5i6 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE, 



of the origin of Grouse driving. It is dated Cannon Hall, 

 Barnsley, 28th November 1885, and is as follows : — 



" Grouse driving first commenced on the low moor at 

 Rayner Stones (now cultivated) about 1805. There were 

 regular drives in 1841, but no butts. Three brace per gun 

 for a drive was considered a good bag, and a bag of fifty brace 

 in 1843 was considered a great day. Holes were dug on 

 Ryshworth and Edwarde's moors in 1847. ^^ August 1849, 

 448 Grouse were shot, which was considered the highest 

 score up to that date. W. Spencer Stanhope." 



The late Henry Savile's keeper, George Sykes, has 

 generally been credited with the first application of the 

 system of Grouse driving ; he laid out the ground on several 

 moors, High Force amongst them. There is no doubt that 

 the system of driving and the great care and attention paid 

 to preservation have enormously increased the stock of birds 

 on the Yorkshire moors, and more are now bagged in one day 

 than were previously killed during the whole season when 

 shooting over dogs was in vogue. At High Force, in General 

 Hall's time (1886), eight guns killed from 13th to 17th August 

 2,616 brace. In 1872, which was the record year for York- 

 shire, some very heavy bags were made, and on 6th September, 

 on Mr. R. H. Rimington- Wilson's moor at Broomhead, 

 1,313 brace were killed in one day by eleven guns driving, 

 which was the largest number recorded that season ; in 

 the same year 1,040 brace were stated to have been bagged 

 by seven guns. Wemmergill was exceedingly prolific 

 in game that season ; in six days a party averaging 

 six guns killed 3,983-!- brace, and during the season 17,074 

 birds, of which Sir Frederick Milbank claimed 5,668 ; the 

 average total bag on this moor for twelve seasons was 4,133 

 brace, whilst the largest collective bag was made on 20th 

 August 1872 — 1,035 brace to six guns, of which Sir Frederick 

 shot 96 brace in one drive lasting twenty-three minutes, 

 his total bag for that day amounting to 728 birds. A granite 

 monument erected on Wemmergill moor commemorates this 

 feat in Grouse shooting. 



Lord Walsingham, on Bluberhouse, on 28th August 1872, 



