2U 



A capital killing average, and shows how the old fellows with their 

 now-despised flint guns could shoot. 



Vermin in those days seem to have swarmed in some parts, for over 

 this estate, in the same year, w^ere killed by the keeper and two assistants, 

 9 martins, 31 pole-cats, 416 stoats, 120 magpie?, 167 hawks, 310 field- 

 rats, 19 brown owls, 7 cats, and — which shows there was no hunting in 

 the locality — 22 foxes. 



In the game-book at Riddlesworth for 1809, six guns are stated to 

 have shot in January, 1 duck, 93 pheasants, 2 snipe, 19 hares, and 10 

 rabbits, total, 125 head, to which is appended a note in Mr. Thornhill's 

 handwriting : " Have not heard so many was ever killed before." It 

 was not long until he found the score beaten, for in the next year his 

 return, in one day, was better by 150 head, standing as it did at 110 

 pheasants, 96 hares, and 63 rabbits, with ten guns. And again in 

 November, 1813, with eight guns 143 pheasants formed part of the 

 Riddlesworth bag of 232 head. 



The following is a delightful record, and, as the Badminton volume 

 says, " the carefully kept table must be one of the most interesting 

 shooting records in existence." I have more pleasure in relating the 

 performance than I have with any other in this chapter : — 



" The late Lord Malmesbury kept a journal of his sporting life even 

 to the quaatity of powder and shot he used, the game he killed each day, 

 the time he was out, the distance he walked, and the weather." 



Here are th-i totals of the game which fell to his own gun over the 

 Heron Court Manors, his property in Hants, in forty seasons from 1798 

 to 1840 :— 



Blackgame ^ 81 



* Pcirtridges 10,744 



Quails 50 



Landrails 95 



Pheasants 6,320 



AVoodcocks 1,080 



* Snipes 4,694 



Wild Swans 3 



Wild Geese 8 



Other Fo^vl 2,7f6 



Bitterns 10 



Golden Plover 6 



Haves 5,211 



Rabbits 7,417 



Total 38,475 



To shoot the above Lord Malmesbury was out 3,645 days, walked 



36,200 miles (about once and a half round the world), missed 16,766 



shots, and fired away about 750 pounds weight of powder and four tons 



of shot ! 

 His daily average bag was only about eleven head, but he got them 



in fifteen shots, a marvellous record over so many years. And that was 



* PtBudering plural the words snine and partrld--^ by adding a final s 

 crives words the sound of which has always been horrible to me. We never 

 hear of grouses. 



