PARTRIDGE SHOOTING 



own gun 1265 brace of partridges, his heaviest bag being 

 made on the 8th, when he killed 780 birds on Hall Farm, 

 Eriswell : these were hand-reared birds : shot walking and 

 driving. The Maharajah — one of the quickest shots in 

 England — used a little over 1000 cartridges to make this bag 

 of 390 brace. 



At Elveden in 1885 three guns, shooting on fifteen days 

 in September, killed 6509 birds (3254J brace) : the 23rd 

 yielded the heaviest bag, 428 brace. Some very heavy bags 

 have been made on Mr. Arthur Blyth's Essex shootings in the 

 parishes of Elmdon, Heydon, and Chrishall : in one day, 

 season 1898-1899, 1076 birds (seven guns), the record for 

 that season in England. This was nearly equalled in the 

 following season, when a day's driving (seven guns) produced 

 1021 birds. Some very heavy bags have been made at The 

 Grange, Alresford, Hants, one of the finest shootings, owned 

 by one of the finest shots, in England. In 1877 the bag was 

 11,015 partridges : in 1897 it was 9102. A wonderful bag was 

 made one day in November of the year last named, when 

 730i brace were killed. 



No man has better described the modern partridge drive 

 than Mr. Stuart Wortley from his shooting stool :- — 



' . . . Again your thoughts fly off ; to the tropical marsh 

 and the snorting rush of the wounded rhino through the reeds ; 

 to your shares in the new drifts in Mashonaland, and their 

 possible value ; to the horse that failed by a short head to 

 land the " 1000 to 30, twice " that might have saved you ; 

 to the dire confusion following, and your flight by reason of 

 this to Afric's coral strand ; to the cares and complications, 

 the duns and dilemmas of London life. And as these almost 

 bring you back to consciousness, a fresher gust of breeze 

 sweeps down the fence, and — " Hold up those birds there, on 

 the left ; hold 'em up, hold 'em up ! " The clear voice of 

 Marlowe, prince of partridge-drivers, ringing out from the 

 down-wind side, the crack of his whip, and the rattle of his 

 horse's feet tell you that he is already round and into the 



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