HISTORICAL NOTES 87 



Yet you would be right ; not in this 

 country, it is true, for the battue, as its 

 name implies, is of foreign extraction, and 

 organized shoots were the general rule on 

 the continent long before English squires 

 and Scottish lairds took any thought of 

 exploiting the undeveloped sporting re- 

 sources of their manors and moors. 



The second Earl of Malmesbury was 

 sent, like many another young nobleman 

 of the time, to finish his education by 

 making the grand tour of Europe. In 

 the course of his wanderings he spent a 

 late autumn in Austria and Hungary, 

 and the notes in his diary form such an 

 interesting commentary on the modern 

 ' battue,' as seen through the eyes of our 

 great-grandfathers, that they seem well 

 worth reproducing in full : l 



Ytth October 1799. Left Vienna early in the 

 morning for Hinkenbriinn, a small hunting seat of 

 Prince Esterhazy's. Reached the ground nearly 

 an hour before the Prince. Many servants were, 

 however, arrived, and a large breakfast was laid 



1 Extracted from the shooting journals of the second Earl 

 of Malmesbury as published in the Country Life Library. 



