THE HARE AND HER TROD 6^ 



thousands of pounds. This revenue is expended 

 in supporting the public-houses of our towns and 

 villages ; the publicans have no better patrons than 

 acknowledged poachers. An interesting article about 

 poaching recently appeared in the Nineteenth Century} 

 I was much pleased with its perusal, especially when 

 I came across the naive remark that 'from varying 

 causes poaching has become almost a lost art.' Such 

 a consummation is to be devoutly wished ; but I 

 am sadly afraid that it will hardly arrive before the 

 millennium. I handle, so to speak, hundreds of 

 poachers, and have often tried to persuade them to 

 abandon their wicked ways ; but I confess that I have 

 met with very few reformed poachers. The instinct 

 to kill game is itself a survival from the habits of our 

 remote forefathers, among whom the cleverest trappers 

 of the community were those who exercised most 

 influence w^th their fellows. Rich and poor share 

 this instinct alike. The well-to-do man pays for his 

 ' shoot.' The labourer cannot afford to pay for it ; 

 so he makes it pay him instead. Of course poaching 

 is just as dishonest as any other kind of theft ; but 

 you cannot induce ignorant men to see the heinousness 

 of it. The result of poaching is bad every way. It 

 unsettles a man, makes him deceitful, encourages him 

 - ' Nineteenth Century^ 1893? p*. 470. • . 



