140 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



GAMEKEEPER. GAME PRESERVES. ECCLESTON, A PRETTY VILLAGE. THE 



SCHOOL-HOUSE. DRAINING. CHILDREN PLAYING. THE RIVER-SIDE WALK. 



PLEASURE PARTIES. A CONTRASTING GLIMPSE OF A SAD HEART. 



SATURDAY NIGHT. BALLAD SINGER. MENDICANTS. ROW IN THE TAP 

 ROOM. WOMAN S FEEBLENESS. CHESTER BEER, AND BEER-DRINKING 



FT1HE gamekeeper advised us to return to Chester by another 

 J- read, and following his direction, we found a delightful 

 path by the river side. We had not gone far before we 

 overtook another keeper carrying a gun. It is hard for us to 

 look upon wild game as property, and it seemed as if the 

 temptation to poach upon it must be often irresistible to a 

 poor man. It must have a bad effect upon the moral charac 

 ter of a community for the law to deal with any man as a 

 criminal for an act which in his own conscience is not deemed 

 sinful. Even this keeper seemed to look upon poaching as 

 not at all wrong merely a trial of adroitness between the 

 poacher and himself, though it was plain that detection would 

 place the poacher among common swindlers and thieves, ex 

 clude him from the society of the religious, and from reputa 

 ble employment, and make the future support of life by 

 unlawful means almost a necessity. He said, however, there 

 was very little poaching in the neighbourhood. Most of the 

 farmers were allowed to shoot within certain limits, and the 

 labouring class were generally wanting in either the means 

 or the pluck to attempt it. 



