NEW FOREST POACHERS 221 



cover or anywhere else, he halloed, " Mark, sir ! " to a hen- 

 pheasant or grey-hen as eagerly as to anything else, and looked 

 disappointed as well as astonished, in the first place, at my not 

 firing, and, in the second, on a suggestion that I might be 

 tempted to thrash him if he halloed to the hen-bird again. 

 One day after shooting, I asked one of these fellows if the 

 gentleman, that I knew he usually beat for, was careful as 

 to what he shot ; the man grinned and said, " Everything's a 

 cock, sir, as rises." With this quaint assurance I was contented. 

 More recently, on stopping at a woodman's lodge to put up my 

 horse, while I beat the Holmesley enclosure then thrown open, 

 I saw a quantity of game feathers lying on the grass ; so 

 I exclaimed to the old man, " What, Bromfield, do you keep 

 cats to kill the game .'' " " No, sir," he replied, " those feathei-s 

 be from the gentleman's game-bag what shot here yesterday ; 

 he shook his bag there." On this I inspected them closely, and 

 found that, though there were hen and cock pheasant feathers, 

 the majority of the collection were from different grey-hens. 

 I knew this as well as anybody, but not choosing specially to 

 rely on my own judgment, I enclosed some of the grey-hen's 

 feathers to Mr. Cumberbatch, at New Park, with a request that 

 they might be shown to the most experienced keepers in the 

 locality, who would determine for me what feathers they were. 

 The reply to this was, "The feathers from more than one grey-hen, 

 certainly." I then told him where I had found them, and whence 

 they came. In addition to this, I had reason to suppose that 

 some persons, holding the shooting licence under the Crown, wei'e 

 in the habit of killing the game therein without the usual game 

 certificate or tax, to enable them legally to possess the right 

 anywhere ; and as in my eyes it was a double offence to hold a 

 gracious permission under her Majesty, and yet to evade the 

 demands of her revenue, I ordered my men to be on the watch ; 

 and I resolved myself to show up the first offender that came 

 within my knowledge ; in this resolution I was joined by several 

 other gentlemen. A conviction took place, and the person so 

 convicted on that account forfeited his licence ; in my opinion 



