298 BIEDS OF NOEFOLK. 



own prowess, have invested it for all time with a peculiar 

 interest. In an amusing little work by Mr. J. P. 

 Muirhead, entitled "Winged Words on Chantrey's 

 Woodcocks," — being a collection of the numerous 

 poetical jeux d'esprit, with which the great sculptor was 

 honoured by his friends at the time, the particulars of 

 the occurrence are minutely detailed, and an extract 

 from the Holkham game book fixes the date as November 

 20th, 1829.* It is also stated that the spot where the 

 lucky shot was fired has been handed down to posterity 

 by the name of " Chantrey Hill." The beautiful marble 

 groupt (figured in Yarrell's ^* British Birds") repre- 

 senting two dead woodcocks, which was subsequently 

 executed by Chantrey, as a commemorative gift to the 

 late Earl of Leicester, now adorns the library at 

 Holkham, and the original cast or model is preserved in 

 the Chantrey gallery at Oxford. From amongst the 

 many quaint poetical effusions on this " double event " 

 (amounting to no less than one hundred and seventy- 

 nine), as collected and published by Mr. Muirhead, I 

 have selected the following as especially worthy of 

 record : — 



" Life in death, a mystic lot, 



Dealt thou to the winged band : 

 Death, — from thine unerring shot, 



Life, — from thine undying hand." 



The Bishop op Oxford. 



" Driven from the north where winter starved them, 

 Chantrey first shot, and then he carved them." 



The late Mr. Hudson Gurnet.J 



* The shooting party that day consisted of Mr. Chantrey, Mr. 

 Glover, Mr. Stanhope, Mr. Coke, and Mr. Digby. 



f Strangely enough the date of the event, of which this group 

 "was intended as a memento, is carved on the marble as 1830, but 

 unquestionably, as shown by the game book, it occurred in the 

 previous year. 



X This version of the couplet differs both from that published 

 by Yarrell and the one given in " Winged Words," but is, I am 

 informed by Mr. J. H. Gurney, the correct reading. 



