HISTORICAL 77 



house, he had sixty brace in his bag, and the best 

 of the ground before him ; a fine still day. We 

 had ready for him a brace of steady old setters, 

 but he would not shoot a bird over them, insisting 

 on using his own black pointers, never before shot 

 over except on moors; neither would he go to 

 coveys marked into whins and broken ground ; he 

 seemed to think that would not be fair, although 

 Maher, umpire for Coke, agreed that he ought to 

 do so. 



The only 'hedge' my father had to a heavy 

 book was a bet of some twenty guineas that Lord 

 Kennedy would not get a shot in twenty minutes, 

 if he persevered over a line of bare grass fields, 

 instead of going to the marked and driven coveys. 



As it was, he got ninety-three brace and a half, 

 and Coke at Holkham ninety-six. I think these 

 were the numbers; at any rate, neither of them 

 made the hundred brace to bag, while each shot 

 more than ninety brace. A great many dead 

 birds were picked up here afterwards. Both Val. 

 Maher and Farquharson were disappointed in 

 Lord Kennedy's shooting. I have never seen any- 

 thing like it. Certainly very few birds were 

 missed, and the whole ground was strewed with 

 cripples for days afterwards. I recollect my 

 father saying nothing on earth would induce him 

 to allow another match on his ground. I am 

 convinced Lord Kennedy killed and 'kilt'* 120 

 brace that day. 



He shot homewards, and during the last two 



