164 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



two or more roads meet — broad bands of green sward 

 running beside the highway, and the remnants of what 

 in former days were commons ; and here the bird- 

 catcher plies his trade. It so happens that these very 

 waste places are often the most favourite resorts of 

 goldfinches, for instance, who are particularly fond of 

 thistledown, and thistles naturally chiefly flourish on 

 uncultivated land. These men, and the general class 

 of loafers, have a wholesome dread of gamekeepers, 

 who look on them with extreme suspicion. 



The farmers and rural community at large hardly 

 give the gamekeeper his due as a protection against 

 thieves and mischievous rascals. The knowledge 

 that he may at any time come round the corner, even 

 in the middle of the night, has a decidedly salutary 

 effect upon the minds of those who are prowling 

 about. Intoxicated louts think it fine fun to unhinge 

 gates, and let cattle and horses stray abroad, to tear 

 down rails, and especially to push the coping-stones 

 off the parapets of the bridges which span small 

 streams. They consider it clever to heave these over 

 with a splash into the water, or to throw down half a 

 dozen yards of ' dry wall/ In many places fields 

 are commonly enclosed by the roadside with such 

 walls, which are built of a flat stone dug just beneath 

 the surface, and used without mortar. There are 



