Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I THE FIRST GUN
- CHAPTER II THE OLD PUNT: A CURIOUS ‘TURNPIKE’
- CHAPTER III TREE-SHOOTING: A FISHING EXPEDITION
- CHAPTER IV EGG-TIME: A ‘GIP’-TRAP
- CHAPTER V WOODLAND TWILIGHT: TRAITORS ON THE GIBBET
- CHAPTER VI LURCHER-LAND: ‘THE PARK’
- CHAPTER VII OBY, AND HIS SYSTEM: THE MOUCHER's CALENDAR
- CHAPTER VIII CHURCHYARD PHEASANTS: BEFORE THE BENCH
- CHAPTER IX LUKE, THE RABBIT-CONTRACTOR: THE BROOK PATH
- CHAPTER X FARMER WILLUM'S PLACE: SNIPE-SHOOTING
- CHAPTER XI FERRETING: A RABBIT-HUNTER
- CHAPTER XII A WINTER NIGHT: OLD TRICKS: PHEASANT-STALKING: MATCHLOCK VERSUS BREECHLOADER: CONCLUSION
CHAPTER III - TREE-SHOOTING: A FISHING EXPEDITION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I THE FIRST GUN
- CHAPTER II THE OLD PUNT: A CURIOUS ‘TURNPIKE’
- CHAPTER III TREE-SHOOTING: A FISHING EXPEDITION
- CHAPTER IV EGG-TIME: A ‘GIP’-TRAP
- CHAPTER V WOODLAND TWILIGHT: TRAITORS ON THE GIBBET
- CHAPTER VI LURCHER-LAND: ‘THE PARK’
- CHAPTER VII OBY, AND HIS SYSTEM: THE MOUCHER's CALENDAR
- CHAPTER VIII CHURCHYARD PHEASANTS: BEFORE THE BENCH
- CHAPTER IX LUKE, THE RABBIT-CONTRACTOR: THE BROOK PATH
- CHAPTER X FARMER WILLUM'S PLACE: SNIPE-SHOOTING
- CHAPTER XI FERRETING: A RABBIT-HUNTER
- CHAPTER XII A WINTER NIGHT: OLD TRICKS: PHEASANT-STALKING: MATCHLOCK VERSUS BREECHLOADER: CONCLUSION
Summary
Just on the verge and borderland of the territory that could be ranged in safety there grew a stunted oak in a mound beside the brook. Perhaps the roots had been checked by the water: for the tree, instead of increasing in bulk, had expended its vigour in branches so crooked that they appeared entangled in each other. This oak was a favourite perching-place, because of its position: it could also be more easily climbed than straight-grown timber, having many boughs low down the trunk. With a gun it is difficult to ascend a smooth tree; these boughs therefore were a great advantage.
One warm afternoon late in the summer I got up into this oak, and took a seat astride a large limb, with the main trunk behind like the back of a chair and about twenty feet above the mound. Some lesser branches afforded a fork on which the gun could be securely lodged, and a limb of considerable size came across in front. Leaning both arms on this, a view could be obtained below and on three sides easily and without effort.
The mound immediately beneath was grown over with thick blackthorn, a species of cover that gives great confidence to game. A kick or blow upon the bushes with a stick will not move anything in an old blackthorn thicket. A man can scarcely push through it: nothing but a dog can manage to get about. On the meadow side there was no ditch, only a narrow fringe of tall pointed grass and rushes, with one or two small furze bushes projecting out upon the sward.
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- Information
- The Amateur Poacher , pp. 37 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1879