DISTRICTS SUITED FOR THE SPORT. 207 



lx)urhood of Peterborough, Northamptonshire, is a fine 

 suitable district, as also the country about Fettwell, 

 Hockwold, and Didlington in Norfolk ; about New- 

 market iu Cambridgeshire, Sleaford in Lincolnshire, 

 and about Rainford, near Wigan, in Lancashire. There 

 is an excellent country for this sport almost all along 

 tlie east coast of Scotland, as far as to Inverness ; as 

 also in the south-west, in Renfrewshire, Ayr, Wigton, &c. 

 There are also immense tracts of moorland highly 

 fitted for grouse hawking in particular, such as the 

 neiglibourhood of Strathvennan in Ross-shire, where 

 Lord O'Neil, and after his day Colonel Bonham, kept 

 their hawks diuing the autumn months. In Ireland, at 

 Castle ^lartin, half way between Kildare and Monaster- 

 even, there is a heronry, and a marsh on which herons 

 have been taken by Mr. O'Keefe. In the arable cultiva- 

 tion of those soils which are composed of chalky and 

 gravelly nature, the fields are generally of large dimen- 

 sions, and in these lands, after the harvest has been got 

 in, hawking may be pursued with the short winged 

 hawks, and the falconer, if his hawks are well trained, 

 may calculate on good sport in flying them at the fur 

 (hares and rabbits) and at pheasants and partridges. 

 Where the latter are preserved, you may be certain of 

 finding some in the large turnip fields of Suffolk, Nor- 

 folk, and Cambridgeshire. In the early part of a mild 

 winter the woodcocks retire, after feeding in the swampy 

 grounds, to the mountains of Scotland, Ireland, and 

 Wales, where is a short cover for them, and where they 

 can lie dry. In the extensive grass fields of Northamp- 

 tonshire and Leicestershire, some of them containino- 

 forty or fifty acres, good sport may be derived b}' flying 

 your hawk at game. Within the last few years the im- 

 p 4 



