavated a place beneath these +weeds, (partly filled it in with dry straw, and laid his gun on this. A +rough board placed over it shielded it from damp; and the aperture was +closed with "bull-polls"--that is, the rough grass of the furrows +chopped up (not unlike the gardener's "turves")--and thrown on the +manure-heap to decay. If the keeper detects anything of this kind he +allows it to stay undisturbed, but sets a watch, and so surprises the +owner of the treasure. + +The keeper is particularly careful to observe the motions of the +labourers engaged in the fields; especially at luncheon-time, when men +with a hunch of bread and a slice of bacon--kept on the bread with a +small thumb-piece of crust, and carved with a pocket-knife--are apt to +ramble round the hedges, of course with the most innocent of motives, +admiring the beauties of nature. Slowly wandering like this, they cast +a sidelong glance at their wire, set up in a "drock"--i.e. a bridge over +a ditch formed of a broad flat stone--which chances to be a favourite +highway of the rabbits. Nowadays, in this age of draining, short barrel +drains of brick or large glazed pipes are often let through thick banks; +these are dry for weeks together, and hares slip through them. A wire +or trap set here is quite out of ordinary observation; and the keeper, +who knows that he cannot examine every inch of ground, simplifies the +process by quietly noting the movements of the men. As he passes and +repasses a field where they are at work day after day, and understands +agricultural labour, he is aware that they have no necessity to visit +hedgerows and mounds a hundred yards distant, and should he see anything +of that kind the circle of his suspicions gradually narrows till he hits +the exact spot and person. + +The gateways and gaps receive careful attention--unusual footmarks in +the mud are looked for. Sometimes he detects a trace of fur or +feathers, or a bloodstain on the spars or rails, where a load of rabbits +or game has been hung for a few minutes while the bearer rested. The +rabbit-holes in the banks are noted: this becomes so much a matter of +habit as to be done almost unconsciously and without effort as he walks; +and anything unusual--as the sand much disturbed, the imprint of a boot, +the bushes broken or cut away for convenience of setting a net--is seen +in an instant. If there be any high ground--woods are often on a +slope--the keeper has here a post whence to obtain a comprehensive +survey, and he makes frequent use of this natural observatory, +concealing himself behind a tree trunk. + +The lanes and roads and public footpaths that cross the estate near the +preserves are a constant source of uneasiness. Many fields are +traversed by a perfect network of footpaths, half of which are of very +little use but cannot be closed. Nothing causes so much ill-will in +rural districts as the attempt to divert or shut up a track like this. +Cottagers are most tenacious of these "rights," and will rarely exchange +them for any advantage. "There always wur a path athwert thuck mead in +the ould volk's time" is their one reply endlessly reiterated; and the +owner of the property, rather than make himself unpopular, desists from +persuasion. The danger to game from these paths arises from the +impossibility of stopping a suspicious character at once. If he breaks +through a hedge it is different; but the law is justly jealous of the +subject's liberty on a public footpath, and you cannot turn him back. + +Neither is it of any use to search a man whose tools, to a moral +certainty, are concealed in some hedge. With his hands in his pockets, +and a short pipe in his mouth, he can saunter along the side of a +preserve if only a path, as is often the case, follows the edge; and +by-and-by it grows dusk, and the keeper or keepers cannot be everywhere +at once. There is nothing to prevent such fellows as these from +sneaking over an estate with a lurcher dog at their heels--a kind of dog +gifted with great sagacity, nearly as swift as a greyhound, and much +better adapted for picking up the game when overtaken, which is the +greyhound's difficulty. They can be taught to obey the faintest sign or +sound from their owners. If the latter imagine watchers to be about, +the lurcher slinks along close behind, keeping strictly to the path. +Presently, if the poacher but lifts his finger, away dashes the dog, and +will miss nothing he comes across. The lurcher has always borne an evil +repute, which of course is the due not of the dog but of his master. If +a man had to get his living by the chase in Red Indian fashion, probably +this would be the best breed for his purpose. Many shepherds' dogs now +have a cross of the lurcher in their strain, and are good at poaching. + +Sunday is the gamekeeper's worst day; the idle, rough characters from +the adjacent town pour out into the country, and necessitate extra +watchfulness. On Sunday the keeper, out of respect to the day, does not +indeed carry his gun, but he works yet harder than on week-days. While +the chimes are ringing to church he is on foot by the edge of the +preserves. He has to maintain a sort of surveillance over the +beer-houses in the village, which is done with the aid of the district +policeman, for they are not only the places where much of the game is +sold, but the rendezvous of those who are planning a raid. + +If the policeman notices an unusual stir, or the arrival of strange men +without any apparent business, he acquaints the keeper, who then takes +care to double his sentinels, and personally visit them during the +night. This night-work is very trying after his long walks by day. A +great object is to be about early in the morning--just before the dawn: +that is the time when the poachers return to examine their wires. By +day he often varies his rounds so as to appear upon the scene when least +expected; and has regular trysting places, where his assistants meet him +with their reports. + +The gipsies, who travel the road in caravans, give him endless trouble; +they are adepts at poaching, and each van is usually accompanied by a +couple of dogs. The movements of these people are so irregular that it +is impossible to be always ready for them. They are suspected of being +recipients of poached game, purchasing it from the local professionals. +Under pretence of cutting skewer-wood, often called dogwood, which they +split and sharpen for the butchers they wander across the open downs +where it grows, camping in wild, unfrequented places, and finding plenty +of opportunities for poaching. Down land is most difficult to watch. + +Then the men who come out from the towns, ostensibly to gather primroses +in the early spring, or ferns, which they hawk from door to door; and +the watercress men, who are about the meadows and brooks twice a year, +in spring and autumn, require constant supervision. An innocent-looking +basket or small sack-bag of mushrooms has before now, when turned upside +down, been discovered to contain a couple of rabbits or a fine young +leveret. This detective work is, in fact, never finished. There is no +end to the tricks and subterfuges practised, and with all his experience +and care the gamekeeper is frequently outwitted. + +The relations between the agricultural labourers and the keeper are not +of the most cordial character; in fact, there is a ceaseless distrust +upon the one hand and incessant attempts at over-reaching upon the +other. The ploughmen, the carters, shepherds, and foggers have so many +opportunities as they go about the fields, and they never miss the +chance of a good dinner or half-a-crown when presented to them. Higher +wages have not in the slightest degree diminished poaching, regular or +occasional; on the contrary, from