BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



Cock Pheasants, .... 



Hen „ .... 



Partridges, ..... 



Hares, ...... 



This same Sharnton also produced an account of the 

 vermin he had destroyed during the preceding twelve months. 

 It included 22 foxes(!), 446 stoats, and 167 ' hawks of all 

 kinds ' : he also killed 7 ' Wild cats,' but we may take leave 

 to doubt whether these were not domestic strays from the 

 path of virtue. 



In 1811 Mr. G. Clark of Worlingham, Suffolk, backed 

 himself to kill 47 birds in fifty shots : he killed 59 in sixty 

 shots, having missed the forty-ninth bird. 



Forsyth's percussion system was invented in 1808, and a 

 percussion gun was successfully tested against a flint-lock ; 

 but we were ever slow to adopt novelties, and percussion guns 

 only began to come into general use during the 'twenties, 

 copper caps having been invented about 1825.^ Some old 

 hands remained faithful to the flint-lock long after it had been 

 discarded by the majority. Sir Richard Sutton was one of 

 these conservative sportsmen : his fidelity, however, to the old 

 style of gun was, says the late Mr. Corrance, ' a mere freak.' 



The introduction of the percussion gun made no difference 

 in the size of bags. It was regarded as unbecoming to sell 

 game " in those days, and what the sportsman did not want for 

 his own house was given away. Large bags were made on 

 occasion, but such were usually the outcome of wagers. One 

 of the most notable of these was the match, in October 1823, 

 between Lord Kennedy shooting at Monreith in Wigtownshire 

 against Mr. William Coke shooting at Holkham, who should 

 make the largest bag in two days. Lord Kennedy got between 



' Messrs. Kley made waterproof caps in 18;37. 



2 The London market, says Daniel {Rural Sports, supp. vol., 1813), was principally 

 supplied by poachers ; the prices given were so hiifli that poaching- was very protitahle, 

 and the encounters hetween these men and the gamekeepers only too frequently had 

 fatal results. 



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