SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



game is become a very arduous business, as 

 our volunteers have now nothing to vent 

 their fury upon ! ' and a further lament two 

 years later, 'Is it not a curious fact that the 

 right of shooting partridges and pheasants is 

 favourably investigated in Parliament while 

 the growing importance of this city (Carlisle) 

 is coldly and cruelly neglected ? ' 



There are many instances of remarkable 

 shots. In 1819 'Mr. Thomas Craig killed 

 in Alston moor 40 grouse in 17 shots. Such 

 a thing is never recorded to have been in that 

 part of the country before.' 'In 1822 near 

 Allonby a gentleman from Essex levelled at 

 the bird,' and to the astonishment of himself 

 and his companion knocked down nine part- 

 ridges ' all falling quite dead.' The Pacquet 

 of that week sarcastically notices the incident 

 and asks ' if this prodigious sporting feat be 

 true, when will miracles cease ? ' The Rev. 

 Richard Burn of Kirkandrews-upon-Eden is 

 said to have killed two greylags with snipe 

 shot ; but this hardly seems worth chronicling 

 when compared with what was accomplished 

 by Wm. Nixon of Sandsfield, aged 1 1 years. 

 This infant prodigy shot five barnacle geese 

 with one ball at the ' amazing distance of 

 600 yards.' We may here mention the well 

 known curious inscription on a tombstone in 

 Bewcastle churchyard : ' Jonathan Telford 

 of Craggy Ford, who died April 25, 1866, 

 aged 72. Deceased was one of the best 

 moor game shooters in the north of England ; 

 in the time of his shooting he bagged fifty- 

 nine grouse in seven double shots.' 



Netting grouse is a matter on which 

 owners of moors have much to say at the 

 present time. It seems to have been an old 

 habit in Cumberland. The Pacquet relates 

 that in September, 1828, the keeper of Mr. 

 Marshall of Hallsteads seized 180 brace in a 

 cart on Haresceugh Fell. ' We do not enter- 

 tain the idea,' remarked the editor, ' that the 

 Alston and Garagill poachers killed the game 

 with the gun.' He added that ' our market 

 (Carlisle) is supplied weekly with three hun- 

 dred brace of moor game.' 



We bring these early newspaper notes to 

 an end with an ominous extract from the 

 Pacquet of September, 1779, in which it is 

 stated that strict orders had been given for the 

 apprehension ' of all idle young fellows as well 

 as 'prentices, lawyer's clerks, etc.,' who should 

 be found trespassing ; ' and all persons giving 

 notice to the nearest recruiting party in the 

 neighbourhood of the names and places of 

 abode of the offenders will be handsomely 

 rewarded, and their names concealed.' 



Netherby is the best sporting estate in 

 Cumberland, both for the total amount of 



game killed in a season, for record years for 

 different kinds of game, and for record 

 days. The earliest game books date from 

 1848, and as they have been carefully kept 

 ever since it is possible to trace the pro- 

 gress of shooting better here, and to give a 

 fuller account of it, than of any other pro- 

 perty in the county. 



In 1849 the total bag was 2,132 head; 

 grouse 401, blackgame 80, partridges 381, 

 pheasants 242, woodcock 123, snipe 54, wild- 

 fowl 13, hares 704, rabbits 134. The total 

 for 1887, the record year, was : grouse 1,962, 

 blackgame 25, partridges 6,100, pheasants 

 3,015, hares 3,939, rabbits 2,351, woodcock 

 1 66, snipe 106, duck 45, various 60 ; total 

 17,769 head. Large as this total is, it hap- 

 pens that, except for the number of pheasants, 

 3,015, this year of 1887 was not a record for 

 any other kind of game, for in 1872 3,643 

 grouse were killed ; in 1869, 6,602 partridges, 

 in the same year 516 blackgame; in 1876, 

 5,715 hares; in 1852, 22O woodcock; in 

 1889, 123 snipe; in 1899, 5501 wildfowl 

 (these latter hand reared). The record day 

 for brown hares was in December 1876, 739 

 by seven guns ; for walking partridges, October 

 J 887, 53 1 s ' x guns; f r driving partridges 

 404, for ducks 4 and 5 December, 1900, 

 when seven guns killed 1,025 ar >d 1,229. 

 The soil is somewhat rich and stiff, and 

 the best seasons for partridges are the driest 

 ones. 



Grouse driving was first started on this 

 estate in 1863, and since then the use of dogs 

 has gradually grown less and less, and now 

 none are taken on to the moors. In 1848, 

 on 14 August, four guns killed 95 birds. Sir 

 Richard Graham says that here, as is indeed 

 invariably the case, the stock of birds has been 

 much improved by the new system. Partridges 

 have been driven only since 1894, and he 

 does not think that 'this has increased the 

 stock appreciably. There are, however, other 

 agencies at work to counterbalance any bene- 

 fit resulting from driving. I think perhaps 

 the chief one is that the farmers now keep 

 the fences very much closer than they used 

 to, enabling the rooks (whose numbers have 

 increased very much) to find the nests with 

 greater facility. In many instances fences 

 have been grubbed up and two fields thrown 

 into one for agricultural purposes, thereby 

 curtailing the nesting ground. As to ground 

 game I do not think that the Hares and 

 Rabbits Act has affected this estate very 

 much' ; though he adds : ' Of course farmers, 

 owing to agricultural depression, look upon 

 ground game with a more jealous eye than 

 they used to.' 



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