whatever cause, there is good reason +to believe it on the increase. If a labourer crossing a field sees a +hare or rabbit crouching in his form, what is to prevent him from +thrusting his prong like a spear suddenly through the animal and pinning +him to the turf? There are plenty of ways of hiding dead game, under +straw or hay, in the thick beds of nettles which usually spring up +outside or at the back of a cowshed. + +Why does the keeper take such a benevolent interest in the progress of +spade-husbandry, as exemplified in allotment gardens near the village, +which allotments are generally in a field set apart by the principal +landowner for the purpose? In person or by proxy the keeper is very +frequently seen looking over the close-cropped hedge which surrounds the +spot, and now and then he takes a walk up and down the narrow paths +between the plots. His dog sniffs about among the heaps of rubbish or +under the potato-vines. The men at work are remarkably civil and +courteous to the gentleman in the velveteen jacket, who, on his side, is +equally chatty with them; but both in their hearts know very well the +why and wherefore of this interest in agriculture. Almost all kinds of +game are attracted by gardens, presupposing, of course, that they are +situated at a distance from houses, as these allotments are. There is a +supply of fresh, succulent, food of various kinds: often too, after a +large plot has been worked for garden produce, the tenant will sow it +for barley or beans or oats, on the principle of rotation; and these +small areas of grain have a singular fascination for pheasants, and +hares linger in them. + +Rabbits, if undisturbed, are particularly fond of garden vegetables. In +spring and early summer they will make those short holes in which they +bring forth their young under the potato-vines, finding the soil easy to +work, dry, and the spot sheltered by the thick green stems and leaves. +Both rabbits and hares do considerable damage if they are permitted the +run of the place unchecked. The tenants of the allotments, however, +instead of driving them off, are anxious that they should come sniffing +and limping over the plots in the gloaming, and are strongly suspected +of allowing crops specially pleasing to game to remain in the ground +till the very latest period in order that they may snare it. + +Much kindly talk has been uttered over allotments, and undoubtedly they +are a great encouragement to the labourer; yet even this advantage is +commonly abused. The tenants have no ground of complaint as to damage +to their crops, because the keeper, at a word from them, would lose not +a moment of time in killing or driving away the intruder; and as an +acknowledgment of honesty and in reparation of the mischief, if any, a +couple of rabbits would be presented to the man who carried the +complaint. But the labourer, if he spies the tracks of a hare running +into his plot of corn, or suspects that a pheasant is hiding there, +carefully keeps that knowledge to himself. He knows that a pheasant, if +you can get close enough to it before it rises, is a clumsy bird, and +large enough to offer a fair mark, and may be brought down with a stout +stick dexterously thrown. As very probably the pheasant is a young one +and (not yet having undergone its baptism of fire) only recently +regularly fed, it is almost tame and may be approached without +difficulty. This is why the keeper just looks round the allotment +gardens now and then, and lets his dogs run about; for their noses are +much more clever at discovering hidden fur or feathers than his eyes. + +In winter if the weather be severe, hares and rabbits are very bold, and +will enter gardens though attached to dwelling-houses. Sometimes when a +vast double-mound hedge is grubbed, the ditches each side are left, and +the interior space is ultimately converted into an osier-bed, osiers +being rather profitable at present. But before these are introduced it +is necessary that the ground be well dug up, for it is full of roots and +the seeds of weeds, which perhaps have lain dormant for years, but now +spring up in wonderful profusion. In consideration of cleansing the +soil, and working it by digging, burning the weeds and rubbish, etc, the +farmer allows one or two of his labourers to use it as a garden for the +growth of potatoes, free of rent, for say a couple of years. Potatoes +are a crop which flourish in fresh-turned soil, and so they do very well +over the arrangement. But unfortunately as they dig and weed, etc, in +the evenings after regular work, they have an excuse for their presence +in the fields, and perhaps near preserves at a tempting period of the +twenty-four hours. The keeper, in short, is quite aware that some sly +poaching goes on in this way. + +Another cause of unpleasantness between him and the cottagers arises +from the dogs they maintain, generally curs, it is true, and not to all +appearance capable of harm. But in the early summer a mongrel cur can +do as much mischief as a thoroughbred dog. Young rabbits are easily +overtaken when not much larger than rats, and at other seasons, when the +game has grown better able to take care of itself, any kind of dog +rambling loose in the woods and copses frightens it and unsettles it to +an annoying degree. Consequently, when a dog once begins to trespass, +it is pretty sure to disappear for good--it is not necessary to indicate +how--and though no actual evidence can be got against the keeper, he is +accused of the destruction of the ugly, ill-bred "pet." If a dog +commences to hunt on his own account, he can only be broken of the habit +by the utmost severity; and so it sometimes happens that other dogs +besides those of the cottagers come to an untimely end by shot and gin. + +The keeper being a man with some true sense of sport, dislikes shooting +dogs, though compelled to do so occasionally; he never fires at his own, +and candidly admits that he hates to see a sportsman give way to anger +in that manner. The custom of "peppering" with shot a dog for +disobedience or wildness, which was once very common in the field, has +however gone a great deal into disuse. + +Shepherds, who often have to visit their flocks in the night--as at this +season of the year, while lambing is in progress--who, in fact, +sometimes sleep in the fields in a little wooden house on wheels built +for the purpose, are strongly suspected of tampering with the hares +scampering over the turnips by moonlight. At harvest-time many strange +men come into the district for the extra wages of reaping. They rarely +take lodgings--which, indeed, they might find some difficulty in +obtaining--but in the warm summer weather sleep in the outhouses and +sheds, with the permission of the owner. Others camp in the open in the +corner of a meadow, where the angle made by meeting hedges protects them +from the wind, crouching round the embers of the fire which boils the +pot and kettle. This influx of strangers is not without its attendant +anxiety to the keeper, who looks round now and then to see what is going +on. + +Despite the ill-will in their hearts, the labourers are particularly +civil to the keeper; he is, in fact, a considerable employer of labour-- +not on his own account--but in the woods and preserves. He can often +give men a job in the dead of winter, when farm work is scarce and the +wages paid for it are less; such as hedge-cutting, mending the gaps in +the fences, cleaning out ditches or the watercourses through the wood. + +Then there is an immense amount of ferreting to be done, and there is +such an instinctive love of sport in every man's breast, that to assist +in this work is almost an ambition; besides which, no doubt the chances +afforded of an occasional private "bag" form