SPORT AND SLAUGHTER 255 



General , Colonel , Lord , and Lord 



shot last week over Lord 's estate at . 



The distinguished party bagged 1495 pheasants, 

 727 hares, 1231 rabbits, 23 partridges, and 17 wood- 

 cocks making a total of 3493 head ; ... in all (after 

 calculation), 7 tons 12 cwt. 66 Ibs. 



" Lastly, a distinguished party in eight days this 

 last year shot 10,500 head, ... a grand total of, say, 

 some 17 tons. I would suggest that in future some 

 newspaper space would be saved if, instead of 

 enumerating the number of heads of game thus 

 destroyed, the sum total were to be put down by 

 weight. Thus let it be chronicled that on such 



and such a day Mr. , Lord , Mr. , and 



a distinguished party of congenial companions shot 

 so many tons, or so many hundredweight, as 

 the case may be, of game hares, say two tons ; 

 partridges, ten hundredweight ; rabbits, one ton ; 

 pheasants, fourteen hundredweight ; and so on 

 total, so much. And this is sport ! 



" By all means let country gentlemen have their 

 shooting to their hearts' content, as in days of yore, 

 when they loaded their own guns, and enjoyed a 

 good day's sport with, at the most, a brace of dogs ; 

 but let this trumpery un-English practice no more 

 expose those who are guilty of it to the jeers, behind 

 their backs, of the very peasantry." 



It was not against the battue only that his lance 

 was aimed ; with no less vehemence did he attack 

 fox-hunting. For this pursuit he had nothing to 

 urge in its favour ; in his eyes it was full of cruelty, 



