146 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



as their illegal avocation went, on the unprotected lands of Lord 

 de Grey and Mr. Alston. Some time after I came to Harrold 

 the Rev. Mr. Magenis, who then lived at Sharnbrook, had the 

 shooting under Lord de Grey of the Harrold Woods, and put 

 on a man named Coles, who was called a gamekeeper. Coles 

 was not a gamekeeper, because he was hardly ever sober, and 

 consequently much neglected his business. The Harrold Woods 

 were only separated from the Odell Woods, attached to Harrold 

 Hall, by a high road ; so that my preserve might be said to join 

 the woods over which Coles was supposed to attend to the 

 interests of the game. 



One morning in winter my keeper, William Savage, came to 

 me with a face of consternation, stating that the gang of 

 poachers for whom we had been on the look-out had paid Mr. 

 Magenis's woods a visit, and had shot his keeper, Coles. Directly 

 I heard of it I despatched a letter to Mr. Magenis to say, that 

 if myself or any of my men could aid him in searching for the 

 offenders, we were all at his service. On this we communicated 

 further. Coles, with one of his arms shattered to pieces, was 

 sent to the infirmary at Bedford ; and his life being in imminent 

 danger, his deposition under the circumstances was carefully 

 taken. Now, in all cases of murder any observant person must 

 have seen that there is invariably the finger of heaven, I know 

 not how I can more aptly describe it, pointed in the right 

 direction. Some circumstance in no wise resulting from any 

 evidence of man, hangs on the guilty skirts, dogs the murderer's 

 heels, and tends to put the avenger of blood on a scent which 

 ends in retributive justice. I had often held conversation with 

 the wounded man as to the poachers, and we both of us 

 suspected that they came from Bozeat. My astonishment was 

 great, therefore, when Coles repudiated the idea that he had 

 been shot by those men ; his words were, " No, they were not 

 Bozeat men ; Fm sure they came from Carleton," a village close 

 to Harrold Hall. I then asked why he suspected the Carleton 

 men, and if he thought he had ever seen the men before, or, in 

 short, what put the belief into his head. The reply to this 



