Colonel peter Ibawfter 133 



ever, who can and will undergo the hardships it entail , 

 wild-fowl shooting is the finest and most exciting sport 

 the British Isles afford. Colonel Hawker is universally 

 admitted to be the " Father of Wild-fowling," and 

 assuredly none ever followed the sport with greater 

 skill or warmer ardour. In these respects he has never 

 been surpassed, and I know only one man whom I 

 would bracket with him as an equal to wit, Sir Ralph 

 Payne-Gallwey, the greatest practical exponent of 

 wild-fowl shooting now living, and a sportsman of 

 the same heroic type as Hawker. 



But Colonel Hawker was more than a sportsman 

 he was a gallant soldier, a cultured gentleman, and a 

 most accomplished musician. It is odd to find the 

 author of " Instructions to Young Sportsmen " the 

 most popular and valuable handbook of sport ever 

 written also figuring as the author of " Instructions 

 for the Best Position on the Piano-forte," and the 

 patentee of very ingenious hand-moulds for that instru- 

 ment. It is true that while the sporting " Instructions " 

 have run into eleven editions, the musical " Instructions " 

 have never got beyond the first modest edition. But 

 the Colonel was just as enthusiastic about the piano 

 as about the gun, and could finger the keys of the 

 one as skilfully as the trigger of the other. 



Peter Hawker was the son of Colonel Peter Ryves 

 Hawker, of Longparish, Hants, by Mary Wilson 

 Yonge, a lady of Irish family. Born on December 

 24th, 1786, he entered the army as a cornet in 

 the ist Dragoons in 1801, being then only fifteen 

 years of age. His Diaries of sport, which he kept 



