366 frtn0s of tbe 1Rofc, TCifle, anfc 6un 



The sporting instincts of the young shoemaker were 

 first stirred by the exploits of two notorious poachers ; 

 and, indeed, John not only consorted with poachers, but 

 was a bit of a poacher himself. He regarded poaching, 

 in fact, as an exciting and adventurous pastime, all the 

 more alluring because it brought him into collision with 

 laws which he deemed tyrannical and unjust. In short, 

 his feeling towards poaching and poachers was much 

 the same as that entertained a hundred years ago all 

 along the southern coast of England for smuggling 

 and smugglers. One of these poachers, John Thomson, 

 was a successful forger of false coin, and, unsuspected 

 by his neighbours, carried on his illegal minting in his 

 tumble-down cottage, which bore all the external 

 appearance of abject poverty. "And so," John 

 Younger remarks, "John lived freely, though he had 

 discontinued all visible employment and only poached 

 for pleasure." Apparently the radical young shoe- 

 maker thought uttering base coin quite as venial an 

 offence as poaching. 



The other poacher who had a marked influence over 

 Younger's early life was of a different type. His name 

 was George Gray, and he was the son of a respectable 

 farmer. John describes him as "the most personable 

 and athletic fellow I have ever seen in life," and 

 dwells with loving admiration on his wonderful wood- 

 craft, his magical power over animals, and his deeds 

 of prowess on the moors, "where, with one dog (a 

 trained colley) and gun he achieved feats of slaughter 

 equal to what we now see boasted of in the newspapers 

 by lordly shooting parties with all their appliances and 



