The Autobiography of a Poacher. Edited by Caractacus. (John Macqueen.
6s.)—This is really not a novel, but what its title declares, the autobiography of a man still living, who made poaching his " profession," until it was suggested to him to change his calling and become gamekeeper. The experience and testimony of Mr. John Holcombe confirm Kingsley's dictum that "a gamekeeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a gamekeeper turned inside out." Marriage and advancing years made it desirable, in course of time, to abide in lawful callings, and Mr. Holcombe finally settled into the business of keeping a public-house. But to this day he looks back with the greatest pleasure on the part of his life that was spent in shooting stags, netting pheasants, and wiring hares, and making by the sale of stolen game a comfortable livelihood in days when living was a much harder matter for the poor than it is now. " It must be remembered that fifty or sixty years ago, hard work did not pay. Farmers were bent on making money, and if the labourer re- ceived seven shillings a week, it was considered as much as ho was worth. The villages were bursting with folks. Nearly every cottage was clogged with boys and girls growing up, And they all had to live somehow. The price of broad was high. I have known it up to thirteenpence a loaf. As for butcher's meat, it was an unheard-of luxury. What was more natural, then, than that puzzled chaps, with no brains for making their way in the world, should help themselves now and again to wild creatures, both birds and beasts ? " But all this Mr. Holcombe urges, not in self-defence, but in excuse for his poor friends, " many of whom would have preferred to be honest." For his own part, he liked the career: he delighted in the sport and excelled in it; took his frequent "three months" in gaol with intrepidity, and came out again to begin again without a night's respite. He belongs to the West Country, and Devonshire readers will find plenty of local colour in his reminiscences. The book is hardly one to he put into the hands of the class that takes to poaching, even in our day. But for the rest of us it is a plain statement of the other side of the question, and a chronicle of smart adventure not to be despised.
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