A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



eggs, probably had the best chance. Raine 

 went with the late Sir Richard Musgrave for 

 eighteen consecutive years to shoot, at Mr. 

 Hasell's invitation, a stag on Martindale ; the 

 best stag they got during that time was a 

 ' royal ' weighing 24 st. clean. 



Hutchinson, writing in 1794, said that ' 7 

 or 8 years ago, quails abounded here (Eden- 

 hall) but they were nearly destroyed by a 

 severe winter ; they are now beginning to 

 increase again.' l Quails seem very scarce in 

 Cumberland now. Mr. Heywood Thompson 

 of Nunwick Hall, who shot four in the parish 

 of Great Salkeld in September, 1898, informs 

 us that a neighbour had also shot them in 

 Melmerby parish ' but not recently.' Mr. 

 Macpherson speaks of this bird as ' an irregu- 

 lar summer visitant ' and as having been shot 

 on Foulmire Moss in 1871 and seen at Ramp- 

 side in 1885, while he himself saw a clutch 

 of eggs taken in RocklifFe Marsh about 1882. 

 It seems to have been commoner at the 

 beginning of last century. 8 



Naworth is another provoking instance of 

 a fine sporting property without game books 

 going back for any length of time. Lord 

 Carlisle writes that when he began shooting 

 forty-five years ago, there was far more 

 heather on his moors than there is at present, 

 but the conservatism of old keepers, who ob- 

 jected to its temporary loss when burnt, led 

 to its dying out in many places, and now 

 some beats, which used to be good, are entirely 

 covered with bent and useless for grouse. 

 There was no driving in those days, and the 

 birds lay well for a month or more after the 

 'twelfth' ; while at the present time, after the 

 first week, it is little use pursuing them with 

 dogs, and so Lord Carlisle, somewhat against 

 his will, has to take to driving. In 1872 

 which here as everywhere stands out as the 

 best year for grouse ever known he and 

 three other ' guns ' killed a hundred brace 

 over dogs in a day, 372 brace in five days. 

 After several bad seasons the north moors on 

 the Naworth property, which have suffered 

 much from disease, show signs of improve- 

 ment, six 'guns' having shot there in 1900 

 140 brace in a day, while on Geltsdale, 

 also belonging to Lord Carlisle, Mr. Lacy 

 Thompson's party (7 guns) killed 177 brace 

 on 1 3 August of that year. 



At times grouse disease has worked great 

 havoc in Cumberland ; it is probable that the 

 more universal and systematic way in which 

 driving is now carried on will, to a certain 

 extent at any rate, lessen its ravages ; the 



1 History of Cumberland, \. 271. 

 * Fauna of Lr.kdr.r.ri, p. 338. 



birds are so hustled about, and mixed up in 

 the autumn that in-breeding is much less 

 likely to occur here than on moors shot over 

 with dogs, where often some broods have 

 nothing taken out of them, and remain quietly 

 on the same part of a hillside all the following 

 spring. 



There is good partridge shooting about 

 Brampton ; no pheasants are reared at Na- 

 worth, but wild ones do well as is the case 

 in all this district. Blackgame here, as in 

 most places, seem to be dying out ; nearly 

 everywhere, except in such well established 

 haunts as Dumfriesshire and Argyllshire, 

 there is the same tale to tell ' blackgame 

 used to be plentiful.' Lord Carlisle blames 

 the shooting of greyhens for their decrease, 

 and no doubt this is the chief cause. But 

 even where hens are spared young cocks are 

 seldom given any law ; in some parts few of 

 them live beyond harvest time, and this 

 annual clearing off of young blood must tell 

 hardly oh the race. 



In the well known Household Book of Lord 

 William Howard 3 there is a list of the prices 

 paid for game and wildfowl, etc., from 1612 

 to 1640. A gorcock (red grouse) was valued 

 at 5</., blackcock 6d. to iod., greyhen $d. to 

 6d., hare 4^. to 8d., mallard $%d. to yd., 

 partridge ^d. to 6d., heron 6d. y lapwing i-^rf., 

 bittern 8d., curlew i\d. to 6d., do (jack) or 

 ' knave ' as it is called 2d., moorfowl 3^. to 

 $d. (As grouse and blackgame are previously 

 mentioned it is difficult to say what this last 

 bird is). With the prices given here we may 

 compare those in a list ' communicated ' to 

 Hutchinson from the Roll of Birkby Manor 

 belonging to Lord Muncaster. 



4 ' We do order and put in pain that every 

 the inhabitants within the Manor of Birkby 

 who shall hereafter take or catch, kill or come 

 by any wildfowl whatsoever, shall not sell 

 them to any foreigner or stranger, but shall 

 bring them to the lord, or his bailiff, for the 

 time being, at the prices and rates hereafter 

 specified, viz. for every mallard 4^. Duck 

 3<f. Every long mallard or widgeon, 2d. 

 Woodcock or partridges, id. feelfaws thros- 

 tles, ousles, each four id. Every curlew, 

 3<, for two teals, id. Plover, id. Lap- 

 wings one halfpenny, under pain and for- 

 feiture of 3;. $d. for every fowl, otherwise 

 sold, as formerly accustomed.' Hutchinson 

 gives no date to the Roll ; the editor, Mr. 

 Wilson, fixes it as of the seventeenth century, 

 probably between 1670 and 1700. The 



3 Selections from the Household Books of the Lord 

 William Howard of 'N aworth Castle, p. Ixxvii. (Surtees 

 Society). 



4 History of Cumberland, i. 578. 



436 



