The Gamekeeper at Home: Sketches of Natural History and Rural Life

Preface: Those who delight in roaming about amongst the fields and lanes, or have spent any time in a country house, can hardly have failed to notice the custodian of the woods and covers, or to observe that he is often something of a character. The Gamekeeper forms, indeed, so prominent a figure in rural life as almost to demand some biographical record of his work and ways. From the man to the territories over which he bears sway-the meadows, woods, and streams-and to his subjects, their furred and feathered inhabitants, is a natural transition. The enemies against whom he wages incessant warfare-vermin, poachers, and trespassers-must, of course, be included in such a survey. Although, for ease and convenience of illustration, the character of a particular Keeper has been used as a nucleus about which to arrange materials that would otherwise have lacked a connecting link, the facts here collected are really entirely derived from original observation.