SERVING A SUMMONS. 189 



were going off, so my order to that effect was 

 forestalled. I therefore contented myself with the 

 forcible seizure of the rabbits. This man was also 

 summoned by me, and convicted. The only part of 

 his case which is unalterably stamped on my remem- 

 brance is, that at the end of the proceedings, held at 

 Sharnbrook, he charged the presiding magistrate, as 

 constable, half-a-crown/6>r the trouble he had in serving 

 the summons on himself, and the magistrate, not 

 havincr a wholesome remembrance of Justice Midas 

 before his eyes, ordered him. to receive the money I 



One day in the early part of the winter I was in 

 Odell Dungey Wood looking after the game, when I 

 saw three men stooping among the " young spring," 

 that is, the first shoot of the copsewood after it has 

 been cut. AYe had had snares set in this wood by the 

 road-side, and had captured an offender, and I made 

 no doubt these men were at the same game. They 

 seemed to be busily searching the runs, and were 

 coming directly towards me: so with my deer-dog 

 and retriever " Shark," the son of Smoker, I lay 

 down behind an old pollard stump. On they came ; 

 and intent as they were, their eyes on the ground, the 

 middle man of the three almost stepped upon me. 

 Up I jumped, my gun in the left hand, and with the 

 right I knocked him down, and then ran at the other 

 two. Off they set, different ways, one for the road and 

 one for the field between Dungey and Forty Acres. 

 I pursued the latter, taking care not to fall over the 

 stumps, while he, running wild, and in taking a flyer 

 at the wattled hedge out of the cover, caught his toe 

 in the top binder, and went headlong into the field. 

 Up he got, though worsted by the fall, and continued 

 his flight. I did not want to be put out of breath with 