a secret attraction. One +would imagine that there could be but little pleasure in crouching all +day in a ditch, perhaps ankle-deep in ice-cold water, with flakes of +snow driving in the face, and fingers numbed by the biting wind as it +rushes through the bare hawthorn bushes, just to watch a rabbit jump out +of a hole into a net, and to break his neck afterwards. Yet so it is; +and some men become so enamoured of this slow sport as to do nothing +else the winter through; and as of course their employment depends +entirely upon the will of the keeper, they are anxious to conciliate +him. + +Despite therefore of missing cur dogs and straying cats which never +return, the keeper is treated with marked deference by the cottagers. +He is, nevertheless, fully aware of the concealed ill-will towards him; +and perhaps this knowledge has contributed to render him more morose, +and sharper of temper, and more suspicious of human nature than he would +otherwise have been; for it never improves a man's character to have to +be constantly watching his fellows. + +The streams are no more sacred from marauders than the woods and +preserves. The brooks and upper waters are not so full of fish as +formerly, the canal into which they fall being netted so much; and +another cause of the diminution is the prevalence of fish-poaching, +especially for jack, during the spawning season and afterwards. Though +the keepers can check this within their own boundaries, it is not of +much use. + +Fish-poaching is simple and yet clever in its way. In the spawning time +jack fish, which at other periods are apparently of a solitary +disposition, go in pairs, and sometimes in trios, and are more tame than +usual. A long slender ash stick is selected, slender enough to lie +light in the hand and strong enough to bear a sudden weight. A loop and +running noose are formed of a piece of thin copper wire, the other end +of which is twisted round and firmly attached to the smaller end of the +stick. The loop is adjusted to the size of the fish--it should not be +very much larger, else it will not draw up quick enough, nor too small, +else it may touch and disturb the jack. It does not take much practice +to hit the happy medium. Approaching the bank of the brook quietly, so +as not to shake the ground, to the vibrations of which fish are +peculiarly sensitive, the poacher tries if possible to avoid letting his +shadow fall across the water. + +Some persons' eyes seem to have an extraordinary power of seeing through +water, and of distinguishing at a glance a fish from a long swaying +strip of dead brown flag, or the rotting pieces of wood which lie at the +bottom. The ripple of the breeze, the eddy at the curve, or the sparkle +of the sunshine cannot deceive them; while others, and by far the +greater number, are dazzled and see nothing. It is astonishing how few +persons seem to have the gift of sight when in the field. + +The poacher, having marked his prey in the shallow yonder, gently +extends his rod slowly across the water three or four yards higher up +the stream, and lets the wire noose sink without noise till it almost or +quite touches the bottom. It is easier to guide the noose to its +destination when it occasionally touches the mud, for refraction +distorts the true position of objects in water, and accuracy is +important. Gradually the wire swims down with the current, just as if +it were any ordinary twig or root carried along, such as the jack is +accustomed to see, and he therefore feels no alarm. By degrees the loop +comes closer to the fish, till with steady hand the poacher slips it +over the head, past the long vicious jaws and gills, past the first +fins, and pauses when it has reached a place corresponding to about +one-third of the length of the fish, reckoning from the head. That end +of the jack is heavier than the other, and the "lines" of the body are +there nearly straight. Thus the poacher gets a firm hold--for a fish, +of course, is slippery--and a good balance. If the operation is +performed gently the jack will remain quite still, though the wire rubs +against his side: silence and stillness have such a power over all +living creatures. The poacher now clears his arm and, with a sudden +jerk, lifts the fish right out of the stream and lands him on the sward. + +So sharp is the grasp of the wire that it frequently cuts its way +through the scales, leaving a mark plainly visible when the jack is +offered for sale. The suddenness and violence of the compression seem +to disperse the muscular forces, and the fish appears dead for the +moment. Very often, indeed, it really is killed by the jerk. This +happens when the loop either has not passed far enough along the body or +has slipped and seized the creature just at the gills. It then garottes +the fish. If, on the other hand, the wire has been passed too far +towards the tail, it slips off that way, the jack falling back into the +water with a broad white band where the wire has scraped the scales. +Fish thus marked may not unfrequently be seen in the stream. The jack, +from its shape, is specially liable to capture in this manner; long and +well balanced, the wire has every chance of holding it. This poaching +is always going on; the implement is so easily obtained and concealed. +The wire can be carried in the pocket, and the stick may be cut from an +adjacent copse. + +The poachers observe that after a fish has once escaped from an attempt +of the kind it is ever after far more difficult of capture. The first +time the jack was still and took no notice of the insidious approach of +the wire gliding along towards it; but the next--unless a long interval +elapses before a second trial--the moment it comes near he is away. At +each succeeding attempt, whether hurt or not, he grows more and more +suspicious, till at last to merely stand still or stop while walking on +the bank is sufficient for him; he is off with a swish of the tail to +the deeper water, leaving behind him a cloud, so to say, of mud swept up +from the bottom to conceal the direction of his flight. For it would +almost seem as if the jack throws up this mud on purpose; if much +disturbed he will quite discolour the brook. The wire does a good deal +to depopulate the stream, and is altogether a deadly implement. + +But a clever fish-poacher can land a jack even without a wire, and with +no better instrument than a willow stick cut from the nearest osier-bed. +The willow, or withy as it is usually called, is remarkably pliant, and +can be twisted into any shape. Selecting a long slender wand, the +poacher strips it of leaves, gives the smaller end a couple of twists, +making a noose and running knot of the stick itself. The mode of using +it is precisely similar to that followed with a wire, but it requires a +little more dexterity, because, of course, the wood, flexible as it is, +does not draw up so quickly or so closely as the metal, neither does it +take so firm a grip. A fish once caught by a wire can be slung about +almost anyhow, it holds so tightly. The withy noose must be jerked up +the instant it passes under that part of the jack where the weight of +the fish is balanced--the centre of gravity; if there is an error in +this respect it should be towards the head, rather than towards the +tail. Directly the jack is thrown out upon the sward he must be seized, +or he will slip from the noose, and possibly find his way back again +into the water. With a wire there is little risk of that; but then the +withy does not cut its way into the fish. + +This trick is often accomplished with the common withy--not that which +grows on pollard-trees, but in osier-beds; that on the trees is brittle. +But a special kind is sought for the purpose, and for any other +requiring extreme