A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



Wigeon. Wigeon used at one time to 

 afford first-class shooting on the Solway 

 marshes, both to the flight-shooters and punt- 

 gunners. The numbers of these birds have 

 fallen off latterly, probably owing to the 

 incessant persecution to which they are sub- 

 jected. I find however that when the feed- 

 ing ground is really good, wigeon are still 

 fairly numerous. The finest sport that I ever 

 obtained with wigeon was in the winter of 

 1890-1, that of 1900-1 being our next best 

 season. The fact is that, barring excessive 

 shooting, such as scares birds away, wigeon 

 will be found wherever new marsh is being 

 formed. The largest bag that I procured last 

 winter consisted of twenty-eight birds. 



Pintail. This handsome duck occurs 

 almost annually, but only in very small num- 

 bers. I met with twenty individuals in six 

 seasons and have shot a few old males in very 

 perfect livery. 



Gad-wall. The gadwall is one of the 

 rarest of the wildfowl that visit the Solway 



Firth. I have very seldom met with it. One 

 of the finest old drakes that I have ever seen 

 was a bird which I shot out of a bunch of 

 wigeon, 8 January, 1892. I have killed 

 others with my shoulder-gun when flighting 

 over the marshes, but the bird just mentioned 

 was procured with the punt-gun. 



Various Wildfowl. I have of course shot 

 many teal, shovelers, scaup, tufted ducks, 

 common scoters, goldeneyes, pochards, shel- 

 drakes, and at rare intervals a few velvet 

 scoters and long-tailed ducks upon the waters 

 of the Solway Firth. In some years large 

 numbers of scaups and common scoters con- 

 gregate in Silloth Bay. Goldeneyes are more 

 numerous on the higher reaches of the Solway 

 Firth than in my own immediate neighbour- 

 hood. They are sometimes killed in fair 

 numbers by the Port Carlisle punt-gunners. 

 Smews and goosanders rarely visit the 

 Waver or Wampool, but the red-breasted 

 merganser is not uncommon in the winter 

 season. 



FOULMART HUNTING 



Hunting the foulmart l (Putorius putorius) 

 was once a popular sport in many districts in 

 the county. As there was no need for the em- 

 ployment of horses, the expenses connected 

 with it were so moderate that they were within 

 easy reach of almost everybody. A good stick 

 and a stout pair of legs may be named as the 

 chief articles of equipment for the day's re- 

 creation. When the fashion for this sort of 

 hunting arose, the sport came natural and 

 ready to the hand of the Borderer whose 

 ancestors had been accustomed to track the 

 moss-troopers across the wastes of Bewcastle 

 and the Debatable Land with the aid of 

 sleuth-hounds kept for that purpose. The 

 Border freeholder, who farmed his ancestral 

 acres and acted as his own gamekeeper, was 

 notoriously partial to good hounds, so that 

 the formation of a pack in any village or 

 countryside was not a difficult process, es- 

 pecially if the movement was started, as it 

 often was, on the principle of co-operation. 

 At all events the foulmart was destined for 

 almost a century to afford pastime to a 



1 The foulmart is so named from the strong odour 

 of its scent to distinguish it from the clean mart 

 or sweetmart. It is sometimes called the pole- 

 cat. It was known in Dr. Heysham's time as the 

 ' fitchet or foulmart.' In the vernacular it is 

 usually pronounced ' foomat ' with a decided ac- 

 cent on the first syllable. James Clarke tells us 

 that Roger Ascham called it ' the fumart' (Survey 

 of the Lakes, p. 193, ed. 1789). 



large number of people throughout the county. 

 The history of the sport cannot be said to 

 date back to any antiquity. Up to the middle 

 of the eighteenth century the foulmart was 

 reckoned as vermin and ranked with the 

 raven, the falcon, the fox, the badger or 

 brock, to be shot or trapped as occasion of- 

 fered, and a reward was ready for the slayer 

 when his head or his skin was presented to 

 the authorities of the neighbouring parish. 

 In the accounts of several parishes in the 

 county the churchwardens are credited with 

 varying sums which they paid over as head 

 money for the slaughter of these animals. 

 As late as 1794, Dr. John Heysham had 

 nothing to say of the foulmart as a beast of 

 venery, though he mentioned that the otter 

 was ' frequently hunted by hounds trained 

 for the purpose.' Its characteristic qualities 

 in the eyes of that eminent naturalist seemed 

 to have been confined to its predatory or 

 destructive habits. 'It preyed by night,' 

 he said, 'and was extremely destructive to 

 poultry and young game of all kinds ; in 

 winter it approached the villages where it 

 committed great depredations in farmyards.' * 

 A zoological observer, 3 who visited Keswick 

 in 1803, has stated that 'the foul and sweet 

 marts (as is the provincial expression for the 



* Hutchinson, History of Cumberland, i. 2, 'Cat- 

 alogue of Cumberland Animals.' 

 3 Observations chiefly Lithological. 



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