Posted by Robert Hill on August 31, 2004 at 13:06:23 from 195.92.168.178 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: Gamekeepers posted by Adam Quinan on August 31, 2004 at 07:47:33:
The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations includes this from chapter 1 of The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley: "He did not know that a keeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a keeper turned inside out".
The Water Babies was first published in 1863; in that year Spurgeon was 29, so either of them could have got the idea from the other. Spurgeon's form is pithier and is the version that's widely remembered. A web search for "poacher turned gamekeeper" finds lots of hits.