A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



It is curious to find amongst the Hatfield 

 bills, so long ago as 1629, one 'for hens to 

 sit on pheasants' eggs,' which cost is. each, 

 and another for a hen that brought up some 

 partridges. By other bills it appears that a 

 yard was established at Hatfield for breeding 

 partridges and pheasants ; that a dove house 

 existed ; and that tame cormorants were kept 

 for fishing, probably in the Lea. 



When the Salisbury family went to reside 

 at Quickswood near Baldock, it was from 

 their Hatfield home that they stocked the 

 country round Baldock with partridges. 



A Captain Philips, writing to Cecil in 

 1609, offers to send him any number of wild 

 boars to stock Hatfield Park, but this offer 

 does not appear to have been accepted. 



The livery for the Hatfield gamekeepers in 

 1629 was green Padua serge laced with silk. 



Poachers appear to have been severely 

 dealt with in this county down to 1796, for 

 we read in that year of two men being con- 

 victed of taking a brace of hares at night, on 

 Mr. Osgood Hanbury's estate at Coggeshall, 

 the penalties on each of these 'villains' for 

 the above offence were as follows : 5 for no 

 license ; ^5 for being unqualified ; ^5 for 

 killing at night ; 5 for keeping dogs and 

 engines ; and transportation for seven years 

 for beating the gamekeeper. ' In this instance, 

 however, the whole penalty was generously, 

 perhaps too generously for the sake of general 

 society, mitigated to a fine of ^15.' If the 

 full penalty had been inflicted on these men, 

 they could have been fined 100 each. 



The county records, recently collected and 

 bound by the County Council, contain the 

 depositions of one Joseph Ansell, a gardener, 

 which, if true, does not say much for 'justices' 

 justice ' a hundred years ago in the county. 

 He stated that he was walking along a foot- 

 path through a wood at Kings Walden with 

 a little terrier dog at his heels, when he was 

 suddenly arrested by Joseph Dynes, keeper to 

 Mr. Hale, who, with the assistance of an 

 underkeeper named Cotton, searched him, 

 Cotton holding a sword with its edge close to 

 Ansell's face. After trying unsuccessfully to 

 extract a confession of poaching, the keepers 

 took Ansell before Mr. Brand of Kimpton 

 Hoo, a magistrate for the county. Here he 

 was detained until eleven o'clock at night, as 

 Mr. Brand was playing cards and could not be 

 interrupted. There was no evidence pro- 

 duced against Ansell, except that the keeper 

 said he heard him say ' Chew ' to his dog, 

 but the dog did not leave the footpath. He 

 was nevertheless convicted and fined 10. 



Shooting at flying game is a comparatively 

 modern sport, not having been practised until 



the end of the eighteenth century. But at the 

 beginning of last century guns of a primitive 

 nature came into general use for sporting 

 purposes and the sport became more common. 



In January, 1822, what was thought at 

 that time to be a record bag was made at 

 Ashridge Park. The Earl of Bridgewater 

 having a royal shooting party, shot for three 

 days and bagged 1,200 head. The guns in- 

 cluded H.R.H. the Duke of York, the Duke 

 of Wellington, the Marquis of Londonderry 

 and Lord Verulam. Considering the com- 

 paratively short time that guns of precision 

 had been in use, the shooting appears to have 

 been extremely accurate. 



First day seven guns had 627 shots and 

 killed 326 head of game. Second day nine 

 guns had 956 shots and killed 511 head of 

 game. Third day eight guns had 388 shots 

 and killed 261 head of game. 



Double-barrelled guns had just come into 

 use, and it is reported that on this occasion 

 ' The Duke of Wellington's double barrelled 

 gun brought down everything before it.' 



In 1825 a bet was made by the Marquis 

 of Salisbury with Sir John Sebright, that he 

 would find four gentlemen who would kill 

 100 brace of wild partridges in one day, only 

 one gun to be used. The match came off 

 on September i, at Hatfield. The four 

 gentlemen chosen were Sir C. Cuyler, who 

 took the gun first. He shot 24 brace in i^ 

 hours on the marquis's farm. Mr. Samuel 

 Whithead then took the gun and shot n 

 brace in i^ hours on the home farm and 14 

 brace on Pope's manor. Sir C. Cuyler again 

 took the gun and shot 27 brace on the home 

 farm. The remainder of the required 100 

 were easily shot by the Hon. M. de Ros and 

 Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe the latter, who was 

 one of the best shots in England, killing 18 

 brace in forty-five minutes. Sir John Sebright 

 ' with great promptitude and good humour ' 

 discharged the debt. 



On the occasion of her late Majesty's visit 

 to Hatfield House in October, 1846, accom- 

 panied by the Prince Consort, the Marquis of 

 Salisbury arranged a shooting party for the 

 prince. At half-past ten on October 23, the 

 prince, with the Duke of Wellington, Lord 

 Exeter and Lord Spencer, started with one 

 party. Present, but without guns, were Lord 

 Salisbury, Lord Marcus Hill and others. 

 They had excellent sport, and the prince 

 proved to be quite a first-class shot ; he on 

 that occasion shot more game than he had 

 ever done before in the same time. The 

 prince, who shot with four guns, killed 150 

 head of game, which was at the rate of one 

 head of game per minute for the whole time 



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