174 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



paths arises from the impossibility of stopping a suspicious 

 character at once. If he breaks through a hedge it is 

 different ; but the law is justly jealous of the subject's 

 liberty on a public footpath, and you cannot turn him back. 

 Neither is it of any use to search a man whose tools, 

 to a moral certainty, are concealed in some hedge. With 

 his hands in his pockets, and a short pipe in his mouth, 

 he can saunter along the side of a preserve if only a path, 

 as is often the case, follows the edge ; and by-and-by it 

 grows dusk,, and the keeper or keepers cannot be every- 

 where at once. There is nothing to prevent such fellows 

 as these from sneaking over an estate with a lurcher dog 

 at their heels — a kind of dog gifted with great sagacity, 

 nearly as swift as a greyhound, and much better adapted 

 for picking up the game when overtaken, which is the 

 greyhound's difficulty. They can be taught to obey the 

 faintest sign or sound from their owners. If the latter 

 imagine watchers to be about, the lurcher slinks along 

 close behind, keeping strictly to the path. Presently, if 

 the poacher but lifts his finger, away dashes the dog, and 

 will miss nothing he comes across. The lurcher has 

 always borne an evil repute, which of course is the due not 

 of the dog but of his master. If a man had to get his 

 living by the chase in Red Indian fashion, probably this 

 would be the best breed for his purpose. Many shepherds' 

 dogs now have a cross of the lurcher in their strain, and 

 are good at poaching. 



