WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES WHYMPER
London
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1880
[All rights reserved.]
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.
CONTENTS.
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| [I.] | The Man himself: his House, and Tools | [1] |
| [II.] | His Family and Caste | [22] |
| [III.] | In the Fields | [47] |
| [IV.] | His Dominions: the Woods, Meadows, and Water | [71] |
| [V.] | Some of His Subjects: Dogs, Rabbits, ‘Mice, and Such Small Deer’ | [92] |
| [VI.] | His Enemies: Birds and Beasts of Prey—Trespassers | [118] |
| [VII.] | Professional Poachers: the Art of Wiring Game | [144] |
| [VIII.] | The Field Detective: Fish Poaching | [169] |
| [IX.] | Guerilla Warfare; Gun Accidents; Black Sheep | [196] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE | |
| The Keeper’s Cottage | [1] |
| The Row of Kennels | [3] |
| The Keeper’s Kitchen | [6] |
| The Keeper | [11] |
| A Brood of Young Pheasants | [20] |
| The old Mole-catcher | [27] |
| Antlers on the Staircase | [29] |
| Small Boys and Great Horses | [31] |
| The Keeper’s Son Shooting Left-handed | [34] |
| Owls in every Barn | [37] |
| The Superannuated Keeper | [41] |
| Pheasants | [47] |
| Tending the Young Birds | [52] |
| Cattle in the Copse | [55] |
| Diagram to show Damage done by Iron-Wire Fencing | [56] |
| The Park | [63] |
| Wood Pigeon | [73] |
| A Badger at his Front Door | [79] |
| Wild Duck and Moorhen | [90] |
| Dog at Stream | [95] |
| Pointer and Fish | [99] |
| Traps | [110] |
| Shooting Wood-Pigeons by Moonlight | [115] |
| A Weasel Hunting | [121] |
| A Hawk pursued by Finches and Swallows | [125] |
| The Poacher | [133] |
| An English Prairie-Fire | [141] |
| Partridges at Evening | [148] |
| Rubens’ Sportsman | [150] |
| Setting a Hare Snare | [153] |
| Poaching in the Winter | [159] |
| Plover’s Nest | [164] |
| A Rabbit-Hole Netted | [173] |
| A Wicked Lurcher and his Master | [175] |
| The Gentleman in Velveteen | [178] |
| Tickling Trout | [191] |
| Setting a Night Line | [194] |
| Going for the Poachers | [197] |
| Man-Trap | [200] |
| A good-for-nothing Keeper | [217] |
| Tailpiece | [219] |