SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



purchasing price of money, when Lord 

 William Howard's account book was kept, 

 was about twelve times what it is now, so 

 that a hare at its cheapest was quite up to its 

 present price, and most game and wildfowl 

 very much dearer. 



There are later accounts at Naworth deal- 

 ing with game and sport. In 1733 the price 

 of ferrets ' bought to hunt ' in Brampton 

 Warren was "js. each ; the cost of keeping 

 them T,d. and $d. a week. John Dobson got 

 Sd. for a day's work ' riveing wood to dry 

 rabbett skins.' These skins were sold for 

 35. 6d. a dozen. In 1736 it cost i6s. to 

 convey 320 couple of rabbits from Naworth 

 to Carlisle. In 1740 there was a payment of 

 5*. 6d. to Jos. Smith for ' cutting hollies for 

 dear.' In 1744 is. lod. to call ' notices at 

 church about game.* In the same year 3*. 

 for ' convictions against shooters of game.' 

 In 1787 'expenses as to game that year' 

 came to 84.* 



Sir Henry Vane, writing to lament the 

 absence of old game books at Hutton-in-the- 

 Forest, has some interesting notes as to shoot- 

 ing there and at other places in the county. 

 He was one of three guns, Sir R. Musgrave 

 and Lord Brougham being the others, who in 

 the ' seventies ' killed for the first time over a 

 hundred brace of partridges in a day at Eden- 

 hall, and, a little later on, he was one of four 

 guns who doubled that bag and established 

 a record at Netherby. One of the party, 

 Colonel Baring, had only one arm, and shot 

 with two very light guns. The most curious 

 shot he has seen in his long life was made by 

 the Rev. C. Burton of Cliburn, who in 

 Wythop killed with one barrel a woodcock 

 and a partridge flying over his head. In these 

 days of modern guns, it is interesting to hear 

 that the old keeper at Hutton, Satterthwaite 

 by name, who taught Sir Henry to shoot, 

 would not allow him to cock his hammers till 

 the bird had risen or the hare started ; but this 

 rule was relaxed after the boy in his excite- 

 ment let one of the hammers slip, and shot 

 dead his teacher's best dog which was pointing 

 a pheasant. The best day at Hutton for par- 

 tridges was 80 brace for three guns. In the 

 ' fifties ' rabbits were very scarce on the 

 Hutton estate ; they were only to be found 

 at Chapel Wood, Wythop. Blackgame seem 

 dying out, as they are in so many places, and 

 woodcocks are fewer. ' I blame rabbits,' says 

 Sir Henry, ' for their deserting me.' 



A little vellum bound book headed Routen 

 Burn Grouse, belonging to Mr. R. D. Mar- 

 shall of Castlerigg Manor, is, save that at 

 Greystoke, the earliest game book we have 

 been able to refer to. This book dates from 

 1828 and is very carefully kept. Sport must 

 sometimes have been very good at Melmerby 

 and Gamblesby and Ouseby and Bullman 

 Hills. In five days in 1828, five guns killed 

 314^ brace of grouse. Then there is a jump 

 to 1835 when 254 brace were shot in nine 

 days. ' Helm wind ' is put opposite one entry 

 to account for a small bag. In 1836, 383 

 brace were killed in six days, 142 on the 

 twelfth; 360 was the total for 1837. There 

 was never more than two weeks' shooting in 

 any year. The book comes down to 1844 

 when the entries of the well-known Cumber- 

 land names, Marshalls, Wyberghs, Lawsons, 

 Dykeses, Musgraves, Fetherstonhaughs end. 

 Below each gun is his total for the day. We 

 see that on 12 August, 1836, Mr. H. C. 

 Marshall shot 36 brace, and Sir W. Lawson 

 12, and Mr. A. Marshall i bird on the 

 26th. This is an interesting little book, a 

 model of a game record so far as it goes. 

 There is a careful list of the grouse given 

 away, and at the end another list of 

 'poachers at Cross House in 1839-41,' of 

 whom one John Smith seems to have had a 

 share in the compounding of a felony with 

 some one, for ' he begged to be let off and 

 paid one pound part fine.' 



The Abbey Holme has always been an in- 

 teresting district for a sportsman. Cox* says 

 ' this part of the country (Holmcultram) 

 was a large forest and stock'd with red deer 

 at the Conquest, the Demesne of Allerdale.' 

 At the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 its 24,000 acres were chiefly held by statesmen, 

 and at the present time Mr. Francis Grainger 

 says that the number of owners is scarcely 

 less. Owing to this fact and to the farms 

 being also small, ' averaging about a hundred 

 acres,' there has been no game preserving on 

 a large scale. In the Survey of 1538 it is 

 stated ' there is a warren and coneys upon and 

 about the Sea Banks which be worth by year 

 to let to farm 13/4.' And there still stretches 

 a warren for five miles along those sea banks, 

 which is worth a good deal more now than 

 the fraction of a pound at which it was in the 

 market 363 years ago. 



This is a good country, though not so good 

 as it used to be, for any one who loves wild 



1 In 1745 there are two significant items: * A Compleat Histoiy of Cumberland, 1700, p. 376. 

 ' I yth Dec, taking my horses to Spadeadam when It is only right to say that Thomas Cox is not 

 the rebels came 1/4.' 'Carrying light horses into usually looked upon as an authority in matters of 

 Northumberland out of the way of rebels 5/-' this sort. 



437 



