62 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RED DEER 



A more ambitious effort found a place in the 

 church of St. Nicholas, Nottingham, to the credit of 

 a once famous poacher : 



Here lies a marksman, who, with art and skill, 



When young and strong, fat bucks and does did kill. 



Now conquered by grim death (go reader tell it) 



He's now took leave of powder, gun, and pellet ; 



A fatal dart, which in the dark did fly, 



Has laid him down among the dead to lie. 



If any want to know the poor slave's name, 



'Tis Old Tom Booth, ne'er ask from whence he came. 



He's hither sent ; and surely such another 



Ne'er issued from the belly of a mother. 



This epitaph was composed some time before the 

 hero's death, and so delighted was he with it, that 

 he had it graven upon a stone in anticipation of his 

 own demise. He died in 1752, in his seventy-fifth 

 year. 



