MYSTERIOUS SCARCITY OF GAME. 211 



of these attacks. He is accused of trapping hares and 

 rabbits : he sets the traps so close to the preserves that 

 the pheasants are frequently caught and mortally injured ; 

 he is suspected of laying poisoned grain about. Not con- 

 tent with this he carries his malice so far as to cause the 

 grass or other crops in which outlying nests or young 

 broods are sheltered to be cut before it is ripe, with the 

 object of destroying or driving them away ; and he 

 presents the mowers whose scythes mutilate game with a 

 quart of beer as reward, or furnishes his shepherds with 

 lurchers for poaching. He encourages the gipsies to 

 encamp in the neighbourhood and carry on nightly 

 expeditions by allowing them the use of a field in which 

 to put their vans and horses. With such accounts as these, 

 supported by what looks like evidence, the blackleg keeper 

 gradually works his employer into a state of intense 

 irritation, meantime reaping the reward of the incorruptible 

 guardian and shrewd upright servitor. 



At the same time, in the haze of suspicion he has 

 created, the rascal finds a cloak for his own misdeeds. 

 These poachers, trespassers, gipsies, foxes, and refractory 

 tenants afford a useful excuse to account for the compara- 

 tive scarcity of game. ' What on earth has become of the 

 birds, and where the dickens are the hares ? ' asks the angry 

 proprietor. In the spring he recollects being shown by 

 the keeper, with modest pride, some hundreds of young 

 pheasants, flourishing exceedingly. Now he finds the 