flexibility. It is, I think, locally called the stone +osier, and it does not grow so tall as the common sorts. It will tie +like string. Being so short, for poaching fish it has to be fastened to +a thicker and longer stick, which is easily done; and some prefer it to +wire because it looks more natural in the water and does not alarm the +fish, while, should the keeper be about, it is easily cut up in several +pieces and thrown away. I have heard of rabbits, and even hares, being +caught with a noose of this kind of withy, which is as "tough as wire;" +and yet it seems hardly possible, as it is so much thicker and would be +seen. Still, both hares and rabbits, when playing and scampering about +at night, are sometimes curiously heedless, and foolish enough to run +their necks into anything. + +With such a rude implement as this some fish-poachers will speedily land +a good basket of pike. During the spawning season, as was observed +previously, jack go in pairs, and now and then in trios, and of this the +poacher avails himself to take more than one at a haul. The fish lie so +close together--side by side just at that time--that it is quite +practicable, with care and judgment, to slip a wire over two at once. +When near the bank two may even be captured with a good withy noose: +with a wire a clever hand will make a certainty of it. The keeper says +that on one occasion he watched a man operating just without his +jurisdiction, who actually succeeded in wiring three jacks at once and +safely landed them on the grass. They were small fish, about a pound to +a pound and a half each, and the man was but a few minutes in +accomplishing the feat. It sometimes happens that after a heavy flood, +when the brook has been thick with suspended mud for several days, so +soon as it has gone down fish are more than usually plentiful, as if the +flood had brought them up-stream: poachers are then particularly busy. + +Fresh fish--that is, those who are new to that particular part of the +brook--are, the poachers say, much more easily captured than those who +have made it their home for some time. They are, in fact, more easily +discovered; they have not yet found out all the nooks and corners, the +projecting roots and the hollows under the banks, the dark places where +a black shadow falls from overhanging trees and is with difficulty +pierced even by a practised eye. They expose themselves in open places, +and meet an untimely fate. + +Besides pike, tench are occasionally wired, and now and then even a +large roach; the tench, though a bottom fish, in the shallow brooks may +be sometimes detected by the eye, and is not a difficult fish to +capture. Every one has heard of tickling trout: the tench is almost +equally amenable to titillation. Lying at full length on the sward, +with his hat off lest it should fall into the water, the poacher peers +down into the hole where he has reason to think tench may be found. +This fish is so dark in colour when viewed from above that for a minute +or two, till the sight adapts itself to the dull light of the water, the +poacher cannot distinguish what he is searching for. Presently, having +made out the position of the tench, he slips his bared arm in slowly, +and without splash, and finds little or no trouble as a rule in getting +his hand close to the fish without alarming it: tench, indeed, seem +rather sluggish. He then passes his fingers under the belly and gently +rubs it. Now it would appear that he has the fish in his power, and has +only to grasp it. But grasping is not so easy; or rather it is not so +easy to pull a fish up through two feet of superincumbent water which +opposes the quick passage of the arm. The gentle rubbing in the first +place seems to soothe the fish, so that it becomes perfectly quiescent, +except that it slowly rises up in the water, and thus enables the hand +to get into proper position for the final seizure. When it has risen up +towards the surface sufficiently far--the tench must not be driven too +near the surface, for it does not like light and will glide away--the +poacher suddenly snaps as it were; his thumb and fingers, if he possibly +can manage it, closing on the gills. The body is so slimy and slippery +that there alone a firm hold can be got, though the poacher will often +flick the fish out of water in an instant so soon as it is near the +surface. Poachers evidently feel as much pleasure in practising these +tricks as the most enthusiastic angler using the implements of +legitimate sport. + +No advantage is thought too unfair to be taken of fish; nothing too +brutally unsportsmanlike. I have seen a pike killed with a prong as he +lay basking in the sun at the top of the water. A labourer stealthily +approached, and suddenly speared him with one of the sharp points of the +prong or hayfork he carried: the pike was a good sized one too. + +The stream, where not strictly preserved, is frequently netted without +the slightest regard to season. The net is stretched from bank to bank, +and watched by one man, while the other walks up the brook thirty or +forty yards, and drives the fish down the current into the bag. With a +long pole he thrashes the water, making a good deal of splash, and +rousing up the mud, which fish dislike and avoid. The pole is thrust +into every hiding-place, and pokes everything out. The watcher by the +net knows by the bobbing under of the corks when a shoal of roach and +perch, or a heavy pike, has darted into it, and instantly draws the +string and makes his haul. In this way, by sections at a time, the +brook, perhaps for half a mile, is quite cleared out. Jack, however, +sometimes escape; they seem remarkably shrewd and quick to learn. If +the string is not immediately drawn when they touch the net, they are +out of it without a moment's delay: they will double back up-stream +through all the splashing and mud, and some will even slide as it were +between the net and the bank if it does not quite touch in any place, +and so get away. + +In its downward course the brook irrigates many water meadows, and to +drive the stream out upon them there are great wooden hatches. +Sometimes a gang of men, discovering that there is a quantity of fish +thereabouts, will force down a hatch which at once shuts off or greatly +diminishes the volume of water flowing down the brook, and then rapidly +construct a dam across the current below it with the mud of the shore. +Above this dam they thrash the water with poles and drive all the fish +towards it, and then make a second dam above the first so as to enclose +them in a short space. In the making of these dams speed is an object, +or the water will accumulate and flow over the hatch; so hurdles are +used, as they afford a support to the mud hastily thrown up. Then with +buckets, bowls, and "scoops," they bale out the water between the two +dams, and quickly reduce their prey to wriggling helplessness. In this +way whole baskets full of fish have been taken, together with eels; and +nothing so enclosed can escape. + +The mere or lake by the wood is protected by sharp stakes set at the +bottom, which would tear poachers' nets; and the keeper does not think +any attempt to sweep it has been made of late years, it is too well +watched. But he believes that night lines are frequently laid: a +footpath runs along one shore for some distance, and gives easy access, +and such lines may be overlooked. He is certain that eels are taken in +that way despite his vigilance. + +Trespassing for crayfish, too, causes much annoyance. I have known men +to get bodily up to the waist into the great ponds, a few of which yet +remain, after carp. These fish have a curious habit of huddling up in +hollows under the banks; and those who know where these hollows and +holes are situate