BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



sell again of any deer, hare, partridge, or pheasant ; but it 

 made an exception in favour of birds ' reared and brought up 

 in house or houses or brought from beyond sea.' There is 

 among the old accounts of Hatfield House {Victoria County 

 History of Herts) mention of the purchase in 1629 of ' hens to 

 set on pheasants' eggs,' the foster-mothers costing Is. each. 

 In 1727 we find Richard Bradley, in his General Treatise of 

 Hxishandry and Gardening, combating the idea that pheasant- 

 rearing was difficult and expensive : he had found by experi- 

 ence that where pinioned birds were -allowed due libei'ty, and 

 not more than one cock was put with seven hens, they ' brought 

 their young to perfection for a trifling expense.' 



The pheasant-rearing business, however, was not much 

 practised thirty years later ; for the edition of Bradley's 

 work published in 1757 contains no reference to it, and the 

 omission seems to be explained by the editor's remark that 

 they had found it possible to leave out a good deal which was 

 not important. J. Mortimer in 1761 {Whole Art of Husbandry) 

 says that by reason of the trouble and expense few people 

 reared pheasants except near London. In the neighbourhood 

 of the capital the business was followed by men who sold the 

 birds to gentlemen as ' rarities : especially those that have 

 the white breed and such as are very fine coloured.' In 1826, 

 at Chippenham Park, Cambridgeshire, Mr. Tharpe and his 

 party made a bag of 630 pheasants, of which 300 were either 

 white or pied : the white and pied birds were then much 

 admired as a rare variety. A writer in the Annals of Agri- 

 culture (vol. xxxix,, 1800) remarks that pheasants may be 

 reared in almost any quantity ' by importing the eggs from 

 France and setting them under common hens. It has been 

 practised with great success by some noblemen and others 

 desirous of stocking their woods and plantations.' 



Daniel bred pheasants from pinioned birds which ran with 

 his poultry : ' some, hatched under hens, remained in or about 

 the garden until the spring following, and then probably bred 

 at no great distance.' 



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