With nature and a camera

Chapter IV. Gamekeepers: their friends and foes

The genuine poacher

The life of a gamekeeper who knows his duty and does it conscientiously is by no means the sinecure some people imagine. For, in addition to destroying troublesome vermin of all kinds, he has to circumvent the plans of men who often know quite as much as himself. With the genuine poacher, who is well-versed in field-craft and matches his wits squarely against those of the gamekeeper and the wild creatures he desires to capture, I must frankly confess to a great deal of sympathy, for he is often impelled by the same instincts as the best sportsman, whose privileges he lacks the enjoyment of, frequently by a mere accident of birth.

Partridge on nest

I have known such men personally, and in their characters there was not any other moral kink whatsoever. One such fell upon evil days mainly through the ruin of his health by exposure, and was at last compelled to pawn his trusty gun in a small provincial town. As it was not redeemed within the allotted period of time it was placed in the window for sale. The decrepit poacher happened to be hobbling past one day on two sticks, and after eyeing his old single-barrel wistfully for a few moments the tears began to trickle down his weather-beaten face, and he walked sorrowfully away.

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But this is only one side of the picture. In addition to thwarting the incursions of men who go poaching in response to natural instincts, gamekeepers, especially near large industrial centres, have to face gangs of despicably cowardly ruffians who know next-to-nothing of the habits of the game they go after, and are impelled by exactly the same motives as would send them to housebreaking.

As a result of various encounters with this class of poacher, the gamekeeper whom I have just mentioned had his hands scarred from savage bites and his temples disfigured by kicks from inhuman brutes, besides carrying in his body more than forty pellets of shot deliberately fired at him by a dastard whom he was pressing too closely in a fair open chase.