A LIFE STORY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 138, 7 December 1935, Page 14

A LIFE STORY

KING OF THE POACHERS

CHAMPION OF VILLAGERS

EEFOEMED AT LAST

Miss Lilias Rider Haggard has edited the story of an old poacher, written by himself, and which is published under the title of "I Walked by Night," says "Public Opinion." It is impossible to justify poaching, but there is no doubt that in days gone by the attitude of some of the landlords and farmers caused a certain amount of sympathy even with the wrong-doers. The writer is jocosely styled the King of the Poachers, and he certainly was not only an adept at his profession, but at times had a sense of humour. "There was a Clever Chap," he writes, "and he got thorns and all the Busshes he could colect, and made Burrers for Rabbits on a medaw. Then he bought a lot of tame rabbitts and got some wild ones to run with them in fact, they Bread very fast. Well, he was goen to have all the Publicans and Shop keepers down on Boxing Day to turn the place over, and he stood to make a bit out of it. He watched this place and the Rabbitts very carefully, but a day or so befor Christmas, we got bussy and went and put the nets round that field, and scopped the lot. Of corse they all come as arranged, and turned the Place over, but the game was gone, and that chap had a good bit to say. "I got the creditt for it as I did evry other Job at that time, wether I was in it or not, but.as the Rabbitts were and found by that book there were a think, Dear Reader, from what I have told you, that every skeme came ofl" that I tried for, far from it. ... THE SSTMPATHETIC JUDGE. "I did not always get off like that. I was in a wood one night, and had had a few shots when I walked into four Keepers. Of corse I knew I was beat that time; I had not a chance, and was willing to give in, but they knocked me about with sticks and kicked me most onmercifuL Then they got a cart from the farm near by, and took me to the lock up and left me. "The next morning I was nearly Dead, so bad that -the Police had to send for the Doctor, and wen he looked at me he ordered me to be taken to Lyn Ospitall. I had a verry bad cut head and a -Brused Boddy. "I stayed there for a fortnight, and wen I was able to get about and got my Discharge, a'Policeman was waiting for me, and I had to go back to Grimstone Lock up. My head was still bandaged up, and wen the Maderstrates saw me I think they had some pitty, as they asked me if I wold be tried there or go to the Sessions. As I had only a week to wait I went to the Sessions. "Well, wen it come to it the Keepers swore that I had put up a terrible fight —thretried to shoot them aiid all that. The Judge did not believe them, but as I was Poaching I had to get it, bat he let me oft with twenty-one days, and told the Keepers that they had behaved verry cruele to me. T was sent back to Norwich—to the New Prison on Mousehold this time, but they gave me no task'there as I was still verry sore. I think the Judge had something to do with that. ; , ? "Well, the Head Keeper got Hie sack .. ; he should not have'- allowed, the other ones to have knocked me about as they did, I suppose they thought. that they were getten some of there own back on me, for all the .tricks I had played them, but that never stopped me. . . . The life of a Poacher is anything but a happy one; still, it is exciting at times, and the excitement go a long way to sothe his conscience if it trubble him." A VILLAGE HAMPDEN. At times the poacher took on the role of a village Hampden. "The Parish where I was born had a great lot 'of ' Comon land enclosed," writes the King of the Poachers.' ''The money for the rents of those Comons was suposed to go to the Parishners in the shape of Coals at Christmas time, but evry year it kept getten lower and lower. It happened one day that a friend of mine came across the Histry of .the Charities of Norfolk, in a very old book. I had a look at it and found b ythat book there were a lot of things to do with the villige lands and monies that the People did not know about or had forgot., "... It did not take me long to get a lot of the People together and tell them of these things which 1 thought they should know. "Some would say, 'I have heard my father talk about them things.' The Comons used to bring in a matter of fifty Pounds a year as the great Eastern Railway cut through the Comons and paid twenty-five pounds a year for that ground." A parish meeting was officially called, and the author goes on:— "The meeting was held in a Barn, and they started off by asking what it was he wanted. I had an Endipident Gentleman at my back, and the shop keepers" and some small tradesmen and all the Parish. Some one suggested there should be a Cheerman, and I was elected. I told the Gentlemen what this meeting was Called for—we wanted to know where those lost Charyties were gone to and what had become of the money. "The Lawyer he got up and wanted to know what I knew about lost Charyties, so I shewed him my book, and read out of it to all the meeting what was due to the Parish of Pentney from the lands that had been, left to them in the old days, by them that was dead and gone." "HAD HIM THERE." "The Lawyer wanted to tell us that all those things had been dropt so long that they could not be brought back again, but I had him there all right. There was a lady lived in the Parish in the early part of the Eighteenth Century, and she built four Cottages on some waste land. The rents of these cottages were left to the Parish to provide so much bread to each house, and a half-crown to every Widow, to be distributed on St. Thomas morning in every year. All this had died out, and I wanted to know where those rents had gone to. The Gentleman farmer collected them that I did know, but he did not seem to want to tell me what he did with the money. When he was pressed he tell he said he took the monies to the Church. "There was also a plot of land which had been left to the Parish for ever, so that the incombe from it might bind two of the children from the bigest families in the villige to a trade as aprentices. "Besides all these there was another twelve Acres of land, the rent of which had been left to be distributed to the poor, in the shape of Blankets and other wares to be given at Christmas time. As it happened, according to ■the bequest, they should have been distributed at this same Gentleman farmer's house. The Farm belonged to a Lady by the name of Thackery (were this Gentleman lived), and was called Ashwood Lodge. I believe his Grandfather and Father had farmed the land before him. but now I believe the family have all died out. Of course, he,.knew all about them things—the!

Gentleman farmer 1 mean, but it suited him not to say too. much. Dumb as a Mawkin Ucarecrow) he were. TURNED KEEPER, "Of corse the Lawyer blustered and thretned and all that, and said he would have the Poor. Law Comisners down, and that if they did come the Parish would have to pay for thenj. Be that as it may, the next year wen the time came round, the Dole Cole came to a ton, and the Blankets and all the other things were given to the verry old people in the village as had been meant by those as had left the money." The phrase "poacher turned keeper" was justified in the author's case, and he is equally amusing in this capacity. "I had to put up with a lot some times," he writes. "My plan if I found the men were putting' snars about as they often would, was to stay by them till the man come to take them up, and then tell him if I caught him'any more I should report him, and that mostly finished that trubble.' "I beleve in barkin befor biten. "I well remember my 'first case up at Grimstone Petty Sessions, as in the past it had been me that had been the other side of the dock so to speak. It was a case of Poaching, and the man was a chap that used to think he could do as he liked with me,- only he found it his mistake. I had warned him many a time, and he would give me some verry insulting language, till at last I was forced to summon him. I

"When my case was called on of corse my name was called at Prosacuter. Sir W. Bagg was in the Chair, and he looked at me, as of corse I had been well known there but not quite in the same Position I occupyed that day. Then he asked me if I was the man that had been befor them many times. I told him I was. 'Well,' he said, 'Its a long lane that never turns.' and with that he wished me the best of luck"