THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



345 



lord and tenant, just as much aa the taking of a shop ; and 

 he hoped the day would come when it would no longer be 

 supposed that such persona must act on different rules or 

 principles from those adopted by other people. The over- 

 preservation of game was no doubt a great nuisance. He was 

 one of the oldest sportsmen probably in that room, having 

 haJ a licence forty-sis years, and r.o man could detest battue 

 shooting more than he did. But he must repeat that for the 

 excessive preservation of game the farmer hail a remedy. The 

 other day a farmer in Northumbeilaud obtained an award of 

 £60 for injury, and others who were similarly situated might 

 have like reLlress. 



Mr. Fisher Hobbs (Boxted Lodge, Essex) expressed his 

 best thiinki to Mr. Corbet for the mauoer in which he had in- 

 troduced the question to the notice of the Club. He felt, 

 when the subject was proposed to the Committee, that it was 

 one that required delicati; handling, and he really thought he 

 might compliment Mr. Corbet on his mode of treating it, and 

 his not pamting the evils of game-preaervina: in colours that 

 were too high. He (Mr. Hobbs) had himaelf been the occupant 

 of a game farm for 13 years, and had had some little experience 

 of the damage inflicted by game ; for surrounding a consider- 

 able portion of the arable was a large extent of woodland, and 

 he must say that his crop were greatly injured by the 

 game. This farm had been in the hands of the owner; had 

 been farmed high, and upon which the game had been pre- 

 served. A promise was made that the game should belong 

 to the tenant ; but like many other verbal arrangements 

 in that day — and he feared it was also too much the 

 case in the present da)' — the promise was not fulfilled. The 

 fact was that landlords, generally speaking, did not like to tie 

 themselves down to any contract with regard to game ; he 

 was acqiaiuted with several districts in the kingdom where there 

 were large tracts of land for which, if the farmers were ready to 

 pay lOs. an acre for the gaii;e, the landlords would not 

 let them upon principle. Last year he had the pleasure of 

 a day's shooting in Surrey, where he witnessed what was 

 termed a bcdtue ; a friend who was present, Mr. Ramsay, who 

 unfortunately was hit hard by some stray shots, could 

 not help exclaiming thai he had never seen anything of 

 the kind before ; and if that was a bailice, all he could say was 

 that he much preferred taking his dog and gun into the turnip 

 field and finding his game for himself. He was glad to see 

 his old friend, Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, there in the room, 

 who, he believed, had as good partridge shooting upon his 

 farm as any man in England ; and if landlords generally 

 were to offer the same terra < to their tenantry as the 

 Earl of Leicester did to his, there would not be half 

 so much injury done to the land, whilst complaints on 

 the part of the farmer would be very seldom heard. The 

 battue system, however, had inflicted injury upou occupiers in 

 a way that was not fully understood. It was the custom for 

 gentlemen to keep keep game-books, in which were entered 

 the results of esch day's shooting; and about Christmas 

 shooting parties were formed for the purpose of making a 

 great bag. The consequence was that of the game which had 

 been preserved during the autumn one-third would be 

 cleared olT between the keepers and the poachers ; the result 

 was that the proprietor did not find what was reared upon the 

 land. In his own neighbourhood, a short time ago, phea- 

 sants were being purchased by the labourers and others at 

 Is. a head, partridges at la. a brice, and rabbits at 6d. 

 a-piej^e. Of course, pdl these had ome through the hands of 

 poac>icra. He bel eved that farmera would be rather pleased 

 than otherwise to b3 the means of maintaining a good stock of 

 game, provided they were allowed to do so upon a liberal sys- 

 tem ; and an arrangement of tiie sott would no doubt tend to 

 promote a different feeling from that wliich now existed be- 

 tween landlord aud tenant upon the subject. Allusion had 

 been made to the alteration which the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer proposed to make in respect of game licences. Tenants 

 who hold under a lease a-e permitted, under a late act of Par- 

 liament, to kill rabbits without a licence ; and he did think 

 that such an absurd measure as that which was uow contem- 

 plated could never pass into a law. If, however, a small 

 licence v.ere charged oa every person who did not pay for 

 a game certificate, who hunted with hounds, the hunt would 

 become much more respectable and select than it was at 

 present; there would be a less number of itinerant store- 

 dealers and butchers' hoys and others riding over the 



feucc j, and the revenue would at the same time receive benefit. 

 In conclusion, Mr. Hobbs expressed a hope that Mr. Corbet's 

 paper aud the discussion combined would not be without an 

 influence in bringirg about an improvement. 



