Northumbrian Guisards 2 1 1 



lands hardly shows an affinity to this, will be al- 

 together forgotten. Yet I for one do not believe that 

 any amusement to which the poor of towns have 

 access is productive of more pleasure than this and. 

 other simple country pastimes. Nevertheless, a time 

 is likely to come when their loss will be regretted* 

 Even now the towns cannot support all those who 

 crowd into them, and when the rustic rediscovers his 

 home he will miss the amusements that have grown 

 obsolete. 



POACHERS 



AMONG the amusing characters gradually disappear- 

 ing out of village life, one who is greatly missed is the 

 merry, old-fashioned moucher. It is not that fewer cases 

 come before the magistrates, or that game is safer, but 

 the business is done in a different style, mostly by 

 roughs from town, whose object is pure gain. But 

 the pleasant, impudent veteran who poached, in part 

 out of principle, as holding that there could be no 

 property in wild life, and in part from relish of a good 

 dinner, but still more from a passionate love of sport 

 and the enjoyment derived from pottering about in the 

 open air among the woods and by the river, has passed 

 away. His doings were laughed at nearly as much in 

 the hall as in the public-house. I remember once 

 being present while a well-known poacher was being 

 cross-examined as a witness in a bad case of incen- 



p 2 



