SHOOTING 



115 



1 86 1, thirteen guns accounted for 3,333 rabbits besides 

 twenty-six head of other game. The way in which 

 the operations were carried out on this memorable 

 occasion has been described by the park-keeper, Mr. 

 J. B. Lucas, in the following terms : 



* Being in the service of the late Earl of Stamford 

 as park-keeper at Dunham Massey, one of my duties 

 was to attend the large battues on his lordship's other 

 estates. I kept account of the game killed, and 

 assisted the late Mr. Reeves in the management of the 

 beaters, &c., at Bradgate, from 1855 to 1865, which 

 included the season in which the celebrated " threes " 

 bag was made. 



' The principal home of the rabbits was an extent of 

 several hundred acres of hills and rocks, rough, poor 

 ground, covered with fern, rushes, and coarse grass. 

 A small herd of red deer existed in this part of the 

 park, which was surrounded by a stone wall, six or 

 seven feet high, built without mortar, in the manner 

 usual on Charnwood Forest. The deer park adjoined 

 it on one side. Three walls, which were built at right 

 angles to the main boundary wall, and ran out into the 

 deer park, formed two inclosures, one about thirty 

 acres, the other about forty acres. Holes were made, 

 and fitted with wooden doors, at intervals along the 

 main wall, so that the rabbits could be allowed to feed 



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