SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



estates the men received a small sum for every nest of 

 pheasants' and partridges' eggs which were hatched off, 

 and by this means a modus vlvendi was established. 

 The sale of game or game eggs was illegal at that date. 

 It was in 1839 that my own shooting commenced, 

 and although we still used pointers on the stubble 

 the main shooting was in turnips ... the swede 

 having been lately introduced. There was no mangel 

 nor beet, and the white turnips were sown broadcast, 

 which gave much better cover than drill-sown roots ; 

 even the redleg would consent to remain long enough 

 for a shot. The lines were kept with mathematical 

 precision, and when a halt was made to load, even if 

 a bird was winged, neither dog nor man dared to 

 forestall the advance, and there was a second halt, 

 often very much prolonged, to pick up ; to leave a 

 bird unaccounted for was deemed unsportsmanlike. 

 It was very trying, for the birds driven in with so 

 much care were meantime going out, but it was a 

 point of honour to men and dogs, and very few birds 

 were left. No doubt there was a certain degree of 

 monotony in the solemn noiseless tramp, but there 

 was always something in front, and it was at least 

 better than the long wait for the driven bird. The 

 cream of all such shooting in Suffolk is upon its 

 heaths which skirt the north-west border of the 

 county and also lie between Felixstowe and Aldeburgh. 

 There the red grouse might well exist save for the 

 summer droughts. Several attempts have been made 

 to introduce black game at Benacre, Scots Hall, 

 Rendlesham, and Elveden ; but the birds, after living 

 for a year or two in the wilder places, generally 

 wandered and were shot. When food is scarce a 

 cornfield is an attraction the blackcock cannot resist. 

 Nor indeed, except at Butley, are there any firwoods 

 large enough to give them the necessary winter cover. 

 The walk up and over one of these large heaths 

 upon which the game has been driven by men or 

 horsemen must always be noble sport ; and on a 

 crisp October or November morning, with a gale 

 blowing, they afford perhaps the most difficult shoot- 

 ing at long rises we can have. I can remember one 

 such, with five guns out, on what was then called 

 Bucks Heath, at Rendlesham, when my own bag was 

 139 birds out of a total of 312. At Orwell Park, 

 walking in a deep horseshoe line, I have seen equally 

 good bags made. At Sudbourne and Arle there are 

 also what may be called moors, though of less ex- 

 tent, and at Scots Hall the deep valleys and quite 

 respectable hill deserve their name. Blythburgh and 

 Henham are not so wild, a good deal of clay being 

 found in the soil, and it has been more extensively 

 broken up, while beyond this the moorland generally 

 gives place to marshes ; on these in old times the snipe- 

 shooting was very good, and there were plenty of 

 ducks. Benacre is the best shooting of this sort in 

 Suffolk, and is visited during the winter by a great 

 variety of fowl and waders as well as woodcock. 

 Fine as all this range of wild shooting is, the quantity 

 of game (hares excepted) which can be naturally 

 produced is very inferior to the great inland plains 

 consisting of light loam and chalk in Norfolk and 

 Cambridge, where cultivation is more general and the 

 amount of cereals less. This will be found to be 

 invariably the case, and since the conversion of corn 

 land into grass the deterioration of the shooting has 

 been general and great in many parts. 



The number of pheasants has greatly increased, 

 through the introduction of the new system of rearing 



under coops. This system was introduced by the 

 gamekeeper to Mr. Robert Stone of Kesgrave in the 

 thirties, although eggs had been gathered and put 

 under hens before that date. At the beginning of 

 the century it was thought mean to sell game ; sports- 

 men of the old-fashioned school always gave it away 

 to the last. Nothing would have induced them to 

 receive money for it. 



Mr. Corrance makes some interesting obser- 

 vations on the equipment of the sportman at the 

 period referred to : 



' The shooting coat was of black velveteen, 

 furnished with several small and large pockets, for 

 sundry uses, such as instruments, guns, screws, 

 pickers, tweezers and the like ; for although at the 

 time I speak of detonators had come to stay, these 

 garments still remained the fashion, indeed they were 

 very necessary in the old days of flints. Breeches 

 and gaiters completed the dress, with dog-whistles, 

 whips, and couples often appended in various loops, 

 while a cap crowned the head. As regards the gun we 

 were at this date past the era of the flint-lock, and, 

 though converted guns were common enough, the cap 

 gun and nipple was in the hands of almost everyone. 

 It did not miss fire often, even in the wet, and there 

 was no changing flints, and although at least one 

 great shot (Sir R. Sutton) declined to use it this was 

 a mere freak on his part. A powder flask which held 

 barely half a pound, and a shot belt containing two 

 pounds of No. 5 and 6, were generally all that was 

 required for the ordinary day's sport. The wadding 

 was punched out of cardboard ungreased, and a 

 ramrod attached to the gun was used to load. With 

 the increase of game a change in guns took place. 

 First, a powerful loading rod superseded the ramrod 

 and materially increased the speed of loading. Con- 

 siderable danger attended the use of this, and I 

 witnessed two bad accidents, one to Lord Rendlesham 

 and the other to Admiral Rous. Each lost a finger. 

 It is probable that the second barrel had been left on 

 cock. A good rmny ingenious 'safety' inventions 

 came out as a consequence of the numerous accidents, 

 but very shortly after the loading rod had come into 

 use sportsmen gave up loading for themselves and 

 employed a servant to carry a second gun. When 

 well served the user of the old weapon could shoot 

 nearly as rapidly as with a breechloader at a hot corner 

 or at driven birds ; and when walking up partridges 

 there was no halt after a shot. Once, when shooting 

 upon General Hall's property (which was shortly after- 

 wards let to the Duke of Cambridge) in company with 

 six guns, I killed 240 birds in four days in January 

 after the ground had been severely shot all the season ; 

 on another memorable occasion at Oakley, 276 brace 

 in the same month during a hurricane ; while on the 

 same day at Orwell the bag was very little less. 



Pheasant shooting became more of an art as more 

 trouble was taken in the flushing of the birds. It 

 soon became the custom to put them up gradually and 

 to arrange so that they rose over high trees before 

 coming to the gun. But the bouquet of birds in a 

 grand rush seldom gave the chance of getting four 

 cocks with four barrels. At this date 300 to 400 

 pheasants was an average day's bag, but at Hevening- 

 ham and a few of the larger estates 600 to 700 was 

 generally reached at big shoots. Thus far the muzzle- 

 loader had done its work. But agreat change was at hand, 

 and a few years afterwards it was a thing of the past. 



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