Mr. Hudson (Castleacre) said : I regret I could not hear 

 all the excellent paper juat read by our friend Mr. Corbet ; 

 and although I agree with him in many points, there are some 

 with which I may beg to differ. I am an old sportsman, and 

 like the crack of the gun as well as the crack of the whip ; 

 and I should be sorry to deprive the country gentlemen of 

 their sport. We, the tenant-farmers of England, do not wish 

 to drive them in the autumn to smoky London or gay and 

 sunny Paris ; we wish to retain them at home, where they 

 can do so much good by spending a large portion of their in- 

 come, and receive their friends at their country-houses. But 

 then they must have some amusement. They cannot very 

 well offer their friends a bag of marbles to play with ; but if 

 they can give them a mount, and show them a fox one day, 

 and give them a good day's partridge-shooting the next, and 

 then a day or two through the covers amongst the pheasants, 

 they may make a jolly week of it, and their friends will visit 

 them. The poor people in the village will also reap some ad- 

 vantage after the great dinners at the hall. Let us do all we 

 can to induce the landlords to live amongst us ; let us endea- 

 vour to preserve the winged-game ; but let us condemn the 

 over-preservation of vermin — r s, rabbits, and hares. I am 

 myself a small landowner, as well as a tenant farmer ; and as 

 one of my estates is suitable for rearing game, I keep a good 

 stock upou it. There are 700 acres. 500 acres are let to r 

 very respectable tenant ; the remainder I keep in hand, and I 

 farm all the land by the cover-side. For the last five years 

 that I have had this, I have grown from 36 to 40 bushels an 

 acre of wheat, and from 40 to 50 bushels an acre of barley, by 

 the cover-side; so the game has not done much damage to my 

 crops. My game is killed early ; and on the 5th and 6th of 

 last November my farmer-friends and myself killed 560 phea- 

 sants, 70 to 80 brace of which I gave to my neighbours and 

 friends. I do not know whether our friend. Alderman Mechi, 

 keeps a large head of game at Tiptree; I know him to be a 

 keen sportsman. At any rate. Ins game has not done much 

 damage to his crop ; for it is in print that he has made £600 

 a year profit as landlord and tenant upon his little farm of 170 

 acres at Tiptree, Now, gentlemen, I believe you would all be 

 satisfied if you could make 20s. an acre profit these times, with 

 wheat at 428. a quarter. This would leave above 503. an acre 

 for Landlord Mechi. Verily, I think Landlord Mechi gets the 

 lion''s share ! I Ei.ould like to take a leaf out of the worthy 

 alderman's book ; for I have a small farm in Norfolk, of 450 

 acres, let to a good tenout at about SOs. an acre, worth 50 per 

 cent, more than Tiptree. Where I live — Castleacre — as my 

 friend Fisher Hobbs has told you, is a good partridge manor, 

 perhaps one of the best in Norfolk, and my excellent and noble 

 landlord is kind enough to let me the shooting; indeed we, 

 the tenants upon that estate, all hire the shooting upon our 

 respective farms. Mr. Corbet has mentioned the name of 

 Mr. A. Hamond, of Westacre, whose land adjoins mine. He 

 is a first-rate country-gentleman, and an old fox-hunter. Fifty 

 years a^o my father occupied a large farm upon that estate, 

 where the Sivaffhsm coursing meetings were held ; and there 

 I first learned to hold the plough. The Norfolk Hounds met 

 at Mr. Hamond's the last week in January, and the Squire 

 gave a huntiug-breakfasi to about 150. I was there, and my 

 son, and my grandson — three generations of us. We had a 

 good day — four foxes on foot at one time. Well, we three 

 went the next day to shoot with an old friend of mine, with 

 whom I have shot for forty years ; and the boy wiped the old 

 governor's eye, aud the old man was as pleased as the boy. 

 Then there is another acre — Southacre — the plague-spot in 

 the district. It is no uncommon thing for the party theie to 

 shoot 400 or 500 hares in a day, whesi they shoot those covers ; 

 and as to the rabbits, they are sent io Sheffield by half-ton end 

 ton at a time. If the worthy alderman likes rabbits aud 

 onions, he may have plenty when he goes to Sheffield, to look 

 after his establishment there. But if a fox goes to Southacre, 

 he gets his tees nipped. The game-preserver there is the 

 clergyman, the brother of the owner of the land; the place 

 swarms witli vermin — rats, rabbits, and hares. I hope we 

 shall finish this discussion by saying. Preservation to the game 

 — pheasants and partridges ; but destruction to the vermin-^ 

 rats, rabbits, and hares. 



