ttbe Cohes ot Ibolhbam 213 



day. It is recorded in the Holkham Game Book that 

 lie once for a wager killed 82 partridges in 84 shots. 

 This has been ridiculed by some writers as an impos- 

 sible feat. When, however, one remembers that George 

 Osbaldeston once killed 98 pheasants in 100 shots, and 

 that Colonel Hawker and John Holt performed almost 

 equally remarkable feats, one hesitates to dispute the 

 truth of the Holkham legend. But, putting this phe- 

 nomenal performance on one side, here are some un- 

 disputed records of Mr. Coke's shooting. On October 

 7th, 1797, within an area of one mile of his manor at 

 Warham, he bagged 40 brace of birds in 90 shots, each 

 bird killed singly. On the previous day over the same 

 ground he had bagged 22^ brace in three hours, so that 

 birds must have been pretty numerous even then. 



In those days partridges were far more plentiful than 

 pheasants and ground-game than either. For example, 

 it is recorded in the Holkham Game Book for 1810 that 

 in four days 2,032 head of game were killed, of which 

 1,012 were rabbits and 761 hares. In 1800, out of a 

 total of 5,201 head of game shot at Holkham, only 

 355 were pheasants, whilst the partridges numbered 

 3,805 and the hares 854. Ten years later the number 

 of pheasants killed showed a remarkable increase, for 

 out of 10,599 head of game shot, 1,227 were pheasants, 

 1,711 partridges, 3,176 hares, and 3,789 rabbits, the 

 ground-game, it will be noticed, still largely pre- 

 dominating. 



Contrast this with the result of five days' pheasant- 

 shooting at Holkham in 1885, when 2,592 head of 

 pheasants fell to eight guns in four consecutive days, 



