PHEASANT SHOOTING. 79 



^f the beagle ; and althougli this was tried to be remedied by resort- 

 jig to the best dogs, the tendency to hare could never be subdued." 



A similar case is well known to have occurred in the North of 

 England, about half a century ago, among the dogs of the late 

 Ralph Lambton, Esq. He had some favourite spaniel bitches that 

 aad originally a cross with a bloodhound • and this corruption was 

 3ontinually manifesting itself in the conduct of his shooting dogs, 

 s^henever she&p or domestic animals of any kind thwarted their 

 movements. The old and excellent sportsman used jocularly to 

 maintain, that they would retain their taint, as mankind are doomed 

 to bear the weight of their origmal transgression till the end of 

 their existence. 



We have often seen dogs more at fault in pheasant shooting 

 than m almost anything else. Whether it be the particular nature 

 of the ground in which these birds locate themselves, or whether 

 there be anything peculiar in their scent, we cannot determine ; but 

 we have often seen conduct followed by even the best dogs, that 

 would never have been looked for in any other kind of sporting. 

 We state these impressions on our memory, without attempting 

 an>^hing like a solution of the matter. 



The season of the year is always to be taken into consideration 

 in following any particular plan as to pheasant shooting. There is 

 a difference between October and January in this matter. At the 

 fall of the leaf the birds are scarcer, and a vast deal more cunning 

 and evasive ; and they_ take the alarm at the slightest noise that 

 mdicates the approaching visit of a sportsman. In the opinion of 

 many able sportsmen, December ought to close the pheasant shoot- 

 ing ; for it IS contended that if prolonged later in the season, the 

 bii'ds will fly off and mate with other birds, and will not be likely 

 to remain if there be a long-continued shooting noise in every di- 

 rection around them. 



Battue-shootijig is common in all parts of Europe, as well as in 

 Great Britain, where it has become more in vogue withm the last 

 fOTty years. As we have said, we cannot approve of such exhibi- 

 itions, as they tend to bring the sportsman's art into disrepute. In 

 most books on shooting we have various accounts of the most dis- 

 itinguished of these gatherings among the nobiHty and gentry, but 

 ^they are of little or no interest to the real sportsman. Mr. Daniel 

 tells us of a day's hattue on Mr. Colquhoun's manor, at Writham, 

 in Norfolk, when the late Duke of Bedford and six other gentlemen, 

 m the year 1796, killed eighty cock pheasants and forty hares, 

 besides a considerable number of partridges, in one day. ^ix. 

 Coke, also in one day, in October, 1797, upon his manor, at War- 

 ham, _ and within a mile's circmnference, bagged forty brace of 

 partridges in eight hours, at ninety-three shots; every bird was 

 killed singly. The day before, on the same spot, he killed twenty- 

 two brace and a half in three houi'S. In 1801, the same gentleman 

 killed in five days, 726 partridges. In January 1803, Mr. Coke, 

 Su' John Shelley, and Mr. T. Sheridan, went over to Houghton, in 



