The Amateur Poacher
by Richard Jefferies
Contents
PREFACE
The following pages are arranged somewhat in the order of time, beginning withthe first gun, and attempts at shooting. Then come the fields, the first hills,and woods explored, often without a gun, or any thought of destruction: andnext the poachers, and other odd characters observed at their work. Perhaps theidea of shooting with a matchlock, or wheel-lock, might, if put in practice, atleast afford some little novelty.
R.J.
THE AMATEUR POACHER
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST GUN
They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret,close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reasonwhy he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his deathfairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was heput away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.But there he stood, and mounted guard over the old flintlock that was sopowerful a magnet to us in those days. Though to go up there alone was noslight trial of moral courage after listening to the horrible tales of thecarters in the stable, or the old women who used to sit under the hedge in theshade, on an armful of hay, munching their crusts at luncheon time.
The great cavernous place was full of shadows in the brightest summer day; forthe light came only through the chinks in the shutters. These were flush withthe floor and bolted firmly. The silence was intense, it being so near the roofand so far away from the inhabited parts of the house. Yet there were sometimesstrange acoustical effects—as when there came a low tapping at theshutters, enough to make your heart stand still. There was then nothing for itbut to dash through the doorway into the empty cheese-room adjoining, which wasbetter lighted. No doubt it was nothing but the labourers knocking the stakesin for the railing round the rickyard, but why did it sound just exactlyoutside the shutters? When that ceased the staircase creaked, or the pear-treeboughs rustled against the window. The staircase always waite