THE AMATEUR POACHER. By Richard Jefferies.

(1879) 2006 Excellent Press edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Ppviii,240. Not illustrated. Dark blue boards, spine titled in gilt.

New facsimile reprint of the first edition of 1879, with a handsome new dust-wrapper painting by Rodger McPhail. Nineteenth century boyhood adventures with rod and gun. Chapters include: The first gun; The old punt - a curious turnpike; Tree-shooting - a fishing expedition; Egg-time - a "Gip"-trap; Woodland twighlight - traitors on the gibbet; Lurcher-Land - "The Park"; Oby and his system - the moucher's calendar: Churchyard pheasants - before the bench; Luke, the rabbit-contractor - the brook path; Farmer Willum's Place - snipe-shooting; Ferreting - a rabbit-hunter. A Winter Night; Old tricks; Pheasant-stalking; Matchlock versus breechloader; Conclusion.