PARTRIDGE SHOOTING 



40 and 50 brace and Mr. Coke 93 brace on the jRrst day : on 

 the second their bags were 93| and 96 brace respectively, an 

 attempt having been made by Lord Kennedy to kill 100 brace. 

 Sir William Maxwell says that his father, over whose land 

 Lord Kennedy shot, declared nothing would induce him to 

 allow another match on his ground : it was ' strewn with 

 cripples ' for days after. The usual sportsmanlike rule, 

 strictly observed in these times, never to let a wounded bird 

 escape, was evidently set aside for this match. 



Mr. Tharp, owner of Chippenham Park, made a bag of 

 99 birds one day in October 1826. He began at 8 a.m., using 

 one dog and one gun : he was so knocked up at three o'clock 

 that he could not go on and complete his 50 brace. 



The best partridge shooting in the days of William iv. 

 was in the turnips. The swede had been introduced, and 

 swedes sown broadcast provided much better cover than the 

 roots sown by drill at a later day. In the later 'fifties reaping 

 machines came into use and steadily ousted scythe and reap- 

 ing-hook, till long stubbles became a thing of the past. The 

 invention of the loading-rod was a great improvement, enabling 

 the muzzle-loader to be recharged much more rapidly than 

 of old. Colonel J. E. Goodall has been kind enough to give me a 

 description of this implement which has now, apparently, been 

 almost forgotten. It was made of stout Malacca cane, was two 

 or three inches longer than the gun-barrel and two-thirds the 

 diameter of the bore : flat at one end and carrying a round or 

 flattened ball at the other. Its superiority over the ramrod 

 lay in its greater strength and convenience. When the ramrod 

 was used, the shooter after each discharge had to stop and 

 reload, resting the butt on his boot-toe or on the ground, and 

 restore the ramrod to its place : in wet or snow, moreover, the 

 dirt on the heel-plate was transferred to the shoulder. The 

 ' loading-rod ' or ' shooting-stick ' was much stronger than the 

 ramrod, which was liable to break if not carefully handled, and 

 when it was used the shooter held his gun firmly in his left 

 hand while he rammed home the wads with his right, without 



77 



