86 SHOOTING THE DUCK 



as the time of Henry VIII., in whose reign there was 

 passed an Act making it illegal to take wild duck 

 between May 31 and August 30. This, of course, 

 was old style ; the ten days' difference of Henry's 

 time making the dates in new style those of June 10 

 and September 10. The Act in question is described, 

 in modern spelling : ' An Act against the destruc- 

 tion of wild-fowl at such time as the said old fowl 

 be moulted and not replenished with feathers to 

 fly, nor the young fowl fully feathered perfectly to 

 fly.' 



Within the memory of people still living there 

 was wild-fowl shooting in what is now the heart of 

 London. At the time of George II., where Han- 

 over Square now stands was a powerful spring, the 

 haunt of duck and snipe, which were shot by Cock- 

 ney sportsmen of the time. Still more recently, the 

 land on which Belgrave Square and Eaton Square 

 were built in 1825 was swampy ground, where 

 duck, snipe, and plover might be killed. The 

 marshes near at hand, now naught but brick and 

 mortar afforded shooting of no mean order. On the 

 low land of Lambeth, my own grandfather had good 

 days among the snipe. London was a little place 

 then. During the early part of Victoria's reign the 

 kite and the magpie nested in the elms which then 