can take them by hand if they can come suddenly upon +them. It is said that now and then fish are raked out of the ponds with +a common rake (such as is used in haymaking) when, lying on the mud in +winter. + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +GUERILLA WARFARE--GUN ACCIDENTS--BLACK SHEEP. + +Scarcely a keeper can be found who has not got one or more tales to tell +of encounters with poachers, sometimes of a desperate character. There +is a general similarity in most of the accounts, which exhibit a mixture +of ferocity and cowardice on the side of the intruders. The following +case, which occurred some years since, brings these contradictory +features into relief. The narrator was not the owner of the man-trap +described previously. + +There had been a great deal of poaching before the affray took place, +and finally it grew to horse-stealing: one night two valuable horses +were taken from the home park. This naturally roused the indignation of +the owner of the estate, who resolved to put a stop to it. Orders were +given that if shots were heard in the woods the news should be at once +transmitted to headquarters, no matter at what hour of the night. + +One brilliant moonlight night, frosty and clear, the gang came again. A +messenger went to the house, and, as previously arranged, two separate +parties set out to intercept the rascals. The head keeper had one +detachment, whose object it was to secure the main outlet from the wood +towards the adjacent town--to cut off retreat. The young squire had +charge of the other, which, with the under keeper as guide, was to work +its way through the wood and drive the gang into the ambuscade. In the +last party were six men and a mastiff dog; four of the men had guns, the +gentleman only a stout cudgel. + +They came upon the gang--or rather a part of it, for the poachers were +somewhat scattered--in a "drive" which ran between tall firs, and was +deep in shadow. With a shout the four or five men in the "drive," or +green lane, slipped back behind the trees, and two fired, killing the +mastiff, dog on the spot and "stinging" one man in the legs. Quick as +they were, the under keeper, to use his own words, "got a squint of one +fellow as I knowed; and I lets drive both barrels in among the firs. +But, bless you! it were all over in such a minute that I can't hardly +tell 'ee how it were. Our squire ran straight at 'em; but our men hung +back, though they had their guns and he had nothing but a stick. I just +seen him, as the smoke rose, hitting at a fellow; and then, before I +could step, I hears a crack, and the squire he was down on the sward. +One of them beggars had come up behind, and swung his gun round, and +fetched him a purler on the back of his head. I picked him up, but he +was as good as dead, to look at;" and in the confusion the poachers +escaped. They had probably been put up to the ambuscade by one of the +underlings, as they did not pass that way, but seemed to separate and +get off by various paths. The "young squire" had to be carried home, +and was ill for months, but ultimately recovered. + +Not one of the gang was ever captured, notwithstanding that a member of +it was recognised. Next day an examination of the spot resulted in the +discovery of a trail of blood upon the grass and dead leaves, which +proved that one of them had been wounded at the first discharge. It was +traced for a short distance and then lost. Not till the excitement had +subsided did the under keeper find that he had been hit; one pellet had +scored his cheek under the eye, and left a groove still visible. + +Some time afterwards a gun was picked up in the ferns, all rusty from +exposure, which had doubtless been dropped in the flight. The barrel +was very short--not more than eighteen inches in length--having been +filed off for convenience of taking to pieces, so as to be carried in a +pocket made on purpose in the lining of the coat. Now, with a barrel so +short as that, sport, in the proper sense of the term, would be +impossible; the shot would scatter so quickly after leaving the muzzle +that the sportsman would never be able to approach near enough. The use +of this gun was clearly to shoot pheasants at roost. + +The particular keeper in whose shed the man-trap still lies among the +lumber thinks that the class of poachers who come in gangs are as +desperate now as ever, and as ready with their weapons. Breech-loading +guns have rendered such affrays extremely dangerous on account of the +rapidity of fire. Increased severity of punishment may deter a man from +entering a wood; but once he is there and compromised, the dread of a +heavy sentence is likely to make him fight savagely. + +The keeper himself is not altogether averse to a little fisticuffing, in +a straightforward kind of way, putting powder and shot on one side. He +rather relishes what he calls "leathering" a poacher with a good tough +ground-ash stick. He gets the opportunity now and then, coming +unexpectedly on a couple of fellows rabbiting in a ditch, and he +recounts the "leathering" he has frequently administered with great +gusto. He will even honestly admit that on one occasion--just one, not +more--he got himself most thoroughly thrashed by a pair of hulking +fellows. + +"Some keepers," he says, "are always summoning people, but it don't do +no good. What's the use of summoning a chap for sneaking about with a +cur dog and a wire in his pocket? His mates in the village clubs +together and pays his fine, and he laughs at you. Why, down in the town +there them mechanic chaps have got a regular society to pay these here +fines for trespass, and the bench they claps it on strong on purpose. +But it ain't no good; they forks out the tin, and then goes and haves a +spree at a public. Besides which, if I can help it I don't much care to +send a man to gaol--this, of course, is between you and me--unless he +uses his gun. If he uses his gun there ain't nothing too bad for him. +But these here prisons--every man as ever I knowed go to gaol always +went twice, and kept on going. There ain't nothing in the world like a +good ground-ash stick. When you gives a chap a sound dressing with that +there article, he never shows his face in your wood no more. There's +fields about here where them mechanics goes as regular as Saturday comes +to try their dogs, as they calls it--and a precious lot of dogs they +keeps among 'em. But they never does it on this estate: they knows my +habits, you see. There's less summonses goes up from this property than +any other for miles, and it's all owing to this here stick. A bit of +ash is the best physic for poaching as I knows on." + +I suspect that he is a little mistaken in his belief that it is the +dread of his personal prowess which keeps trespassers away--it is rather +due to his known vigilance and watchfulness. His rather hasty notions +of taking the law into his own hands are hardly in accord with the +spirit of the times; but some allowance must be made for the +circumstances of his life, and it is my object to picture the man as he +is. + +There are other dangers from guns beside these. A brown gaiter +indistinctly seen moving some distance off in the tall dry grass or +fern--the wearer hidden by the bushes--has not unfrequently been +mistaken for game in the haste and excitement of shooting, and received +a salute of leaden hail. This is a danger to which sportsman and keeper +are both liable, especially when large parties are engaged in rapid +firing; sometimes a particular corner gets very "hot," being enfiladed +for the moment by several guns. Yet, when the great number of men who +shoot is considered, the percentage of serious accidents is small +indeed; more fatal accidents probably happen through unskilled persons +thoughtlessly playing with guns supposed not to be loaded, or pointing +them in joke, than ever occur in the field. The ease with which the +breechloader can be unloaded or reloaded again prevents most persons +from carrying it indoors charged; and this in itself is a gain on the +side of safety, for perhaps half the fatal accidents take place within +doors. + +In farmsteads where the owner had the right of shooting the +muzzle-loader was--and still is, when not converted--kept loaded on the +rack. The starlings, perhaps, are making havoc of the thatch, tearing +out straw by straw, and working the holes in which they form their nests +right through, till in the upper story daylight is visible. When the +whistling and calling of the birds tell him they are busy above, the +owner slips quickly out with his gun, and brings down three or four at +once as they perch in a row on the roof-tree. Or a labourer leaves a +message that there is a hare up in the meadow or some wild ducks have +settled in the brook. But men who have a gun always in their hands +rarely meet with a mishap. The starlings, by-the-by, soon learn the +trick, and are cunning enough to notice which door their enemy generally +comes out at, where he can get the best shot; and the moment the handle +of that particular door is turned, off they go. + +The village blacksmith will tell you of more than one narrow escape he +has had with guns, and especially muzzle-loaders, brought to him to +repair. Perhaps a charge could not be ignited through the foulness of +the nipple, and the breech had to be unscrewed in the vice; now and then +the breech-piece was so tightly jammed that it could not be turned. +Once, being positively assured that there was nothing but some dirt in +the barrel and no powder, he was induced to place it in the forge fire; +when--bang! a charge of shot smashed the window, and the burning coals +flew about in a fiery shower. In one instance a blacksmith essayed to +clear out a barrel which had become choked with a long iron rod made +red-hot: the explosion which followed drove the rod through his hand and +into the wooden wall of the shed. Smiths seem to have a particular +fondness for meddling with guns, and generally have one stowed away +somewhere. + +It was not wonderful that accidents happened with the muzzle-loaders, +considering the manner in which they were handled by ignorant persons. +The keeper declares that many of the cottagers, who have an old +single-barrel, ostensibly to frighten the birds from their gardens, do +not think it properly loaded until the ramrod jumps out of the barrel. +They ram the charge, and especially the powder, with such force that the +rebound sends the rod right out, and he has seen those who were not +cottagers follow the same practice. A close-fitting wad, too tight for +the barrel, will sometimes cause the rod to spring high above the +muzzle: as it is pushed quickly down it compresses the air in the tube, +which expands with a sharp report and drives the rod out. + +Loading with paper, again, has often resulted in mischief: sometimes a +smouldering fragment remains in the barrel after the discharge, and on +pouring in powder from the flask it catches and runs like a train up to +the flask, which may burst in the hand. For this reason to this day +some of the old farmers, clinging to ancient custom, always load with a +clay tobacco pipe-bowl, snapped off from the stem for the purpose. It +is supposed to hold just the proper charge, and as it is detached from +the horn or flask there is no danger of fire being communicated to the +magazine; so that an explosion, if it happened, would do no serious +injury, being confined to the loose powder of the charge itself. Paper +used as wads will sometimes continue burning for a short time after +being blown out of the gun, and may set fire to straw, or even dry +grass. + +The old folk, therefore, when it was necessary to shoot the starlings on +the thatch, or the sparrows and chaffinches which congregate in the +rickyards in such extraordinary numbers--in short, to fire off a gun +anywhere near inflammable materials--made it a rule to load with green +leaves, which would not burn and could do no harm. The ivy leaf was a +special favourite for the purpose--the broad-leaved ivy which grows +against houses and in gardens--because it is stout, about the right size +to double up and fold into a wad, and is available in winter, being an +evergreen, when most other leaves are gone. I have seen guns loaded +with ivy leaves many times. When a gun gets foul the ramrod is apt to +stick tight if paper is used after pushing it home, and unless a vice be +handy no power will draw it out. In this dilemma the old plan used to +be to fire it into a hayrick, standing at a short distance; the hay, +yielding slightly, prevented the rod from breaking to pieces when it +struck. + +Most men who have had much to do with guns have burst one or more. The +keeper in the course of years has had several accidents of the kind; but +none since the breech-loader has come into general use, the reason of +course being that two charges cannot be inadvertently inserted one above +the other, as frequently occurred in the old guns. + +I had a muzzle-loading gun burst in my hands some time since: the +breech-piece split, and the nipple, hammer, and part of the barrel there +blew out. Fortunately no injury was done; and I should not note it +except for the curious effect upon the tympanum of the ear. The first +sense was that of a stunning blow on the head; on recovering from which +the distinction between one sound and another seemed quite lost. The +ear could not separate or define them, and whether it was a person +speaking, a whistle, the slamming of a door, or the neigh of a horse, it +was all the same. Tone, pitch, variation there was none. Though +perfectly, and in fact painfully, audible, all sounds were converted +into a miserable jangling noise, exactly like that made when, a wire in +a piano has come loose and jingles. This annoying state of things +lasted three days, after which it gradually went off, and in a week had +entirely disappeared. Probably the sound of the explosion had been much +increased by the cheek slightly touching the stock in the moment of +firing, the jar of the wood adding to the vibration. This, gun belonged +to another person, and was caught up, already loaded, to take advantage +of a favourable chance; it is noticeable that half the accidents happen +with a strange gun. + +Shot plays curious freaks sometimes: I know a case in which a gun was +accidentally discharged in a dairy paved as most dairies are with stone +flags. The muzzle was pointed downwards at the time--the shot struck +the smooth stone floor, glanced off and up and hit another person +standing almost at right angles, causing a painful wound. It is a +marvel that more bird-keepers do not get injured by the bursting of the +worn-out firelocks used to frighten birds from the seed. Some of these +are not only rusty, but so thin at the muzzle as almost to cut the hand +if it accidentally comes into contact with any force. + +A collection of curious old guns might be made in the villages; the +flint-locks are nearly all gone, but there are plenty of single-barrels +in existence and use which were converted from that ancient system. In +the farmhouses here and there may be found such a weapon, half a century +old or more, with a barrel not quite equal in length to the punt-gun, +but so long that, when carried under the arm of a tall man, the muzzle +touches the ground where it is irregular in level. It is slung up to +the beam across the ceiling with leathern thongs--one loop for the +barrel and the other for the stock. It is still serviceable, having +been kept dry; and the owner will