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G. H. Edwards—Yorkshire Aviaries



YORKSHIRE AVIARIES


By George Hampden Edwards


I was holidaying on the North Wales coast when a happy idea

occurred to me. A sunny morning in early September found me

motoring along the coast and on to the Queensferry slipway, en route

for Yorkshire. Gatley, Stockport, and then a long climb to Woodhead

and over the grand Pennine Kange down to Huddersfield.


Huddersfield is on my avicultural map, because Mr. George Beever

lives there. He gave me a kindly welcome, and I lunched with him.

The talk was 90 per cent Pheasants, and 10 per cent on the beauties

of Yorkshire, and my hour’s stay passed all too quickly listening to

this keen Pheasant lover. Unfortunately, he has no birds at the moment,

but is about to erect aviaries on his premises, and if I were given three

guesses as to what his first purchase will be, I should say “ Amherst ”

—three times ! Amongst other things, he showed me a large and

remarkably fine water painting of a Lady Amherst cock ; I should

much like to see it reproduced in this Magazine some day.



Nawton and Kirby Moorside are small, picturesque villages, situate

at high elevation hard by the Cleveland Hills. All the villages beyond

York City appeared to be clean and beautiful. Lazy villages, unchanged

from the days of the stage coach. No granite kerbs confine the winding

lanes, and village streets. The roadways wind along the wolds unchanged,

save that they are macadam faced. But the two mentioned villages

are, or ought to be, famous. Nawton and Kirby Moorside, but three

miles apart, house the finest and most extensive collection of Pheasants

in the country. Which explains my visit to the North Biding.


At Nawton I had the pleasure of renewing acquaintance with

Mr. P. J. Lambert, who immediately took me to see Captain Scott-

Hopkins’s birds at Kirby Moorside.


The Captain was feeding the birds when we arrived, and he showed

me over his collection. Now, Captain Scott-Hopkins is a real bird

lover. He loves birds in the real way. He attends to them personally,

feeds them, yes, cleans their aviaries, cares for them with meticulous



