I02 The Amateur Poacher 



swearing. As it is just within the limit of a borough, 

 almost all the cottagers have votes, and are not to be 

 trifled with. The proximity of horse-racing establish- 

 ments adds to the general atmosphere of dissipation. 

 Betting, card-playing, ferret-breeding and dog-fancy- 

 ing, poaching and politics, are the occupations of the 

 populace. A little illicit badger-baiting is varied by 

 a little vicar-baiting ; the mass of the inhabitants are 

 the reddest of Reds. Que voulez-vous ? 



The edges of some large estates come up near, 

 but the owners would hardly like to institute a persecu- 

 tion of these turbulent folk. If they did, where would 

 be their influence at the next election ? If a land- 

 lord makes himself unpopular, his own personal value 

 depreciates. He is a nonentity in the committee- 

 room, and his help rather deprecated by the party 

 than desired. The Sarsen fellows are not such fools 

 as to break pheasant preserves in the vale ; as they 

 are resident, that would not answer. They keep out- 

 side the sanctum sanctorum of the pheasant coverts. 

 But with ferret, dog, and gun, and now and then a 

 partridge net along the edge of the standing barley 

 they excel. So, too, with the wire ; and the broad 

 open Downs are their happy hunting grounds, es- 

 pecially in misty weather. 



This is the village of the apple-bloom, the loveliest 



