SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



FALCONRY 



In ancient times falconry was no doubt prac- 

 tised in many parts of Gloucestershire, as else- 

 where in Britain ; but after the great Civil War 

 the sport was neglected. King John sent his 

 falconer Hawkin de Hautville to Gloucester 

 with a writ to the sheriff to provide proper food, 

 lodging, and maintenance for him, his men, and 

 his hawks for the ' mewing,' or moulting of the 

 birds. 1 Queen Elizabeth, when visiting the 

 county, no doubt enjoyed many a flight ; for 

 her chief falconer, Sir Ralph Sadler, trained his 

 hawks on the downs in the adjoining county of 

 Wilts. 1 So recently as 1787 Mr. Charles 

 Edwin, chief forester in fee and bow-bearer, 

 informed the Commissioners of the Forest of 

 Dean that he claimed by virtue of his office to 

 be entitled to a licence to hawk, &c., within the 

 forest. 8 For successful falconry an open country 

 is necessary ; hence the wooded hills and valleys 

 along the range of the Cotteswolds are particularly 

 unsuited to the sport. During a period of 

 forty years, however, the late Major C. Hawkins 

 Fisher kept peregrine falcons at his residence, The 

 Castle, Stroud ; and in that district, which he 



described as probably the worst country in all 

 England for such flights, he took, in one season, 

 thirty-two partridges, eight rooks, a crow, a 

 wood pigeon and a magpie. 4 In the neighbour- 

 hood of Stroud, Major Fisher's falconer with 

 his ' cadge ' or portable frame, bearing three or 

 four hooded hawks, was a familiar sight ; and 

 the far-sounding ringing of a hawk's bell, high 

 in air, from a bird flown to the lure, or chasing 

 a pigeon, was frequently heard. On the open 

 land on the east side of the county much par- 

 tridge hawking was enjoyed ; and at a greater 

 distance from home the hawks were flown at 

 more difficult game, great numbers of grouse 

 being killed in some seasons. At one time, 

 Major Fisher let his young hawks out ' at hack ' 

 (at liberty) near Stroud ; but many having been 

 shot, he gave up rearing and obtained most 

 of his birds full-grown from abroad. Shortly 

 before his death, which occurred on 26 Octo- 

 ber, 1901, he published his Reminiscences, in 

 which are recorded many and varied experi- 

 ences of interest to the naturalist as well as to 

 the sportsman. 



SHOOTING 



The county is well adapted to the rearing of 

 most kinds of game. The wide range of dry 

 light land, mostly arable, known as the Cottes- 

 wolds, the great Crown Forest of Dean, the woods 

 of the large estates, the meadows of long rich 

 grass, and the small enclosures of rough herbage 

 with thick untrimmed hedges ; and a plentiful 

 supply of water are all favourable to the rearing 

 of birds. During the last fifty years or there- 

 about, as the number of hares and rabbits killed 

 has decreased, so the number of pheasants has 

 increased. The reason being that, when from 

 various causes, especially the working of the 

 Ground Game Act, the supply of hares and 

 rabbits diminished, game preservers reared more 

 pheasants to replace the ground game. Previous 

 to the passing of the Act, hares were very 

 numerous in the county, but they gradually 

 became rarer, except on some few estates. 

 During the last two or three years in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Lassington and elsewhere, for in- 

 stance Hartpury, Tibberton, and Sherborne, they 

 have been spared and are on the increase. In 

 1886, when the writer rented the shooting of 



1 C. Hawkins Fisher, Remlniicentet of a Falconer. 

 Nimmo, London, 1900. 



' Badminton Library, Coursing and Falconry, 218. 

 1 H. G. Nicholls, The Foreit of Dean, 1851, p. 201. 



the Grove Farm, Taynton, he killed a hare 

 of a slate colour, evidently a cross with the blue 

 hare, some of which had been turned out a few 

 years before by a neighbouring squire. 



Pheasants are now extensively reared on the 

 large estates, and also on some game farms, 

 such as that at Huntley. The old English 

 pheasant is preferred by some to the Chinese 

 bird as showing more sport. Reeve's pheas- 

 ants have been naturalized at Tortworth, and 

 these magnificent birds arc on the increase as 

 the owner allows only a few to be shot each 

 season. In some of the wooded valleys of the 

 Cotteswolds, and also at Flaxley and other places, 

 the birds fly very high, taxing the skill of the 

 best shot. 



The partridge shooting in Gloucestershire 

 is not as a rule first-class, but it is good on 

 some of the Cotteswold estates, such as Sher- 

 borne ; Corse Lawn is good partridge ground ; 

 and good sport may be had with partridges in the 

 Newent district, at Taynton and at Hartpury. 

 Red-legged partridges are numerous near Newent, 

 so much so that in one day three brace out of the 

 four bagged by the writer were ' Frenchmen.* 

 Partridge shooting in some parts of the county 



4 C. Hawkins Fisher, Reminiscences, 82. 



299 



