SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



and catching them with Newfoundland dogs 

 in the low Esk ; he tried a brace of pointers 

 near Ouse Bridge, but did not approve of 

 them, and after a day or two spent at Rydal 

 Hall he rode over by Hard Knott to Ponsonby 

 with Sir Michael le Fleming and his daughter. 

 The next morning the company divided, some 

 shooting, others coursing, but with only poor 

 results 'a brace of hares.' Sir Michael's 

 shooting, adds the diarist, ' was quite harm- 

 less.' The colonel also found fault with his 

 friend's greyhounds as having too much of the 

 lurcher in them. The day following Sir 

 Michael went out shooting by himself, but 

 came back empty handed ' which he attributed 

 to his gun being crooked.' After a pleasant 

 stay at Ponsonby, from the windows of which 

 ' on a favourable day you may discern Flint- 

 shire,' the colonel journeyed on to Muncaster, 

 and greatly admired the house and views and 

 splendid oaks. ' I never saw any place more 

 fortunately situated.' But though Lord 

 Muncaster pressed him to stay a few days, 

 assuring him that there were plenty of wood- 

 cocks about, the traveller resisted the tempta- 

 tion and hurried back to Rydal, where on the 

 28th day of October he killed five woodcock 

 and a snipe and so finished his stay in Cum- 

 berland. He remarked that woodcocks were 

 very plentiful during the season, and formerly 

 sold in great numbers at Hawkeshead for six- 

 pence each. ' But now the Flys from Kendal 

 take them south, they are as much increased 

 in value as other articles of luxury.' A grue- 

 some likeness of a ' heath cock ' is the last 

 engraving in the charming old first edition, 

 and we are glad to think it was copied from a 

 bird ;shot in Scotland and not in Cumber- 

 land. 1 



There have been no ptarmigan in Cum- 

 berland for at least a hundred years. There 

 are no capercailzie. Mr. Howard Saunders * 

 mentions thirty-one varieties of duck as having 

 been killed in the three kingdoms, and of 

 these the Rev. H. A. Macpherson * names 

 twenty-one which have been shot in the 

 county. Of the remaining ten most of them 

 are so rare that they have been noticed only 

 six or seven times or even once or twice. 

 The three wild swans have all been killed, 

 and the three snipe, 4 and seven out of eleven 



1 A Sporting Tour through the Northern Parts of 

 England and great part of the Highlands of Scotland, 

 etc. pp. 1 06, 149, 277-80 et seq. ed. I (London : 

 printed for Vernor and Hood, etc. 1804). 



* Manual of British Birds, pp.419-78 (ed. 1899). 



> V.C.H. Cumb. i. 199 et seq. 



4 One specimen of the red-breasted snipe 

 (Macrorhamphus griseus) has been killed ; but Mr. 



species of geese. Here again of the four 

 wanting to Cumberland only two specimens of 

 one have been seen in Britain, and four of an- 

 other, and the other two are only known in 

 a wild state from having been first domesti- 

 cated. 



In a preface to the Rev. H. A. Macpher- 

 son's Fauna of Lakeland, the late Chancellor 

 Ferguson carefully defined the borders or 

 marches of that district, including in it the 

 whole of Cumberland and Westmorland and 

 a small part of Lancashire. With the two 

 latter counties this paper has nothing to do, 

 but we may make use of his description so far 

 as it applies to the former. With an insig- 

 nificant exception the ' whole of the western 

 border is waterwashed ' by fresh water for a 

 comparatively short way. So far as shooting 

 is concerned the coast from somewhat south 

 of Allonby to St. Bees Head is practically 

 worthless, and from St. Bees till we come into 

 the neighbourhood of Drigg it is of little 

 value. The shores, either rocky or occupied 

 by grey beaches of shingle or barren sands, 

 have no attraction for duck. Along the 

 coast line from Drigg to the boundary of the 

 county, the river Duddon, are various estuaries 

 and mud flats formed by the Irt, Mite and 

 Esk, and in these places they are fairly abun- 

 dant. But on the north-west seaboard the 

 estuaries of the Border Esk, the Eden, the 

 Wampool and the Waver are the chief 

 resorts of the many kinds of wildfowl 

 which are shot in Cumberland, for here 

 are the flat waterwayed mosses along the 

 Solway, the rich mud flats and oozes, and 

 sheltered bays and creeks where punts can 

 be worked. 



Following the division boundary of the 

 county with Scotland lie first the moors of 

 Netherby. Where it runs south with North- 

 umberland the great stretches of wild country 

 belonging to Naworth come in, the Gillesland 

 moors and, a little further south, Tindale Fell 

 and Geltsdale. The famous moor of Knares- 

 dale is just over the county march, as are also 

 the chief Alston moors, but Rotherhope, be- 

 longing to Mr. Horrocks, is in Cumberland. 

 Here in 1866 over 1,400 brace of grouse 

 were killed a bird to the acre and this re- 

 markable average would have been still better 

 if ' driving ' at that time had not been carried 

 on in a somewhat primitive fashion, with no 

 ' flankers ' and few drivers. Rotherhope has 

 been much damaged by netting, reference to 

 which is made further on in this article. 



Howard Saunders, in the second edition of his 

 book, classes this bird among the sandpipers 

 (Manual of British Birds, p. 621). 



429 



