or a German fiddle concerto); when I find others galloping over hedge and ditch, across a country purposely selected for affording a superabundance of such hair-breadth scapes, hazarding life and limb" in the imminent deadly breach," for no other ostensible object than the death of a stinking animal with a bushy tail; when I find others toiling through thickets, or wading up to the waist in water, in the hope of finding a bird with a long beak, or alluring a fish with a spotted side, in the most wearisome, or the most patient expectation; when I hear that the young nobies of the land go daily to thrust their fists, enveloped in leather and wool, in the faces of sturdy prize-fighters, or murder their mornings in striking a ball over a net, or into a purse; when every night they risk their fortunes, reputations, health, and happiness upon the chances of a piece of square ivory turning up on one or other side, or the finger of a moveable dial pointing this or that way, or on a ball settling into this or that hole-my lungs would crow like chanticleer, were it not that I at the same time know how much of vice and misery awaits these seekers after the excitement of sensation and their victimized connexions. But still is it not strange that man-" how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"-is it not strange that man, being, as he is," made after God's own image," should, in so many instances, wear out his life only for the paltry, the objectless purposes I have enumerated? But why? Aye, there's the rub! for the only reason to be given is, that it is a part of his instinct.

But to come back to whence we started-GAME. It is my intention to put on record some of the curious particulars and effects of this human instinct, and, if I may be so fortunate, to abate its bad, and advance its beneficial tendencies. Its grand evil is in the production of dispute and crime. Nothing can be so difficult as to persuade the owner of land that the game upon it is not exclusively his property (indeed, since it can be transferred by hire or sale, it is become virtually such) or the man who is not possessed of an acre that he has not a natural right to follow the fowl wheresoever he lists. Out of these contradictory claims-feelings we must rather say than claims-the mischief arises, for they are contended for with the earnestness with which a man supports his title to his property and his most coveted enjoyments. The passion often changes the whole disposition of the game-proprietor. Men of high intellect have been known to sacrifice the peace of their lives to their vigilance over their game. I could name one person whose morning and evening employment it was, for the better portion of his life, to direct his keepers and inquire into the transactions of the day. He preserved his pheasants till they died of old age, and not seldom of want, from the bounds to which they were restricted. The sound of a gun fevered him for the day and night; and, from the abundance of his coverts, and the incursions and hostility of trespassers and poachers, he at last went abroad even in open day in positive fear and trembling. Yet he seldom or never shot; and when friends were invited to sport, they were limited comparatively to very small quantities. Another nobleman of the same district, but not rich enough to levy an army of keepers, used in person to watch his fields, and ride up to every trespasser; and so much a matter of family consideration was strict preservation, that one day I was

dining on the grass upon a bordering manor, in company with a highborn young officer who visited in the family, and who had only the night before danced with one of his Lordship's daughters, when the carriage stopped, and a message from Lady requesting Major to come

to her in the adjoining road was delivered. The object was to entreat the Major not to stray upon Lord

-'s manor.

His Lordship soon after fell into a more ludicrous adventure. He saw a man shooting, galloped after and reached him just as the captain (on the recruiting service in one of the cities of the provinces) had shot a hare and jumped into the turnpike road. My Lord demanded his name; the Captain said that he should as soon expect to be required to deliver his purse, being upon the highway. My Lord persisted: the Captain demanded the name of the inquirer. "Lord Braymore." The Captain gave his in turn, "Stirling."""Stirling!" repeated the noble; "how do you spell it ?" Braymore!" (the nom de guerre we assign to the game-preserver;) "Braymore!" muttered the impenetrable campaigner; how do you spell it?" "B, R, A, Y, M, O, R, E, Sir," almost screamed the now highly-irritated querist. "Thank your Lordship," politely retorted Stirling. "You have the advantage of me: I am delighted to find that a peer of the realm can spell his own name, while I confess that, unluckily, I cannot spell mine:" and he left his noble friend ready to burst with rage and vexation. Yet upon all other matters there never was a better humoured man than Lord

But it is not to the privileged orders that this eternal irritation is confined. An honest merchant of my acquaintance has hired a manor since the passing of the new Game Act. He lives in the village, at a small distance from "his house of business" in the large town hard by. In his way thither and back all his thoughts and attention are limited to his partridges: if a gate be open, or a gap made in a fence, he attributes it to poachers. He inspects suspiciously every wretch having a bundle and every donkey-cart that passes, under the impression that they are employed in the conveyance of game; and when he can fix his mind upon his more important concerns by the way, his son frequently rouses him with," What the devil is that fellow about?" upon sight of same ragged itinerant, who must perforce be nothing but a poacher. He is harassed every morning by the kind information from some of his neighbours that the gang has been out, or sent off packages to town, and worried out of his sleep by the report of fire-arms.

