188 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
merely because one had enjoyed the hospitality of the 
one, or admired the skill of the other. Yet it would 
be unfair not to award the palm where it is due, and 
the results above mentioned are so largely due to the 
talents and knowledge of Marlowe, Lord Ashburton’s 
head keeper at The Grange, that I must place him 
first among all the keepers I have ever seen, for pro- 
ducing a fine stock of partridges, as well as for 
managing and realising from them when produced. 
I must mention two others who run him hard for 
ability and partridge management : Jackson, H.R.H. 
the Prince of Wales’ keeper at Sandringham, and 
Robbins, for many years in Lord Londesborough’s 
service at Selby, in Yorkshire. I am, no doubt, 
leaving out others with great claims to be named and 
recorded, there being, for instance, half-a-dozen men 
on the famous manors of Cambridgeshire, within a 
few miles of Newmarket, and another half-a-dozen 
in Norfolk, who have consummate knowledge of the 
subject ; but I cannot pretend to adjust exactly the 
comparative merits of all the good keepers in 
England. 
T revert to the results at The Grange, because they 
make a very remarkable test case. The late Lord 
Ashburton, in whose service Marlowe had been for 
many years on the well-known estate of Buckenham, 
