CATCHING MY FIRST POACHER. 59 



man down to the town from the wood. Mr. 

 Benjamin Fuller had my name cut in the bark 

 of the tree where I collared the poacher, and 

 there it remained for some years, until the 

 wood was cut down for timber to build a new 

 farm house and other buildings at Weedon 

 Hill, on the Doughty Tichborne farm. 



This Tuson was known to be a good plucked 

 'un, and a rough fighting man, who would 

 stand up for a good bout any day ; but it must 

 be borne in mind that he quite thought I knew 

 him when I fired my gun. Had I not been so 

 quick, and so frightened and unnerved him, he 

 could have flung me into the gorse with the 

 greatest ease, and made his escape, but fortune 

 favors the brave, and, maybe, the rash. When 

 we are up to evil and mischief, conscience 

 makes cowards of us all, and poor Tom proved 

 no exception to the rule. And thus ends the 

 story of how I caught my first poacher. 



I next went to Boxmoor, as keeper to the 

 Right Honourable Granville Dudley Ryder, of 

 Westbrook House, whose head keeper was Mr. 

 Ball. I was living there when the first train 



