A HISTORY OF KENT 



generally described as good ' rough ' or ' all- 

 round ' shooting. For this reason it is an 

 ideal locality for the man of moderate means, 

 or for one whose ambitions do not soar to 

 those lofty heights attained by the Hamp- 

 shire partridge-driver with his 200 or 300- 

 brace days, or the Norfolk pheasant-shooter 

 with his enormous bag of rocketers. 



Although a large part of Kent is still 

 mainly agricultural, and divided up into 

 big holdings that are well farmed by the 

 few remaining yeomen agriculturists of the 

 old school, a considerable acreage has been 

 laid down to grass of recent years — a state 

 of things that is never conducive to the 

 well-being of partridges and pheasants. Such 

 land is quite capable of supporting a moderate 

 head of partridges and a still more moderate 

 amount of pheasants ; but the lack of food 

 supplied on the stubbles in other districts 

 results in an inferior and smaller breed of 

 partridges and makes the pheasant to a great 

 extent dependent upon artificial feeding. 



Kent, as every one knows, enjoys the titles 

 of ' The Garden of England,' and ' The Hop 

 County,' the former by reason of the fact 

 that orchard and market garden cultivation 

 are two of its staple industries, and the latter 

 because of its hop-producing reputation. 

 Unfortunately for the shooting man neither 

 of these occupations is particularly suited 

 to game-preservation, for where the land is 

 cut up into small holdings and a number of 

 persons are constantly employed in the fields 

 and gardens, there is little possibility for game 

 to flourish. Birds, therefore, have been 

 driven away from these much frequented 

 areas, and even where they still have the 

 courage to nest in the spring they must meet 

 with a great amount of disturbance of an 

 unintentional kind, and sometimes, one fears, 

 of a description that is not precisely accidental. 

 The hop-garden, although of little use as a 

 feeding ground for partridges or pheasants, 

 even when they can be left undisturbed, 

 provides better security and cover for them 

 than is afforded by closely cropped pastures. 



Partridges, indeed, during hot weather 

 are very prone to seek the shade and quiet of 

 the hop-garden, and it is a little unfortunate 

 that the Kentish hop-picking begins at 

 about the same date as partridge shooting. 

 The end of August sees a vast invasion of 

 ' foreigners ' from London and elsewhere, 

 and just at the moment when it is desirable 

 from the shooting man's point of view to 

 keep the land quiet, the peaceful valleys of 

 the hop-country are filled with the noisy 

 clamour of families innumerable. Their 

 coming is sufficient signal for every partridge 



in the district to quit the scene of so much 

 boisterous activity, and the shady hop-garden, 

 which otherwise would provide a sure find 

 for the partridge-shooter during the early 

 days of September, is not worth beating. 



Here and there, however, where the 

 gardens lie in more secluded situations, the 

 partridge-shooter will not always visit them 

 in vain. It goes without saying, of course, 

 that it is impossible to walk up birds in a hop- 

 garden, where in the half-light that filters 

 through the thick canopy of leaves overhead 

 accurate shooting would be out of the ques- 

 tion. Nor is there ever sufficient cover in 

 the way of undergrowth in a well-ordered 

 hop-garden to allow the sportsman to get 

 within shot of the birds, although should 

 the ground have been allowed to lie quiet 

 for a few days before shooting, it is always 

 worth while to include the hop-garden in 

 the beat for the purpose of driving into more 

 suitable cover any birds that may be l}'ing hid- 

 den therein. Later on when driving proper 

 begins — about the middle of October — the 

 land is clear both of hops and hop-pickers. 



Despite the fact that one end of it is about 

 as modernized as it can very well be, Kent 

 for the most part is very conservative in its 

 customs, and many of its ancient ways are 

 still followed as faithfully as those of its sister 

 county of Sussex. The good old method 

 of walking up partridges or pheasants from 

 behind in preference to the more modern 

 style of driving them to the guns is still in 

 vogue in most parts, although driving is now 

 extensively practised in the moreopen country. 

 So much depends, of course, on the contour 

 of the land, the style of farming adopted, 

 and the size of the holdings, that no general 

 principles of shooting can apply to the county 

 as a whole. Some prefer one method, and 

 some another, but every known style of 

 game-shooting is practised in Kent. 



When driving pheasants in flat districts, 

 such as abound in this county, it is some- 

 what difficult to ' show ' birds to the best 

 possible advantage. It is not always easy 

 under such conditions to make pheasants rise 

 sufficiently to afford really sporting shots, 

 and careful arrangement of each beat is 

 necessary to obtain the best results. The 

 birds must be gradually worked to the highest 

 points of the covert without necessarily being 

 shot at during the process, and it should be 

 remembered that pheasants rise better from 

 high covert as a rule than from ' short cut,' 

 and that they generally fly better and faster 

 when being driven towards home. But each 

 keeper must arrange matters according to the 

 nature of the ground with which he has 



