BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



of the best gentlemen shots on the first day of September, gives 

 the following : — 



' Mr. Coke bagged with his own gun 22 brace of partridges 

 at Holkham : General Lennox brought home 14 brace at 

 Goodwood. Lord Fitzharris, on a visit to the Earl of Pembroke 

 at Wilton in Wiltshire, brought down 13 brace before breakfast, 

 and going out again in the course of the day he made up the 

 number to 20| brace.' The best bag recorded for that ' First ' 

 was the Hon. Thomas Coventry's 28i brace in Gloucestershire. 

 On 1st September 1810 Lord Kingston shot 41| brace to his 

 own gun at Heydon, having undertaken to kill 40 brace. 



Single-barrelled guns appear to have been almost uni- 

 versally used at this time. Colonel Thornton, when on his 

 tour in Scotland ^ used a double-barrelled gun, but his opinion 

 of it was not a high one. On 15th September ' I gave up my 

 double-barrel gun for the season : and here I must remark 

 that I look upon all double barrels as trifles rather nick nacks 

 than useful.' " When such a gun was used the fact was deemed 

 worthy of remark, if we may judge from this paragraph in the 

 Sporting Magazine of 1803 : — 



' On the 5th of September Mr. John Walton, gamekeeper to 

 Henry Blundell, Esq., of Ince, went out with a double-barrelled 

 gun, attended by one dog, and in the course of the day killed 

 22| brace of partridges.' 



A few years later a ' thoughtless Propensity to kill all the 

 game possible ' seemed ' to mark a new era in shooting.' 

 ' This Rage for Destruction presents itself in the Shape of a 

 Struggle for exhibiting the largest number of certain Animals 

 to be extirpated within a, few Hours.'' The bag made by Lord 

 Rendlesham and party during the last week of the season in 

 1807 is cited as an example : it comprised 3775 head. 



The standard by which bags were tried in those days was 



1 A Sporting Tour, 1804. Daniel (Rural Sports, vol. ii. p. 270) mentions 1784 as the 

 year in which the expedition was made. 



2 Double-barrelled guns had been made in Charles ii.'s time, vide Duke of Portland's 

 MSS. {Hist. MSS. C'omm.), vol. ii. p. 299. 



74 



