A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



staying one day at Chichester they shot their 

 way home again without interference. 



There do not appear to be many records of 

 bygone sport in Sussex. It has always been a 

 county where nearly every sort of game was 

 found, especially wild fowl. It is recorded that 

 six brace of black game were killed on one day 

 in St. Leonard's Forest as recently as 1 840, but 

 since that date they have died out. Several 

 attempts have also been made to introduce grouse 

 on certain estates where there is a large quantity 

 of heather, but the birds have always disappeared 

 after about the second year. Sussex is no doubt 

 well adapted for pheasant and partridge shooting. 

 In the olden days there was always a certain 

 amount of game over the whole of the county, 

 but when, some fifty years ago, it became the 

 fashion to rear tame pheasants, advantage was 

 taken of the system to stock a great many of the 

 large woodland tracts. There were practically 

 no wild pheasants in the middle of these coverts, 

 but if the owner is willing to spend money he 

 can rear as many as he pleases. 



The writer knows of one estate of about four 

 thousand acres where, previous to 1840, it 

 was thought a good year if they killed 500 

 pheasants; whereas about 1900 the bag was 

 about ten thousand for the season. This is 

 representative of the case on many estates, but 

 whereas pheasants have increased, hares generally 

 seem to have decreased, not solely owing to the 

 Ground Game Act, but also, in this county, 

 because the farms have been divided up into so 

 many small holdings. A little combination 

 amongst landlords and tenants is the only essen- 

 tial to the preservation of hares on the scale of 

 olden times. This has been proved where the 

 combination has taken place, and there are in 

 three or four districts certainly as many hares 

 to-day as there were fifty years ago. In some 

 parts of the county partridges have greatly in- 

 creased in numbers, especially where the owners 

 or shooting tenants have insisted on the sys- 

 tematic destruction of the bird's great enemy 

 the rat. The following facts show what the 

 killing of this vermin means in preservation work. 



Some three thousand acres were rented princi- 

 pally for the pheasant shooting, and there being 

 some good open land the tenant was surprised to 

 find that the average bag of partridges was only 

 ten or twelve brace a day. Having an old spare 

 keeper he commissioned this man to kill down 

 the rats, with the result that the next year the 

 average bag was about twenty-five brace a day. 

 The following year and for many years it was 

 fifty brace a day, some walking and some driving. 

 After the tenancy ended the old ratcatcher was 

 not thought necessary. In two years the bag 

 fell to twelve brace. The estate was shot for 

 partridges about six days each season. 



Quite two-thirds of the partridges killed in 

 Sussex to-day are driven ; and although at first 



462 



sight such a wooded county does not appear 

 very suitable for driving, on some of the large 

 estates some splendid bags have been made. 



Many species of wild fowl are to be found on 

 the rivers and marshes near the sea, and for 

 several years past large numbers of so-called wild 

 duck have been hand-reared, but as the latter 

 afford very indifferent sport the quantity reared 

 is being gradually reduced. In the marshes and 

 brooks at certain times of the year snipe are 

 numerous. 



Woodcock are common all over the county, 

 but of course they have their favourite localities. 

 On one shoot near Lewes forty-four were killed 

 in 1906, twelve in one day. There is no doubt 

 that the birds breed in several places in the 

 county. Young cock have been seen in St. 

 Leonard's Forest, and in woods on the sides of 

 the Downs. There are always thousands of 

 wood pigeons in the many localities suitable to 

 them. 



Although the Hares and Rabbits Act and the 

 small holdings have apparently reduced the hares, 

 rabbits are as plentiful as ever they have been 

 within living memory. 



The greatest advance in the system of shoot- 

 ing has been in the way in which the coverts 

 have been altered and arranged so as to encourage 

 the rocketing pheasant ; and, owing to the un- 

 dulating character of the ground on a great many 

 of the best shooting estates, a good keeper can 

 now show birds as ' tall ' as those in any county 

 in England. In fact, the writer has occasionally 

 seen the birds shown out too high, even for the 

 best guns of the time. 



As regards bags the largest are made by 

 shooting tenants renting parts of different estates, 

 but the following refer to estates where owners 

 shoot over their own property : 



At Petworth Park the shooting in hand com- 

 prises some 10,000 acres; pheasants are not ex- 

 tensively reared by hand, the average bag being 

 about 3,000 pheasants and 500 partridges ; very- 

 few hares. 



On West Dean Park, where there are 1,000 

 acres of woodland, the average bag is about 4,000 

 pheasants, and 1,000 partridges (always driven). 

 In October, 1906, seven guns killed 442 part- 

 ridges in one day's driving. 



At Paddockhurst, 1,000 acres of covert land, 

 the average bag is 3,000 pheasants. 



At Knepp Castle there are 180 acres of covert, 

 and 3,500 acres of partridge ground. The aver- 

 age bag is 1,600 pheasants, and 1,000 partridges. 

 On this estate in 1906 a party of seven guns 

 killed (driving) 385 partridges in a day. 



At Buchan Hill, which is purely a forest 

 shoot with very little arable land, the average 

 bag has been about 2,000 pheasants from about 

 2,000 acres of covert. Thirty years ago fifty 

 hares a day were often killed on this estate. 

 Now a hare is rarely seen. 