The cost of game is truly astonishing. The steward of a great gamepreserving nobleman now dead, assured me that, exclusive of keepers, watch, and feeding, and all the etceteras of sporting, his master had sacrificed no less than 18,000l. a-year to the enormous head he kept. It seemed impossible, but it was thus accounted for: the estate consisted of 36,000 acres of land, and the average diminution of rents for the game was ten shillings per acre; i. e. the land with the ordinary quantity of game would have let for that amount more than it obtained. I had opportunity to inquire of his Lordship's heir and successor whether this was true; at first he said it was impossible, but on further investigation admitted it to be probable the amount did reach something near The charge of a game establishment-keepers*, watch, feed * One of the things that escape gentlemen is the gain by rabbits, which were once always, and are now often, given to keepers as perquisites. One instance has fallen

the sum.

for the pheasants (independent of lowered rents), dogs, taxes, powder and shot-amounts, according to its extent, to a sum averaging from a thousand a year downwards; it is rarely less than 300l. No gentleman who preserves, kills a pheasant under two guineas, or in my judgment even a greater sum*.

Were every mere sportsman, gentle or simple, to compute accurately, he would find his shooting stands him in from ten to twenty shillings per diem, according to the frequency, upon the average of those who take out a license. Those who do not keep accounts have no notion of these facts; those who do, are generally prudent enough to conceal them.

Future generations will scarcely believe that in an age boasting its superior illumination-in an age when not alone the superiority of intellectual satisfactions was the universal theme, but a contempt of sporting and sportsmen very often and very powerfully expressed by the master spirits of the time-future generations will scarcely believe that predatory parties of the lower classes have perilled their lives, persons, and liberties have forfeited every thing like character, and been hunted from the haunts of decent men, to the total sacrifice of every solace in life, save beastly intoxication-have united in gangs or stalked solitarily and in darkness, to snatch a pheasant, hare, or partridge, of which the sale was scarcely less difficult or dangerous than the capture; still less will posterity credit that nobles and gentry have kept on foot companies of men equal almost in number to the free-lances or the freebooters of ancient days, to protect the animals of chace. Such, nevertheless, is the fact. I have known more than one nobleman and gentleman (I know two at this moment) who have constantly on foot bands of from sixty to an hundred watch, ready at a moment's notice to turn out. I was once present when the alarm of poachers was given. The men assembled, marched in dead silence to the spot where the enemy were supposed to be met; at the same instant sixty-six leaped over a fence into the nook, and surrounded the party, who proved to be smugglers, and consequently no objects for their caption. I stood at my own door and heard thirty-six shots fired in twenty minutes, between eleven and twelve at night, in a neighbouring plantation, by a gang of poachers,

under my cognizance where the admitted kill is 40,000 annually, and the real total was probably much larger. A keeper bought an estate in my neighbourhood with the produce of the rabbit skins even upon a comparatively small domain, which was nick-named by the inhabitants of the place," Coney-skin Hall." Indeed, in all cases, the perquisites of keepers are shamefully extravagant. It is common to give a sovereign after a day's diversion. Two keepers have retired from the service of one gentleman with whom I am acquainted, with ten and fourteen thousand pounds, after about twenty years' service. I have the fact from the master himself.

The present Lord Suffield, of Gunton Park, in Norfolk, says in his pamphlet (incomparably the best ever written upon the subject, and which probably gave the impulse to ministers that carried the present law), twenty shillings; but I am sure he does not come near the truth. He himself shows an account by which corn to the amount of 1447. 18s. was given in one year to pheasants. The great item of charge is, however, in the diminution of rent. Where the scope is very extensive, and the quantity killed enormous, perhaps like other vast manufactories, they produce pheasants as pounds of cotton thread, at a less cost; but take the average, small proprietors and great, and I am persuaded not a pheasant can be reared for much less than is stated in the text. Hares and rabbits are infinitely more destructive, and therefore more costly, but these are not so much articles of computation, because neither so rare nor of such luxury as pheasants. Twelve rabbits, the farmers say, consume as much as one sheep.

who it was found consisted of thirty-two men, eight of whom it was averred carried guns loaded with ball, for the keepers, not the pheasants. When they left the coverts, they told themselves off by each man calling his number in the hearing of the watch (upwards of twenty), who avoided to attack them. Twelve of this same gang visited the woods of a neighbouring nobleman. A young farmer, as athletic and active as he proved chivalrously gallant, attacked them with seven of his servants; at the first onset six of his men fled, and left him and his trusty follower to stand or fall by themselves; the man was soon felled by the blows of the poachers, when the master, with the courage of a warrior, bestrode him, and used a six-foot fork-shaft with such vigour that he kept the assailants at bay, till, in admiration of his noble spirit, they began a parley, and offered him an undisturbed retreat. He stipulated to bear off his assistant, and they allowed him to retire. Preparatory to their excursion, the poachers had armed themselves with peamakes (a long staff with a curved knife at the end, with which peas are cut), and these they restored to the barn from which they had taken them, with a song descriptive of the action, composed by the daughter of one of the leaders, and which, on a subsequent night, they sung in chorus on their march to a neighbouring preserve. It was stated in this composition that the poachers had ten guns and three brace of pistols, all "loaden for the frey*."

