SK. 



W3 



EDITORIAL NOTE. 



HE poacher of these " Confessions " is no im- 

 aginary being. In the following pages I have 

 set down nothing but what has come within 

 his own personal experience ; and, although the little book 

 is full of strange inconsistencies, I cannot, knowing the man, 

 call them by a harder name. Nature made old " Phil " 

 a Poacher, but she made him a Sportsman and a 

 Naturalist at the same time. I never met any man 

 who was in closer sympathy with the wild creatures 

 about him ; and never dog or child came within his 

 influence but what was permanently attracted by his 

 personality. Although eighty years of age there is still 

 some of the old erectness in his carriage ; some of the 

 old fire in his eyes. As a young man he was handsome, 

 though now his features are battered out of all original 

 conception. His silvery hair still covers a lion-like head, 

 and his tanned cheeks are hard and firm. If his life has 

 been a lawless one he has paid heavily for his wrong 

 doings. Great as a poacher, he must have been great 

 whatever he had been. In my boyhood he was the 

 hero whom I worshipped, and I hardly know that I 

 have gone back on my loyalty. 



M313145 



