365 



Doubtless by this early training he acquired the astonishing power 

 of endurance which he so often displayed in walking long distances 

 without showing symptoms of fatigue. 



" The Koss and Anson Match " is of historic fame. It took place 

 on November 10, 1828, and came about by Lord de Eoos backing 

 Colonel Anson to shoot more partridges in a day than Captain Ross. 

 The terms were : Both to shoot in company over Milden Hall estate 

 in Suffolk, which his lordship then rented ; no dogs ; each man to 

 walk forty or fifty yards apart, with two or three beaters between, 

 and it was not necessary to pick up the birds, the umpires seeing them 

 drop being sufficient. Time, from sunrise to sunset. Colonel Anson 

 being a particularly fast and strong walker, fancied he could beat 

 Ross, so he set off at the rate of four and a half miles an hour. 

 This pace they kept up until about two o'clock, when the Colonel 

 showed evident signs of getting pumped. The attendants were all 

 beaten before twelve o'clock and fresh ones had to be found. Although 

 the match was carried out in the fairest manner and the men 

 changed order every hour, the Colonel had luck on his side, getting 

 eleven shots more than Ross and was seven birds ahead of him at 

 two o'clock. Ross was, however, as fresh as when he started, so he 

 went right away from Anson and was thus able to make up leeway. 

 A quarter of an hour before the expiration of the time a message 

 came to him from Lord de Roos that Anson was unable to walk any 

 more, but was one bird ahead, so he proposed to make it a drawn 

 match. This, although as fresh as when he started, Ross agreed to 

 for it was uncertain he could get another brace within the time, 

 the birds being then all upon the stubbles and very wild. 



The bag made was ridiculously small (only about twenty-five or 

 twenty-six brace), but that was easily explained, for in November part- 

 ridges in Norfolk and Suffolk are always very wild, but on the day in 

 question they were made more so by the fact that the shooters Avere 

 followed all the time by a multitude of men both on foot and horseback 

 who, talking and betting on every shot, caused such a row that when 

 a field was entered hundreds of birds went off in one great flight 

 at the other end. Scarcely a shot was got within forty yards, while 

 fifty and sixty yards was the distance of most of them. 



After the match, so fresh was Captain Ross, and in the excitement 

 of the moment, he said to the assembled concourse of people, numbering 

 five or six hundred, that he would there and then start against any of 

 them to go to London on foot for =£500, a distance of seventy miles, or 

 that he would shoot the same match next day against anyone present, 

 except Mr. Osbaldeston, for ii^)00. 



No one took up either challenge, but a young farmer said he would 

 try a race against him to an inn which was over two miles distant 

 For the fun of the thing Ross agreed and off they started, accom- 

 panied by half the crowd ; but Ross won by over a hundred yards 

 beating out of sight nearly the whole lot ! 



