BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



' The feeds given on these occasions are generally capital, 

 though to a real sportsman there is but little amusement. 

 Happening to be on a journey in a mail coach one Christmas, 

 as we were changing horses in a small market town in the lower 

 part of Hampshire, I saw an immense quantity of game lying 

 at the coach office to be forwarded to its destination. I 

 inquired from whence it came ; and was informed a grande 

 batue had taken place not far distant. Knowing some of the 

 party, I naturally inquired of the landlord of the inn ivho had 

 bagged the most game : " I know nothing about that, Sir," 

 said he, " but the men zvho beat for the Gentlemen killed one 

 hundred and twenty head " ; now if the foxes had only taken one 

 tenth of what the beaters knocked on the head, it would have 

 made a great noise in the country, although a single fox would 

 have shewn a hundred neighbouring gentlemen a day's sport. 

 It would be no very difficult matter to have pheasants driven 

 up so as to shoot them from your drawing-room window, and 

 thus treat Mamma and the children with a partie de Chasse ; 

 they may then have ocular demonstration what a good shot 

 Papa is ! ' 



High preservation was not universal at this time, whatever 

 the case in the districts known to Colonel Cook. On the 

 contrary, it is clear from Colonel Hawker's advice on the 

 subject of pheasant shooting that the landless man covild get 

 a good deal on unpreserved ground : — 



' When staying in a town take care not to let every one 

 know where you shoot by pompously riding through it with 

 a display of guns and dogs ; but either send on the latter in 

 the dark, or take them closely shut up in your dog-cart. If 

 driving, cover your shooting dress with a box coat ; if on 

 horseback, ride out of the town on some road diametrically 

 opposite to where your sport lies, and then double back again 

 on other roads or by crossing the country. If you return by 

 daylight, enter the town again by this means, otherwise you 

 will soon have your beat (if on a neutral place) worked by 

 every townsman who can muster a dog and a gun.' 



102 



