CHAPTER II. 



MY FIRST AFFRAY WITH POACHERS. 



\ T THEN I was a lad of thirteen, my first serious 

 * * encounter with poachers occurred. 

 Father had received warning that three or four 

 poachers were coming", one night, to steal 

 some tame pheasants that were in the meadow, 

 close by our house. I had seen five men go up 

 from Chesham to Hyde Heath Common, and 

 watched them into the Wheat Sheaf Inn, 

 by the Devil's Den, Beech Wood, the pro- 

 perty of Mr. Lowndes, of Bury House, 

 Chesham. Beech Wood was more usually 

 called " The Den." One of the men was 



