SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Six Mile Bottom, who was lessee of the High 

 Force moors during the sixties, from whence 

 it gradually spread over the country. It may, 

 however, be laid down that prior to 1865 nearly 

 all grouse shot in Durham were killed over dogs.* 



Durham is happily little afflicted with the 

 curse of grouse netting, which has proved so 

 disastrous in other parts of England. It is, how- 

 ever, openly carried on in several instances in 

 Upper Weardale. The practice dates from 1877.* 



Durham is not a good partridge country, grass 

 land predominates over arable, and the latter is 

 usually of a stiff clay inimical to a large natural 

 head of wild game. Moreover, the natural dis- 

 advantages enumerated above might be largely 

 counterbalanced were driving more generally the 

 custom ; but here again the broken and hilly 

 character of the county intervenes, the whole of 

 the north and west of it being practically a 

 network of ' denes ' and ' ghylls,' which render 

 the handling of driven birds almost an impossi- 

 bility. Still there are certain districts where 

 the stock of partridges could be enormously in- 

 creased by systematic driving, notably the great 

 level stretch of the Raby estate which extends 

 for nearly nine miles from Piercebridge up to 

 Staindrop. As a proof of what can be done in 

 this respect we may instance the success achieved 

 by Major Trotter, of Langton, on a not very 

 large extent of ground, about 2,000 acres, near 

 Bolam. Up to five years ago the largest bag to 

 four guns walking up the birds was nine brace. 

 In 1906, not a particularly good partridge season, 

 seven guns killed 106 brace in a single day's 

 driving in October. This is sufficient proof of 

 what driving can do on land by no means natur- 

 ally adapted to a large stock of partridges. 8 



Probably the best partridge-shooting in Dur- 

 ham is on Sir William Eden's estate of Windle- 

 stone. Here in 1905, four guns Lords Lon- 

 donderry and Grimthorpe, Mr. Sutton Nelthorpe, 

 and Sir William Eden killed 138 brace of 

 partridges walking in line. This may fairly be 

 taken as the record for partridge-shooting in 

 Durham, as although a considerably larger bag was 

 made this year at Wynyard, a certain proportion 

 of it consisted of hand-reared birds. Other 

 good partridge-ground in the county is found 

 on Lord Boyne's estate, at Brancepeth ; on 



* According to the volume on Shooting of the Bad- 

 minton Library, G. Sykcs, the head keeper at Rhys- 

 worth, is considered to have been one of the pioneers 

 of grouse-driving, and he was imported into Tees- 

 dale to lay out the High Force moors for driving, 

 but the date of his doing so is not given. 



* Mr. Joseph Peart of Rigg Foot, to whom we re 

 indebted for this information respecting grouse-netting, 

 adds that black game have never been so plentiful in 

 Weardale. 



8 Major Trotter informs us that for the last two years 

 he has supplemented driving by the practice of the 

 ' Euston ' system. Foxes are remarkably plentiful on 

 this ground. 



Mr. Shafto's at Witton, and Mr. Bewicke's at 

 Urpeth. But there is no doubt that the stock of 

 partridges is not only much larger than was the 

 case thirty years ago, but that it is still increasing, 

 owing to more careful preservation, and especially 

 to the constant introduction of fresh blood. 



Pheasant-shooting, or to give it its present 

 appellation, covert-shooting,* has in Durham, as 

 elsewhere, become a practically artificial sport 

 the era has long passed away when a warm 

 October sun, a hedgerow, and an industrious 

 spaniel formed the desiderata for a day's pheasant- 

 shooting. 



Durham is not naturally adapted to the pro- 

 duction of a large head of game, even when 

 hand-reared, and except at Lambton and Wyn- 

 yard very heavy bags of pheasants are the ex- 

 ception rather than the rule. 10 In one respect, 

 however, it possesses a most important ad- 

 junct to good covert-shooting. Its broken and 

 hilly character affords to those keepers who 

 understand their business admirable opportunity 

 for ' showing ' their birds properly. 



Artificially reared wild duck, which in some 

 parts of England bid fair to supersede pheasants, 

 are practically disregarded in Durham. 



With regard to ground game the days have 

 long passed, owing to legislation, when hares 

 proved an important accessory to a day's shoot- 

 ing in almost any part of Durham. Indeed, in 

 some parts of the county they are almost extinct. 

 However, where coursing is permitted, hares 

 are still remarkably plentiful, it being a point of 

 honour with the pitmen, who are great sup- 

 porters of ' the leash,' not to disturb them. In 

 proof of this may be cited the bag of 1,334 

 hares made at Windlestone in 1904. It is, 

 however, the tenant-farmer and not the poacher 

 who has been responsible for the diminution in 

 the stock of hares, and especially in those in- 

 stances, so common in Durham, when the shoot- 

 ing over small, or outlying, properties is let to a 

 game tenant. In the writer's experience farmers 

 will always try to preserve game for a con- 

 siderate landlord, but the feudal spirit rarely 

 extends itself to a shooting-tenant, no matter how 

 open-handed or well-meaning he may be. 



Rabbits still hold their own, though now, not 

 only tenants, but in some instances landlords 

 also, are seeking to exterminate them. Lord 

 Boyne at Brancepeth, and Lord Barnard at 

 Raby, have both declared war on the coney, and 

 other proprietors in the country are following 

 their example. It is, however, the smaller class 

 of farmers who are most bitter against rabbits ; 

 tenants of larger holdings, who have sufficient 

 leisure to kill them down themselves, or who are 



* This has happily displaced the odious term 

 ' battue.' 



10 In 1858, 128 pheasants were killed in one day in 

 Ladywood at Raby. This it the first ' century ' that 

 we can trace. 



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