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The Amateur Poacher
The Amateur Poacher
In this work the poacher's character is noway minced. Poaching is no longer an amusement, but a hard, prosaic business, a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence, requiring a long-headed, shrewd fellow, with a power of silence, capable of a delicacy of touch which almost raises poaching into a fine art.
Book Excerpt
ce and sailed away. Then, looking out again, there was a pair
of ears in the grass not ten yards distant: a rabbit had come out at
last. But the first delight was quickly over: the ears were short and
sharply pointed, and almost pinkly transparent.
What would the shepherd say if I brought home one of his hated enemies no bigger than a rat? The young rabbit made waiting still more painful, being far enough from the hedge to get a clear view into the recess if anything attracted his notice. Why the shepherd hated rabbits was because the sheep would not feed where they had worn their runs in the grass. Not the least movement was possible now--not even that little shifting which makes a position just endurable: the heat seemed to increase; the thought of Ulysses could hardly restrain the almost irresistible desire to stir.
When, suddenly, there was a slight rustling among the boughs of an oak in the other hedge, as of wings against twigs: it was a woodpigeon, better game than a rabbit. He would, I knew, fir
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3.7
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Was given a copy as a kid - the Magic of communing with nature and bringing home "one for the pot" is intertwined in a lovely writing style - Brilliant, Brilliant book !
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An excellent, fascinating book. Nonfiction, describing country life among country people in England in the days before autos ruined everything. The narrator, although he mingles freely with the uneducated, has a fine feeling for the beauties of nature and the pleasures of hunting, especially when it is done illegally. Well worth reading carefully.
04/15/2012
This book is an anachronism. As irrelevent as an ancient book of recipes using human flesh. This book does not deserve a place in a civilised world where wild life conservation is the mantra. Let us give it a quiet burial. Dont even attempt to read it.
01/06/2011
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