WOODLANDS, GAME, AND SPORT 299 



bien, mon Cher ! What Chance ? How many 

 Braces to your Bags ? * In the royal forest of 

 Wolmer, a sandy tract in Hampshire extending to 

 about fifteen square miles covered with heath and 

 fern, now bearing pinewoods in parts, though 120 

 years ago it stood ' without having one standing 

 tree in the whole extent/ Gilbert White tells us 

 how * This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt 

 for many sorts of wild fowls, which not only 

 frequent it in the winter, but breed there in the 

 summer ; such as lapwings, snipes, wild ducks, 

 and, as I have discovered within these few years, 

 teals. Partridges in vast plenty are bred in good 

 seasons on the verge of this forest, into which 

 they love to make excursions : and in particular, 

 in the dry summer of 1740 and 1741, and some 

 years after, they swarmed to such a degree that 

 parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty 

 and sometimes thirty brace in a day. But there 

 was a nobler species of game in this forest, now 

 extinct, which I have heard old people say 

 abounded much before shooting flying became 

 so common, and that was the heath-cock, black 

 game, or grouse.' 



What would the 'reasonable sportsmen 1 of 



