MORE OF THE WILD DUCK FAMILY 239 



tioned, from the boundary of the sea-wall over the 

 saltings to the lowest ebb of the tide. The marshes 

 that the sea-wall protected were, so to speak, private 

 property, and this fact was known and respected. 

 On the beach itself you could shoot unquestioned 

 from highest water-mark to lowest tide, and over the 

 tide. The marsh laws were strict ones, and, if 

 necessary, they were fought out. Not that in all 

 cases might was right, or even that right invariably 

 proved to be might, but all who wilfully trespassed 

 on the marshes knew what they would have to put 

 up with if caught without a permit to be there. It 

 was exactly the same with the oyster-beds, or, as 

 they were called, oyster-grounds. There they were, 

 and there they could be seen at low tide, but they 

 were only there for their owners. One who did not 

 know better — at least he said he did not when he 

 found himself captured — gained the knowledge of 

 what sea-boots leather tasted like, before his captors 

 parted with him. As I saw that sea-boots perform- 

 ance through from beginning to end, I can safely 

 say that, if my eyesight can at all be trusted, it must 

 have been a very powerful and convincing perform- 

 ance, though scarcely pleasant for all who were 

 concerned in it. 



With the two exceptions I have mentioned of the 

 marshes and the oyster-grounds, the whole of the 

 beach and fore-shores beyond the sea-wall boundary 

 was free to the shore-shooters for a range extending 

 from Romney Marsh to within a short distance of 

 London town. All this is now altered, or rather 



