6eoroe ©5Dal&eston 233 



in the first and only innings of the four, than 

 the Squire and Lambert did in their two innings. 

 The result so provoked Osbaldeston that he immediately 

 took up a pen and erased his name from the list of 

 M.C.C. members in Lord's Pavilion. It was a silly and 

 childish piece of petulance, unworthy of a sportsman, and 

 the M.C.C. never forgot or forgave the insult. 



As a shot, both at game and pigeons, ' the Squire's ' 

 skill was phenomenal. On one occasion he killed 

 ninety-eight pheasants out of a hundred shots, and it is 

 on record that he bagged in one day at Ebberston, his 

 own place, no less than ninety-five brace of partridges, 

 nine brace of hares and five couple of rabbits. This feat 

 was accomplished, it must be remembered, over dogs and 

 in the old muzzle-loading days. But even this was 

 eclipsed by an exploit which Mr E. H. Budd thus de- 

 scribes. ' I had backed him with Thellusson to kill 

 eighty brace of partridges in one day. I handed him 

 the gun for every shot. He killed ninety-seven brace 

 and a half, and there were five brace and a half of 

 partridges picked up next day, so that he in reality 

 killed one hundred and three brace and a half of par- 

 tridges, nine hares and a rabbit in the one day, a feat 

 never equalled in the annals of sporting.' 



Snipe-shooting, however, was the sport of which he 

 was fondest, and he has been many times known to 

 have brought down twenty or thirty couple of a morning. 

 But, even Homer sometimes nods, and Captain Ross 

 tells the following amusing story of rascally bad shooting ' 

 on the part of ' the Squire ' and himself ' During one 

 of my visits to Ebberston (Osbaldeston's Yorkshire 

 seat), we were shooting the covert of Hutton Bushell, 

 " the Squire's " best beat for pheasants. A particularly 



