THE POACHER'S COMPANION: AN ANTHOLOGY COMPILED BY E.G. WALSH.

1983 1st edition. 8vo (143 x 223mm). Ppxx,265. B/w photographs, illustrations. Dark green boards, spine titled in gilt.

"E.G. Walsh, well-known as the author of Lurchers and Longdogs, has collected a wealth of material covering the poacher himself, his methods and weapons, his dogs, the animals and birds on which he preyed, and his battle with gamekeepers and the law. 'Those who have poached,' he writes, 'can read about how others did it and think how much better they could do it themselves; those who have resisted the temptation can see that it is not always as exciting as tradition and song would have it.' For this book is not another romantic portrait of the poacher. On the one hand it acknowledges that hunting is an ancient instinct - far older than settlement and manufacture - and that the poacher's knowledge of the countryside and of natural history was often remarkable. But it also shows that a poacher's life and attitudes could be full of almost prehistoric savagery."