XXX 



mucli more plentiful than they were fifty years ago, and having breech- 

 loaders which eject cartridges as fast as they are fired, and can 

 be re-cartridged in a brace of seconds, men can't beat this splendid 

 record over dogs, simply because those who have really good moors 

 don't go out as early and can't walk so hard or continuously as their 

 fathers, whilst those sportsmen of the present day who never tire but 

 work hard from daylight till dark and are good shots have not such 

 moors to shoot over as Colonel Campbell's, and until they get a chance 

 over them the Colonel's records are likely to remain undisturbed, for, 

 under the circumstances, they are far and away better than Duleep 

 Singh's. 



I have not read Mr. Stuart Wortley's books, but from a review of the 

 first volume I learn that a wonderful bag of partridge was made at 

 The Grange in Hampshire in October, 1S87, when seven guns in four 

 days' driving got no less than 4,109, being an average of 1,027 a day, 

 587 a gun, or 147 per gun a day ! 



In the opening week of the season 1888 the Comte de Paris, who 

 died last year, and party of nine guns killed 1,269 brace of grouse over 

 dogs on the Moness and Loch Kennard moors in the Breadalbane 

 district of Perthshire, which is considered the best grouse land in 

 Scotland. 



At Merton, Lord Wal>ingham's place in Norfolk, about Christmas, 

 1893, the Duke of Cambridge, Lord Huntingfield, Lord de Grey, Mr. 

 Archibald Stuart Wortley, Colonel Bateson, and two other guns killed 

 in one day 1,572 pheasants, 235 hares, 90 rabbits, and 5 woodcock, and 

 repeated almost the same bag for four consecutive days, until at the 

 close of the fourth it was found that nearly 4,000 pheasants had fallen 

 to the guns of seven well-skilled sportsmen. Such a bag would have 

 been impossible thirty or forty years ago, when pheasants were not 

 reared by hand and turned down in such quantities as they are now. 



Over the Elveden estate, which was purchased last year by Lord 

 Iveagh, in the season 1892-93, the bag for 22 days' shooting was 10.745 

 head, including 5,258 cock pheasants and 2,237 partridge. Upwards 

 of 21,000 pheasants have been brought up by hand there in a single 

 season, nor does that extensive breeding prevent 150,000 pheasants' eggs 

 being usually sold every year off the same preserves. 



And in the season 1893, which will be ever memorable for big bags 

 of grouse, probably the greatest was that of Mr. Rimington Wilson's 

 party of nine guns on the 30th August, when over the Bromhetd 

 moors, near Sheffield, they shot 1,324 brace — of course, driving— thus 

 beating his own record made in 1872, as given at p. 246 ; but there I 

 find I gave Mr. Wilson's christened name incorrectly as " Kenn'ngton." 



The best bag of grouse made over dogs in 1894 which I have heard 

 of was that recorded in The Field of September 1, where Mr. Roger K. 

 Cross with party of four guns got 1,549 grouse over the Inverlair moors 

 in Inverness-shire up to the 27th of August, and the best bag made 



