A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



were taken from the warrens under one owner- 

 ship, whilst over 500 brace of partridges were 

 killed by six guns in one day, and considerably 

 over 1,000 brace in three consecutive days upon 

 several manors. 



In the year 1 905 some controversy arose 

 regarding the • Euston ' system of rearing game, 

 and on 7 November the Duke of Grafton wrote 

 to the Times as follows : — 



I have never reared partridges in any way except 

 having the estate watched and shepherds treated as 

 friends. My system with pheasants is simply as fol- 

 lows : After my brother's death, in 1882, I sent for 

 my keeper and told him I meant to have no more 

 rearing of and turning out tame barndoor pheasants, 

 and he was to take all eggs laid in places liable to be 

 taken, or where birds would be disturbed, and add 

 them to the nests of the wild birds ; but at his request 

 I allowed him to put these eggs under hens until near 

 the time of hatching and then put into the wild birds' 

 nests, and so all were hatched wild. When I told my 

 keeper of my intention he was dismayed, but I was 

 firm in my resolution, and at the end of the season he 

 came to me and said, ' I am so glad your Grace was 

 so decided, for we have had as good shooting as ever, 

 and the gentlemen come to me and say, " What have 

 you done with your birds, they get up wild all over 

 the place ? " ' He simply told them, 'It is because 

 they are wild birds.' That system has been carried 

 out ever since, and the shooting has improved every 

 year. . . . My object was twofold, viz. to obtain 

 good shooting and benefit the farmer. The shooting 

 I have alluded to. I asked a tenant whether my 

 svstem was good or bad for him. He said, ' There is 

 this difference. Formerly in your brother's life (tame 

 birds, not many) I used to find the tame birds at my 

 stacks. I used to frighten them, but they only got up 

 and went to the other end of my stacks ; but yours, 

 directly they see me, fly away like wild birds and 

 never come back that day.' 



On estates where foxes are plentiful the keepers 

 run round the nest wire netting of 4-in. mesh. 

 This allows the old bird to get through, and is 

 small enough to keep large vermin out. About 

 ten yards of netting are required for each nest, 

 making a circle with a 10-ft. diameter ; this is 

 sufficiently large for the bird to remain undis- 

 turbed by a fox or dog outside — an important 

 consideration, as if the bird is suddenly disturbed 

 and hits the wire in flying off her nest she will 

 probably desert. The wire is put round when 

 the bird is laying, and apparently she soon 

 becomes accustomed to it. Some keepers put 

 the wire down some distance from the nest and 

 gradually bring it closer, but this seems quite 

 unnecessary. The obvious objection to this plan 

 is the guidance it gives to egg stealers. In ordi- 

 nary circumstances the egg stealer has to work 

 by day with considerable risk of capture ; but 

 where the nests are thus plainly marked he can 

 work by night. In practice this objection is not 

 a serious one, as the poachers are aware that eggs 

 are often marked with the owner's name in in- 

 visible ink. This method of safeguarding game 

 eggs in a recent case (1905) effectually disposed 



of the defence put forward that the eggs came 

 off a small farm in the prisoner's occupation. 

 Where footpaths are numerous greater danger 

 arises from the curiosity of women and children. 

 One of the most distinguished sportsmen 

 of Suffolk was the late Mr. F. S. Corrance, of 

 Parham Hall, near Wickham Market, who 

 shortly before his death furnished the following 

 interesting notes of shooting in former days : — 



My own personal experience of shooting dates from 

 the thirties and forties, but there were mighty sports- 

 men before those days, and great shots, in whose hands 

 the flint-lock was a lethal weapon, and whose bags by 

 dint of hard walking assumed quite respectable pro- 

 portions. Among these keen veterans were Ross, 

 Kennedy, Osbaldcston, Sutton, and George Hanbury, 

 to whom are credited in the pages of Scrapiania one 

 hundred brace of grouse and partridges killed between 

 the hour of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. the same day ; Ross is 

 said to have won the last Red-House Cup shot for, 

 with a score of 88 kills out of 100 shots. In those 

 days shooting was confined to a particular class, and a 

 certain property qualification was essential even to take 

 out a licence, which, however, was not hard to get ; 

 and except at Holkham and a few other spots, where 

 the turnip cultivation introduced by Coke made walk- 

 ing up the birds more profitable, a larger area of both 

 these counties was still corn-land and fallow, and the 

 long stubbles left by the reaping-hooks were shot with 

 dogs. The number of guns did not exceed two, and 

 the etiquette in the approach to a point, and the shot, 

 was very rigidly enforced. The dogs dropped to shot, 

 and no one moved until the recharge took place. 

 There were few rcdlegs, and the wounded birds, if any, 

 were retrieved by the pointers. To the real sports- 

 man from ten to twenty brace was a fair day's sport, 

 and involved plenty of walking and hard work. Asa 

 rule no tenant farmer shot, but at that date and up to 

 the thirties there were many yeomen who farmed 200 

 or 300 acres of their own land, and they were some- 

 times very dangerous neighbours to a highly preserved 

 estate. During the last fifty years of the nineteenth 

 century these farms have been almost entirely bought 

 up and absorbed into the large estates, or their shoot- 

 ing hired at some cost. Upon the whole the rela- 

 tions between the owner and the cultivator were 

 friendly, and the farmers, doing pretty well in other 

 respects, with wheat at 65/., could afford to take some 

 interest in the sport. 



Where did the labourer come in ? It is here we 

 touch a sore point, for it must be confessed that 

 between him and the game preserver there was not 

 much love lost ; he was ill-paid, hard-worked, had 

 lost his parish allowance under the new Poor Law, 

 and was generally in a sullen state of discontent. In 

 the preserved woods and plantations spring-guns and 

 man-traps were set, notices to that effect being placed 

 on the fences or walls. The poacher was not infre- 

 quently a desperate character, and the shooting of a 

 keeper was an act by no means uncommon. I could 

 mention three or four manors whereon bloodshed of 

 this sort occurred. Among young men it was regarded 

 as rather in the nature of 'a lark ' to go out with 

 cudgels for a free fight with the guardians of the night. 

 I recall a desperate affray which took place at Campsey 

 Ash, between nine on each side, being dismissed by 

 the judge of the Assizes on the ground that it did not 

 come under the night-poaching Act. On some 



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