BLACK GILES THE POACHER:

CONTAINING SOME ACCOUNT OF A FAMILY WHO HAD RATHER LIVE BY THEIR WITS
THAN THEIR WORK[A]

BY HANNAH MORE.

PART I

[Footnote A: This story exhibits an accurate picture of that part of
the country where the author then resided; and where, by her
benevolent zeal, a great reformation was effected among the poor
inhabitants of at least twenty parishes, within a circle of thirty
miles.]


Poaching Giles lives on the borders of one of those great moors in
Somersetshire. Giles, to be sure, has been a sad fellow in his time;
and it is none of his fault if his whole family do not end their
career either at the gallows, or at Botany Bay. He lives at that mud
cottage, with the broken windows stuffed with dirty rags, just beyond
the gate which divides the upper from the lower moor. You may know the
house at a good distance by the ragged tiles on the roof, and the
loose stones which are ready to drop out from the chimney; though a
short ladder, a hod of mortar, and half an hour's leisure time would
have prevented all this, and made the little dwelling tight enough.
But as Giles had never learned any thing that was good, so he did not