256 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
beast on my property, and in half an hour came home with 
two fine old cock pheasants, I having found another with 
the one reported, and bagged them both ; " and on October 
1st, 1 82 1 — "Not a pheasant on my estate, so no more 
covert shooting." 
In the next season three appeared there on October 
23rd, and " before night I had all three in the larder, after 
giving me and my banditti a chase that was superior to an 
average fox hunt." 
His bag for fifty years — from 1802 to 1853 — amounted 
to 575 birds, but they seem to have decreased from the 
year 18 19. 
Of the New Forest, Gilpin wrote in 1834' .... "they 
greatly abound in many parts of the Forest. In the manors 
of Beaulieu, Fawley and other places, where they are 
protected, they multiply beyond belief. They are often 
seen in flocks feeding like poultry in the fields." 
Now, in most parts of the true Forest, though their 
numbers are somewhat limited, Mr. Meade- Waldo says^ 
that of late years they have greatly increased. 
In the present day Hampshire rivals any part of 
England as a game-producing county, and the record for 
pheasants killed in one day is held by the Earl of Carnar- 
von, at Highclere. 
In the Isle of Wight mention is made of the preserva- 
tion of pheasants and partridges in Henry VIII.'s reign, 
thus 3; — "1538 — Richard Worsley, Esq., on the death of 
Sir James, his father, in the twenty-ninth of Henry the 
Eighth, succeeded him in the office of Captain, and soon 
after had the honour of entertaining the King at his seat 
^ " Forest Scenery." » '* Victoria History of Hants." 
3 "History of the Isle of Wight," by Sir Richard Worsley. 1781. 
(Page 93.) 
