72 PARTRIDGES 



discussion arose as to whether Captain 

 Ross, admittedly the finest pigeon shot 

 of the day, would hold his own as easily 

 at game. Before they reached Whitehall 

 Stairs, the terms of a match had been 

 arranged, Lord de Roos backing himself 

 to find a champion to shoot partridges 

 against Captain Ross for 200 a side on 

 his own shootings at Milden in Suffolk ; 

 the match to be decided in a single day, 

 the 1st of November, the guns to walk 

 forty or fifty yards apart, shooting from 

 sunrise to sunset without any halt\ no 

 dogs to be used. 



Lord de Roos chose Colonel Anson 

 as his champion, and the match duly 

 came off, with unusually heavy betting 

 on the result, Lord Anson offering to 

 back his brother for 10,000. The guns 

 paraded in the dark, and started at sun- 

 rise by the watch in a thick mist. 

 Colonel Anson set the pace, estimated 

 at between 4| and 5 miles an hour, and 

 they kept this up to within a quarter of 

 an hour of sunset, when the Colonel, 