tell you that he has brought down +pigeons with it at seventy yards. + +Every man believes that his particular gun is the best in the locality +to kill. The owner of this cumbrous weapon, if you exhibit an interest +in its history, will take you into the fields and point out a spot where +forty years ago he or his immediate ancestor shot four or five wild +geese at once, resting the barrel on the branch of a tree in the hedge +and sending a quarter of a pound of lead whistling among the flock. The +spot the wild geese used to visit in the winter is still remembered, +though they come there no more; drains and cultivation having driven +them away from that southern district. In the course of the winter, +perhaps, a small flock may be seen at a great height passing over, but +they do not alight, and in some years are not observed at all. + +There is a trick sometimes practised by poachers which enables them to +make rabbits bolt from their holes without the assistance of a ferret. +It is a chemical substance emitting a peculiar odour, and, if placed in +the burrows, drives the rabbits out. Chemical science, indeed, has been +called to the aid of poaching in more ways than one: fish, for instance, +are sometimes poisoned, or killed by an explosion of dynamite. These +latter practices have, however, not yet come into general use, being +principally employed by those only who have had some experience of +mining or quarrying. + +There is a saying that an old poacher makes the best gamekeeper, on the +principle of setting a thief to catch a thief: a maxim, however, of +doubtful value, since no other person could so thoroughly appreciate the +tempting opportunities which must arise day after day. That keepers +themselves are sometimes the worst of depredators must be admitted. +Hitherto I have chiefly described the course of action followed by +honest and conscientious men, truly anxious for their employers' +interests, and taking a personal pride in a successful shooting season. +But there exists a class of keepers of a very different order, who have +done much to bring sport itself into unmerited odium. + +The blackleg keeper is often a man of some natural ability--a plausible, +obsequious rascal, quick in detecting the weak points of his employer's +character, and in practising upon and distorting what were originally +generous impulses. His game mainly depends upon gaining the entire +confidence of his master; and, not being embarrassed by considerations +of self-esteem, he is not choice in the use of means to that end. He +knows that if he can thoroughly worm himself into his employer's good +opinion the unfavourable reports which may be set afloat against him +will be regarded as the mere tittle-tattle of envy; for it is often an +amiable weakness on the part of masters who are really attached to their +servants to maintain a kind of partisanship on behalf of those whom they +have once trusted. + +Such a servant finds plentiful occasions for dexterously gratifying the +love of admiration innate in us all. The manliest athlete and frankest +amateur--who would blush at the praise of social equals--finds it hard +to resist the apparently bluff outspoken applause of his inferiors +bestowed on his prowess in field sports, whether rowing or riding, with +rod or gun. Of course it frequently happens that the sportsman really +does excel as a shot; but that in no degree lessens the insidious effect +of the praise which seems extorted in the excitement of the moment, and +to come forth with unpremeditated energy. + +The next step is to establish a common ground of indignation; for it is +to be observed that those who unite in abuse of a third person have a +stronger bond of sympathy than those who mutually admire another. If by +accident some unfortunate, _contretemps_ should cause a passing +irritation between his master and the owner of a neighbouring estate, +the keeper loses no opportunity of heaping coals upon the fire. He +brings daily reports of trespass. Now the other party's keepers have +been beating a field beyond their boundaries; now they have ferreted a +bank to which they have no right. Another time they have prevented +straying pheasants from returning to the covers by intercepting their +retreat; and a score of similar tricks. Or perhaps it is the master of +a pack of hounds against whom insinuations are directed: cubs are not +destroyed sufficiently, and the pheasants are eaten daily. + +Sometimes it is a tenant-farmer with a long lease, who cannot be quickly +ejected, who has to bear the brunt of these attacks. He is accused of +trapping hares and rabbits: he sets the traps so close to the preserves +that the pheasants are frequently caught and mortally injured; he is +suspected of laying poisoned grain about. Not content with this he +carries his malice so far as to cause the grass or other crops in which +outlying nests or young broods are sheltered to be cut before it is +ripe, with the object of destroying or driving them away; and he +presents the mowers whose scythes mutilate game with a quart of beer as +reward, or furnishes his shepherds with lurchers for poaching. He +encourages the gipsies to encamp in the neighbourhood and carry on +nightly expeditions by allowing them the use of a field in which to put +their vans and horses. With such accounts as these, supported by what +looks like evidence, the blackleg keeper gradually works his employer +into a state of intense irritation, meantime reaping the reward of the +incorruptible guardian and shrewd upright servitor. + +At the same time, in the haze of suspicion he has created, the rascal +finds a cloak for his own misdeeds. These poachers, trespassers, +gipsies, foxes, and refractory tenants afford a useful excuse to account +for the comparative scarcity of game. What on earth has become of the +birds, and where the dickens are the hares? asks the angry proprietor. +In the spring he recollects being shown by the keeper, with modest +pride, some hundreds of young pheasants, flourishing exceedingly. Now +he finds the broods have strangely dwindled, and he is informed that +these enemies against whom all along he has been warned have made short +work of them. If this explanation seems scarcely sufficient, there is +always some inexplicable disease to bear the blame: the birds had been +going on famously when suddenly they were seized by a mysterious +epidemic which decimated their numbers. + +All this is doubly annoying, because, in addition to the loss of +anticipated sport, there has been an exorbitant expenditure. The larger +the number of young broods of pheasants early in the year the better for +the dishonest keeper, who has more chances of increasing his own profit, +both directly and indirectly. In the first place, there is the little +business of buying eggs, not without commissions. More profit is found +in the supply of food for the birds: extras and petty disbursements +afford further room for pickings. + +Then, when the game has been spirited away, the keeper's object is to +induce his employer to purchase full-grown pheasants--another chance of +secret gratuities--and to turn them out for the battue. That +institution is much approved of by keepers of this character, for, the +pheasants being confined to a small area, there is less personal +exertion than is involved in walking over several thousand acres to look +after hares and partridges. + +By poisoning his master's mind against some one he not only covers these +proceedings but secures himself from the explanation which if listened +to might set matters right. The accused, attempting to explain, finds a +strong prejudice against him, and turns away in dudgeon. Such underhand +tricks sometimes cause mischief in a whole district. An unscrupulous +keeper may set