OLD GODFREY 



OR, MA.RKET-GARDENERS. 



When I am tired of my easy chair, I sometim.es take a stroll to the 

 garden of Old Godfrey, one of the most original characters in our 

 neiijhhourhood, to watch him at his work, admire the unrivalled ex- 

 cellence of his vegetables, or sit in his hovel, and hear him recount 

 the adventures oif his early life. He was, in his days of youthful 

 energy, one whose pursuits w^e hardly know whether to praise or 

 blame : marked out by nature for a sporting squire, " chill penury 

 repressed his noble rage," and made him what is familiarly termed 

 " a poacher;" and no one ever practised his art with more skill and 

 success than he did. He was not one of those clumsy performers 

 who march out at night with bludgeons, and knock down game- 

 keepers with the butt-end of their fowling-pieces ; but with a faculty 

 of trapping, snaring, and netting all birds, beasts, and fishes, more 

 resembling an instinct than any modification of human sagacity : 

 quiet, stealthy, and vigilant, constantly did he baffle the squire's 

 keepers and come home with his bags filled with hares and phea- 

 sants, for which, in those days, there was always a ready market. 

 He was looked upon, of course, by the neighbouring justices with 

 that virtuous indignation which those game-destroying personages 

 always feel towards their more humble congeners. How can we 

 account for it, that, in all sects, parties, and coteries, aversion should 

 constantly be in an inverse ratio to their disagreement? Once Old 

 Godfrey was caught, and spent three months in our house of correc- 



