216 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



gipsies stand alone ; and it often happens that all the 

 knowledge and craft of the one class is pitted against 

 the cunning and knowledge of the other. Between 

 keepers and gipsies it is always war. 



The keeper detests nothing more than a gipsies' 

 camp. His eyes take no more pleasure in their red 

 rags spread on the bushes than might the eyes of a 

 bull. A gipsy camp means to the keeper so much 

 dirt, so much thieving, so many lies, so much the 

 more trouble, and so many the fewer rabbits in his 

 preserves. The gipsies' cauldron, steaming at dusk 

 over a fragrant fire of wood, brings only the bitter 

 knowledge that some of the birds or beasts he is 

 paid to preserve are stewing in the pot. Speak to 

 him of gipsies, and scorn flashes in his eyes, anger 

 flushes on his face. " They be always a-shirking about 

 wi' a dog or two, perkin' into everything," an old 

 keeper once said to us. " They can't let nothing 

 bide." 



A gipsy brought to trial for larceny made oath 

 that his law allowed him to take as much from others 

 every day as sufficed for his maintenance. That 

 was more than three hundred years ago ; and gipsies 

 still faithfully believe in and take advantage of that 

 law. In our experience, we have known one gipsy 

 who was honest ; he was famous for his honesty. 

 His blameless character was so much appreciated 

 that he was allowed to pitch his tent in an old ox- 

 drove, where it ran past a sheltering wood. Within 

 the wood the keeper had buried four-dozen traps ; 