people of all ranks at discord with each other. + +In these malpractices, and in the disposal of game which is bulky, he is +occasionally assisted by other keepers of congenial character engaged +upon adjacent estates. Gentlemen on intimate terms naturally imagine +that their keepers mutually assist each other in the detection of +poaching--meeting by appointment, for instance, at night, as the police +do, to confer upon their beats. When two or three are thus in league it +is not difficult for them to dispose of booty they quickly get into +communication with professional receivers; and instances have been known +in which petticoats have formed a cover for a steady if small illegal +transport of dead game over the frontier. + +For his own profit a keeper of this kind may indeed be trusted to +prevent poaching on the part of other persons, whose gains would be his +loss, since there would remain less for him to smuggle. Very probably +it may come to be acknowledged on all sides that he is watchful and +always about: an admission that naturally tends to raise him in the +esteem of his employer. + +Those who could tell tales--his subordinate assistants--are all more or +less implicated, as in return for their silence they are permitted to +get pickings: a dozen rabbits now and then, good pay for little work, +and plenty of beer. If one of them lets out strange facts in his cups, +it signifies nothing: no one takes any heed of a labourer's beerhouse +talk. The steward or bailiff has strong suspicions, perhaps, but his +motions are known, and his prying eyes defeated. As for the tenants, +they groan and bear it. + +It is to be regretted that new and then the rural policeman becomes an +accomplice in these nefarious practices. His position of necessity +brings him much into contact with the keepers of the district within his +charge. If they are a "shady" lot, what with plenty of drink, good +fellowship, presents of game, and insidious suggestions of profit, it is +not surprising that a man whose pay is not the most liberal should +gradually fall away from the path of duty. The keeper can place a great +temptation in his way--i.e. occasional participation in shooting when +certain persons are absent: there are few indeed who can resist the +opportunity of enjoying sport. The rural constable often has a beat of +very wide area, thinly populated: it is difficult to tell where he may +be; he has a reasonable pretext for being about at all hours, and it is +impossible that he should be under much supervision. Perhaps he may +have a taste for dogs, and breed them for sale, if not openly, on the +sly. Now the keeper can try these animals, or even break them in in a +friendly way; and when once he has committed himself, and winked at what +is going on, the constable feels that he may as well join and share +altogether. At outlying wayside "publics" the keeper and the constable +may carouse to the top of their bent: the landlord is only too glad to +be on good terms with them; his own little deviations pass unnoticed, +and if by accident they are discovered he has a friend at court to give +him a good character. + +The worthy pair, have an engine of oppression in their hands which +effectually overawes the cottagers: they can accuse them of poaching; +and if not proceeding to the ultimatum of a summons, which might not +suit their convenience, can lay them under suspicion, which may result +in notice to quit their cottages, or to give up their allotment gardens; +and a garden is almost as important to a cottager as his weekly wages. +In this way a landlord whose real disposition may be most generous may +be made to appear a perfect tyrant, and be disliked by the whole +locality. It is to the interest of the keeper and the constable to +obtain a conviction now and then; it gives them the character of +vigilance. + +Sometimes a blackleg keeper, not satisfied with the plunder of the +estate under his guardianship must needs encroach on the lands of +neighbouring farmers occupying under small owners; and so further +ill-will is caused. In the end an exposure takes place, and the +employer finds to his extreme mortification how deeply he has been +deceived; but the discovery may not be made for years. Of course all +keepers of this character are not systematically vicious: many are only +guilty occasionally, when a peculiarly favourable opportunity offers. + +Another class of keeper is rather passively than actively bad. This is +the idle man, whose pipe is ever in his mouth and whose hands are always +in his pockets. He is often what is called a good-natured fellow-- +soft-spoken, respectful, and willing; liked by everybody; a capital +comrade in his own class, and, in fact, with too many friends of a +certain set. + +Gamekeeping is an occupation peculiarly favourable to loafing if a man +is inclined that way. He can sit on the rails and gates, lounge about +the preserves, go to sleep on the sward in the shade; call at the +roadside inn, and, leaning his gun against the tree from which the sign +hangs, quaff his quart in indolent dignity. By degrees he easily falls +into bad habits, takes too much liquor, finds his hands unsteady, +becomes too lazy to repress poaching (which is a weed that must be +constantly pulled up, or it will grow with amazing rapidity), and +finally is corrupted, and shares the proceeds of bolder rascals. His +assistants do as they please. He has no control over them: they know +too much about him. + +It is a curious fact that there are poaching villages and non-poaching +villages. Out of a dozen or more parishes forming a petty sessional +district one or two will become notorious for this propensity. The +bench never meet without a case from them, either for actual poaching or +some cognate offence. The drinking, fighting, dishonesty, low gambling, +seem ceaseless--like breeding like--till the place becomes a nest of +rascality. Men hang about at the public-houses all day, betting on +horses, loitering; a blight seems to fall upon them, and a bad repute +clings to the spot for years after the evil itself has been eradicated. + +If a weak keeper gets among such a set as this he succumbs; and the same +cause hastens the moral decay of the constable. The latter has a most +difficult part to maintain. If he is disposed to carry out the strict +letter of his instructions, that does not do--there is a prejudice +against too much severity. English feeling is anti-Draconian; and even +the respectable inhabitants would rather endure some little rowdyism +than witness an over interference with liberty. If the constable is +good-natured, and loth to take strong measures, he either becomes a +semi-accomplice or sinks to a nonentity. It is difficult to find a man +capable of controlling such a class; it requires tact, and something of +the gift of governing men. + +By contact with bad characters a weak keeper may be contaminated without +volition of his own at first: for we know the truthful saying about +touching pitch. The misfortune is that the guilty when at last exposed +become notorious; and their infamy spreads abroad, smirching the whole +class to which they belong. The honest conscientious men remain in +obscurity and get no public credit, though they may far outnumber the +evil-disposed. + +To make a good keeper it requires not only honesty and skill, but a +considerable amount of "backbone" in the character to resist temptation +and to control subordinates. The keeper who has gone to the bad becomes +one of the most mischievous members of the community: the faithful and +upright keeper is not only a valuable servant, but a protection to all +kinds of property. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The End. + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 36948 *** |