260 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



cock or more are put up in a day's shooting late in the year, 

 and what with the real difficulties of hitting them and the nervous- 

 ness occasioned to the shooters, sometimes not a single one will 

 be brought to bag. To have shot the one cock bagged in the 

 day is an exploit and an honour ; to kill two and by the same 

 shot, of course, confers lasting fame. When we add to these 

 difficulties that Chantrey : s feat was accomplished with the clumsy 

 fowling-piece of sixty years ago, with a flint lock, with the often 

 unspherical shot of the day and the unimproved gunpowder, the 

 credit of the great sportsman-artist is enhanced. 



Sir Francis Chantrey was a frequent guest of Mr. Coke's at 

 that famous centre of sporting Norfolk, Holkham, and a wooded 

 hill close to the house, known till then as " Quarles' New Planta- 

 tion," was the scene of his exploit. The shooting party consisted 

 of the host, the sculptor, Archdeacon Glover, and the Rev. 

 Spencer Stanhope. " Chantrey," says the latter gentleman, "was 

 standing in the gravel pit just under the Hall. I was standing 

 next to him, but hid from him by the bank formed by the pit. 

 Knowing how keen a sportsman he was, I was amazed at seeing 

 him run up without his gun, waving his hat over his head. ' Two 

 cocks at one shot ! ' burst from him." 



The sculptor not only shot his birds, he carved them in marble, 

 and their monument is of course one of the treasures of the great 

 house of Holkham to this day. The next thing was to procure an 

 inscription, an epitaph for the birds who had attained death and 

 the monumental immortality which the famous sculptor had 

 conferred upon them. Inscriptions were invited from the men of 

 letters of the day, and, as it is difficult to imagine a subject that 

 so lends itself to easy epigram, short poems in various languages 



