PHEASANT SHOOTING 



Mr. H. A. Bryden (Victoria County History of Sussex) says 

 there is authentic record of two Horsham sportsmen who, 

 having business at Chichester, shot their way thither across 

 country, two days' journey, and home again after transacting 

 their affairs. On the other hand, there were properties in the 

 county where the game was carefully preserved and visitors 

 were kept in strict order. This is from the Sporting Magazine 

 of 1805 :— 



' As a piece of necessary information for sportsmen, the 

 following rules are hung up in the breakfast-room of a shooting- 

 lodge in Sussex : — 



Killing a hen pheasant, ..... ^1 1 



Shooting at ditto, . . . . . . 10 6 



Shooting at a pheasant on the ground or in 



a tree, . . . . . . .110 



Shooting at ditto at more than 40 yards unless 



wounded, . . . . . .050 



Shooting two or more partridges at one shot, . 10 6 

 Shooting at ditto on the ground, . . .110 

 Shooting at ditto at more than 45 yards if not 



before wounded, . . . . .050 



Shooting a hare in her form, . . . .050 



' Half the above fines go to the poor of the parish, the other 

 half to the keepers.' 



This document is illuminating in more ways than one : 

 it indicates that there still remained inept beings who had not 

 fully mastered the Art of Shooting Flying and were not to be 

 trusted within range of a sitting bird or hare. 



It was in the same year (1805) that the ' principal noblemen, 

 gentlemen, and land owners of Kent, to the number of sixty- 

 three, very commendably signed and published a resolution 

 not to shoot partridges, on account of the backwardness of the 

 harvest, till the fourteenth of September.' From which it 

 would seem that sportsmen who might try to shoot their way 

 across country in Kent would have found obstacles. 



Now let us make a cast forward to the period when the 



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