a time, but I have always found even from
the business view-point that the old advice still remains true, "Honesty
is the best policy." Leaving the rabbits to themselves has always turned
out to be the best, for to take a rabbit worth a shilling, and get caught
in the act, means that you can never go on the same estate again. And
from that same estate you might have got 500 Rats in a year, worth four
shillings a dozen.

I must also put in a good word here for the gamekeepers. My opinion is
that if you go on a keeper's ground and do what is right, you will be
able to go again, for in the whole of my experience never having carried
any nets but Rat nets when on private estates, I have the consolation of
knowing that I should always be welcome on going again to such estates.

Of course there are inconveniences that the Rat-catcher has to put up
with. Whatever engagements he takes in a town, the only time he can
catch Rats with a good result is in the night. On one occasion, when
going round with my bull's-eye lamp to examine the traps, I was taken for
a burglar by the policeman on the beat, and he doubted me so much that he
would not release me until I had shown him my cage with Rats in and my
traps set all over the place. Then he took almost as much interest in
the catching of Rats as myself, and also brought in the other policemen
who were outside waiting for me to attempt an escape. Ever after that,
when I had a night's engagement in any town, I always went to the police
station to tell the man on that beat where I was.

It behoves the Rat-catcher to be always attentive to his customers,
those, I mean, who want live Rats wherewith to try their dogs. Amongst
mine I have the honour to include clients of highest rank and position,
barristers, magistrates, solicitors and a host of sporting gentry. If
the Rat-catcher's efforts commend themselves to such gentlemen, and he
always maintains a respectable appearance, he will obtain some very nice
outings in the country. Oft-times a party of gentlemen have sent for me
in the summer, having arranged with me to bring four or five ferrets and
Ratting appliances, and we have gone 50 miles up the country. They would
bring their terrier dogs, and we would hunt all along the brooks and
rivers, and round the corn and wheat fields, putting the Rats we caught
into the cage, and after lunch, taking the Rats to a meadow and coursing
them with their dogs, which I think it real go