THE MASTER POACHERS OF ENGLAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 29

THE MASTER POACHERS OF ENGLAND

Albert Ebenezer Fox, whose death was recorded in a brief paragraph in the London Press, is worthy of a more stately funereal pile, says the "Manchester Guardian." He was a master of Ms craft, and with his twin brother, Ebenezer Albert Fox, was the finest poacher an English woodland has ever produced. What they did not know about poaching on the Earl of Strathmore's estate and other lands in Herts was not worth knowing, and when the 3' were caught, as they often were, they found a sure defence in mistaken identity. They never went poaching together! If. Albert Ebenezer was caught he gave the name of Ebenezer Albert, challenged the evidence of the constable who arrested him, and having produced his brother in Court audaciously asked, "Now, constable, will you swear it was me and not that brother of mine you stopped on that black night?" Time and again the constable hesitated and was lost, and Ebenezer Albert —or was it Albert Ebenezer?—escaped with a caution.

Both the twins were brought up to attend chapel and Sunday school, and the training stood them in good stead in their later and less worthy years. It was Ebenezer Albert whom the Magistrate told that, though neither gun nor birds were found on him, it could not be believed that he was not after game in the woods that night. What had he to say? " "Listen to me," said Ebenezer Albert. "I went into the wood that night because I' wanted to meditate upon the Baptist Hymnbook." And amid the uncontrollable laughter of the Bench he pulled from his pocket the Baptist Hymn-book that his father had given him sixty years before.' ■ •

It was no use for a landowner to bribe the brothers to "keep off." One lady of the manor offered Albert Ebenezer a pound a- week and a brace of pheasants every week during the season if he would respect her preserves. Albert Ebenezer gave the promise and took the game. But he sent Ebenezer Albert in his place.