POACHING 151 



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 con- 

 cealment ; his own class will hold their peace. 



Perhaps the most promising position for a man 

 who makes a science of it, says the observant writer 

 just quoted, is a village at the end 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 high banks and thick hedges may 

 be worked almost at any time, for 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 local poacher 



