circumstance which must have multiplied the poachers. Moffet, who wrote
on diet in the reign of Elizabeth, notices their plentiful supply "for
the poor's maintenance."--I cannot otherwise account for the
appellatives given to sharpers, and the terms of cheatery being so
familiarly drawn from a rabbit-warren; not that even in that day these
cant terms travelled far out of their own circle; for Robert Greene
mentions a trial in which the judges, good simple men! imagined that the
coney-catcher at the bar was a warrener, or one who had the care of a
warren.

The cant term of "warren" included the young coneys, or half-ruined
prodigals of that day, with the younger brothers, who had accomplished
their ruin; these naturally herded together, as the pigeon and the
black-leg of the present day. The coney-catchers were those who raised a
trade on their necessities. To be "conie-catched" was to be cheated. The
warren forms a combination altogether, to attract some novice, who in
_esse_ or in _posse_ has his present means good, and those to come
great; he is very glad to learn how money can be raised. The warren seek
after a _tumbler_, a sort of hunting dog; and the nature of a London
tumbler was to "hunt dry-foot," in this manner:--"The tumbler is let
loose, and runs snuffing up and down in the shops of mercers,
goldsmiths, drapers, haberdashers, to meet with a _ferret_, that is, a
citizen who is ready to sell a commodity." The tumbler in his first
course usually returned in despair, pretending to have out-wearied
himself by hunting, and swears that the city ferrets are so coaped (that
is, have their lips stitched up close) that he can't get them to open to
so great a sum as L500, which the warren wants. "This herb being chewed
down by the rabbit-suckers, almost kills their hearts. It irritates
their appetite, and they keenly bid the tumbler, if he can't fasten on
plate, or cloth, or silks, to lay hold of _brown paper_, _Bartholomew
babies_, _lute-strings_, or _hob-nails_. It hath been verily reported,"
says Decker, "that one gentleman of great hopes took up L100 in
hobby-horses, and sold them for L30; and L16 in joints of mutton and
quarters of lamb, ready roasted, and sold them for three pounds." Such
commodities were called _purse-nets_.--The tumbler, on his second hunt,
trots up and down again; and at last lights on a _ferret_ that will
deal: the names are given in to a scrivener, who inquires whether they
are good men, and