with the offence most unjustly. But even if the real poacher be detected and brought before the local bench, the trick is now so well known that a direct question put to the keeper, either by the defendant or by some magistrate on the bench, will elicit the truth or a suspicion of it, when a dismissal of the case will almost surely follow, and a crafty poacher add another escape to his long list of 'narrow shaves' and another wrinkle for future defence to an experience already sufficiently comprehensive; while the keeper, who has spent much time and trouble over the case, earns nothing by his superabundant zeal except rebuke and disappointment.
From the sportsman's point of view, the best and most appreciable form of poaching is that done by the aid of trained lurchers; for some of these dogs, however reprehensible may be the use made of them, are among the best sporting animals ever trained. Wiry and hard, with speed enough to turn a good hare or to catch a weak one, with excellent noses, and with intelligence to make the best use of both qualities, a first-class lurcher can be converted into a 'game destroyer' of powerful calibre. Such dogs were not uncommon in Norfolk some twenty-five years ago, and the best of them commanded high prices, save when its owner had got 'into trouble,' and the poor
