A HISTORY OF KENT 



eggs of pheasant or partridge, but to suppose 

 that it is the custom of these birds to inflict 

 serious damage upon the game-preserver 

 is the greatest possible mistake. The owls 

 should be welcomed as friends by all as 

 destroyers of mice and rats, and their presence 

 in agricultural districts is particularly desirable. 

 The worst enemies of the game preserver are 

 poaching cats and stray dogs, which can do 

 more harm in a single day than all the rest 

 of the so-called vermin can commit in a season. 

 Not only do they catch and kill any bird or 

 rabbit that they come across, but by their 

 constant perambulations of the woods and 

 fields they so frighten pheasants and par- 

 tridges, especially when nesting, that the 

 birds are likely never to return. Of birds 

 undoubtedly the worst destroyers of eggs 

 are the rook — a plentiful enough species in 

 Kent — and the carrion crow, which is not 

 very common in that county, but whose 

 ranks are strengthened during the winter 

 by the arrival of the grey-backed variety 

 from the north. Stoats and weasels (the 

 latter bearing in some parts the name of 

 ' hedge-kine ') are to be found in plenty when 

 not continually trapped and shot, and the 

 rat — one of the worst four-footed foes of the 

 gamekeeper — is always more or less in evi- 

 dence. 



There is very little to be said about wild- 

 fowling in Kent, a large part of the northern 

 coast being entirely spoiled from the gunner's 

 point of view by the amount of shipping 

 and a numerous population. In the Thames 

 estuary during hard weather wild fowl of 

 various sorts are at times driven in from the 

 open sea, but when this happens the gunners 

 are so numerous that all chances of sport of 

 the sort that is worth having are out of the 

 question. Much the same may be said of 



the Medway estuary of the Swale, where 

 at one time a good deal of sport both ashore 

 and afloat was obtainable. The rest of the 

 Kentish coast does not furnish ^ any great 

 opportunities for wild-fowling ; and punt- 

 gunning, so ardently pursued during the 

 season upon the Essex and Hampshire coasts, 

 is not looked upon as a business with any 

 prospects of sport or profit. Of later years, 

 too, an immense acreage of marsh-land, where 

 formerly mallard, wigeon, geese of sorts, and 

 various other fowl, besides bitterns, herons, 

 curlews, and many more water-loving species, 

 made their homes, has been drained and 

 turned into grazing land for cattle and sheep. 

 One may still during severe weather come 

 across a few duck here and there, but one 

 may walk for miles sometimes and scarcely 

 see a feather. Snipe are plentiful in certain 

 favoured spots in the water-meadows, some 

 seasons being a great deal better in point of 

 numbers than others, and woodcock are 

 found in fair quantity when weather con- 

 ditions are favourable. But ' cock are not 

 nearly so freely distributed to-day as formerly, 

 and a bag of double figures in a day would 

 nowadays be considered a matter for con- 

 siderable comment. Not so very many years 

 ago fifteen or twenty couple of 'cock in a 

 day's shooting would not have been con- 

 sidered remarkable, but, whatever the cause 

 of it, such things do not now happen. 

 The year 1906-7 was a ' woodcock year,' 

 and much larger bags were obtained every- 

 where than for several seasons previously, 

 although none of the big totals of former 

 times were reached. Another bird which 

 seems to have grown much scarcer in Kent 

 of recent years is the landrail, although 

 from the sporting point of view that fact, 

 perhaps, is little to be regretted. 



ANGLING 



Time was, many years ago, when the 

 devotee of the fly-rod was wont to angle in 

 the waters of the Medway and the Stour for 

 the ' king of fish,' but much water has flowed 

 since the last lordly salmon was taken from 

 Kent's principal river with the aid of the 

 rod. The Stour, however, can still boast 

 of sea-trout within its tidal reaches, and these 

 fish are occasionally captured by the persistent 

 angler. 



These two rivers supply the Kentish fisher- 

 man with the chief part of the angling within 

 the county, and both of them can boast of 

 a long record of sport. But the Medway 



has sufltered a good deal at the instance of 

 the commerce of the district, which is very 

 considerable, and pollution is not a thing 

 unknown between its banks. One cannot 

 say that the county has anything very excep- 

 tional to offer in the way of sport with what 

 are commonly known as ' game ' fish, but 

 the fact that as much as Cjo a mile has been 

 asked for Kentish trout-fishing goes to show 

 that the possibilities of the rivers of Kent 

 are well understood, and that although they 

 cannot offer such sport as the chalk streams 

 of Hampshire, they can afford very good 

 diversion. The Darent, which is a pic- 



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