46 ifcincjs of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, anfc <3un 



sporting," and I suppose up to that time it had not been 

 equalled. 



Both the "Old Squire" and Sir Richard Sutton, 

 it must be remembered, shot over dogs in days before 

 breech-loaders were thought of ; and to kill a hundred 

 brace of partridges to one's own gun in a single day 

 was no doubt a remarkable feat. In estimating the 

 rival exploits of Osbaldeston and Sir Richard Sutton, 

 however, it must be borne in mind that the latter 

 shot over an estate where birds were more plentiful 

 than in any other part of Great Britain, for Norfolk 

 and Suffolk have always been renowned for the immense 

 quantities of partridges bred there, whilst in York- 

 shire, where Osbaldeston's shooting lay, the game is 

 nothing like as numerous. 



I have been unable to discover who was the first 

 sportsman to bag a hundred brace of birds to his own 

 gun in a single day. But big bags are not quite such 

 a modern innovation as testy old sportsmen imagine. 

 There has been preserved the Game Book of the Chantilly 

 estate when the Prince de Conde held it a hundred 

 years ago, and I find there some extraordinary records 

 of slaughter, especially of partridges. For example, on 

 August loth, 1785, the Due de Bourbon and six other 

 guns killed 974 partridges. On September I4th seven 

 guns accounted for 1,500 head of game, of which 1,106 

 were partridges. On September 2Oth fourteen guns 

 killed 1,889 head of game, of which 1,604 were partridges. 

 On October 7th and 8th fifteen guns killed 4,213 

 head of game, of which 2,580 were partridges and 1,593 

 hares. Now, that was in the old flint-lock days, when 