Some years ago a relative of a noble game-preserver, on his way from a party at the mansion, heard the report of guns, and returned to rouse the servants. They came up with the gang and took one man, who had been wounded by a spring-gun, and was placed upon an ass. Το keep him from fainting by loss of blood, his companions had given him gin, and he was more than half-drunk. While in this state he betrayed his comrades, and they were all taken the next morning, subsequently tried, and several were transported for life. It came out that the captain of the gang was the bugler of a volunteer rifle corps commanded by the nobleman that he had made a regular light infantry disposition of his men in the retreat, and that they had sworn an oath not to be taken, but to kill or be killed. This man levelled at the keeper within half a dozen

*The poachers of Yorkshire and Lancashire seem to be the most desperate; and independently of the fact that they assemble in open day to the number of from 100 to 300, and even more, en grande chasse, they have been by far the most murderous at night. Mr. Bradshaw, of Worsley, states in his evidence before the Committee of the Lords, that his keepers pursuing a party of three, "one of the men turned round, and immediately shot him through the body, without exchanging a word." Lord Skelmersdale says, "The first act committed by those poachers in general, whether they meet a large party of watchers, or whether they meet the gamekeeper alone, is almost uniformly to fire at them; there have been several instances of that sort in the course of the winter 1826-27. In the calendar of the assizes, which are at this moment going on at Lancaster, there are several cases; one of four persons, who are charged with having shot at a gamekeeper and wounded him in the arm, and three others charged with abetting and assisting them; and there is another charged, with divers persons at present unknown, with having shot at a gamekeeper of Lord Sefton's, with intent to murder, disable, or do him harm. In the course of the last few months, the gamekeeper of a Mr. Deardon, near Rochdale, was murdered at noon-day, on the Moors near Rochdale. The keeper of a Mr. Willis has been shot at in a desperate affray, and the keeper of Sir John Gerard has been wounded, and one of Mr. Hulton's, of Hulton Park, has been twice violently beaten. It is a matter of frequent occurrence that large parties of poachers go out in too considerable numbers to fear any molestation on the part of the gamekeepers."

yards, but struck with remorse, he lifted the gun above his head at the moment he pulled the trigger.

There is no little of hardy bravery sometimes displayed in these desperate conflicts. In my own parish, a keeper by birth, parentage, and education, of small but vigorous make, active, and fearless, led an attack upon a gang of poachers consisting of twelve men-his party numbering only eight. Upon approaching the ruffians, who drew up in a line across a road in the cover, they shouted, "Come on, we are ready for you!" It happened fortunately that the keeper and his men were courageous and staunch, one man particularly so, a young forester. They darted into the line, broke it by blows given right and left, and the battle joined. Each man singled his opponent, and the young forester struck one a tremendous blow on the side of the head just above the ear. It told in its unbroken strength, and the man fell. Two others were showering their strokes upon one of his fellows; he leaped over the fallen man to the rescue. The attacked fled, and he pursued one poacher till he was lost in the darkness of the covert. He turned upon another adversary. The man made a stand, but he was beaten backwards against rising ground; he fell and was secured. In the mean time the keeper had overthrown his opponent, the rest had got off, and the two, terribly cut about the face and head, remained prisoners. They looked in vain for the man first struck down. It came out afterwards that, on the partial recovery of his senses, he crept into some thick laurels, where he lay till the combat ceased, when he was joined by some of his comrades. They assisted him to the town where he lived, three miles off, but a portion of his brain oozed through his skull by the way, and he returned home only to die. The collar-bone of the keeper was broken, and he owed his preservation from a similar fate to a hat constructed like a bee-hive, the indentations on which bore testimony to the severity of the blows that had been given him. The keepers fought with stout cudgels, the poachers with their guns, two of which were shivered to atoms in the fray. There is something exciting in the darkness and adventure of these engagements that animates the keepers in a way which assimilates to the cutting out boats in the nautical, and night assaults in the military service.

I will cite one more instance from the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons:-" Mr. John Stafford, chief clerk at Bow-street police-office, examined.

"Are there any particular cases which you can mention, which have come within your knowledge, of particular atrocity?

"A. I think one of the worst cases that I recollect, and that was a pretty early one (in the year 1816), was the case in Gloucestershire, where there was a large gang thoroughly organized, and bound together by secret oaths, that attacked the keepers belonging to the Berkeley estate, near Berkeley Castle. Vickery, who was a very intelligent officer, was sent down upon that occasion, and from his exertions and the assistance he met with in the neighbourhood, he was enabled to bring the whole gang, or pretty nearly so, to justice: it consisted of about twenty; there were thirteen or fourteen of them, I think, tried and convicted of the murder. A man of the name of William Ingram, one of the principal keepers, was shot dead upon the spot; another of the keepers had an eye shot out; another was shot through the knee, and