Hunting then, and now—Hunting near the Metropolis—The Epping
Hunt—Fishing—Shooting then, and now—Guns—Methods of proving gun
barrels—Big charges—Introduction of the Percussion Cap—Size of
bags—Colonel Thornton’s bet.
OF COURSE there was Hunting, both Fox and Stag, but it was not
carried out on the same principles then as now. A man, then, kept a
pack of hounds for his own amusement, that of his friends, and the
neighbourhood generally. A meet, then, was a great social gathering of
neighbours, at which, for the time, all were on a courteous equality,
engendered by similarity of taste, and cemented by means of the Master,
who, at some great expense, kept the pack for others’ use. Now, “the
old order changes, yielding place to new;” the probability is that it
is a subscription pack—with the subscriptions not too well paid, and
the Master frequently changing, owing to his quarrels with his masters,
the subscribers, who carp at his doings, and try to dictate their
own views. The railway brings down the “London Contingent”—sporting
stockbrokers, solicitors, tailors, and publicans—in fact, all who can
scrape together the necessary money to hire the “hunter,” and pay its
fare to the nearest station to the meet. These people have no sympathy
with the farmers, no relations with the county, spend no money,
because they return to London at night, care nought for the damage
they do, which, probably, is done in ignorance; and it is no wonder
that, nowadays, hunting is not so popular among tenant farmers as it
might be—and it is pretty safe to prophesy, that in many districts,
before many more years, it will be reckoned as a thing of the past.
[Illustration: FOX-HUNTING BREAKFAST.]
Then, however, there was never heard a whisper of the scarcity of
foxes. A fox found poisoned, or shot, would have been considered as
an indelible disgrace to the district. The word _vulpecide_ was not
coined, because the crime had not been committed. No farmer ever sent
in a claim to the Hunt, and only old women, cottagers, ever wanted
compensation for the gander, or the two or three hens that they had
lost; as to warning off land, it had never been dreamt of, much less
practised.
In other ways, too, hunting was different—both horses, and hounds
were heavier, and slower then; it was not the pace of the run that was
discussed at night, but its length, and the behaviour of both hounds,
and horses. Fox hunting began much earlier in the morning than it does
now; and a good solid meal of cold meat, washed down with a tankard of
home brewed, was vastly superior to a modern “lawn meet” breakfast,
with its wines and liqueurs, to “steady the nerves,” to say nothing
of the flask of “jumping powder.” Sport, too, was found much nearer
the Metropolis then than now. _Morning Post_, August 14, 1805: “TO
SPORTSMEN and others.—A Deputation to be granted of the very extensive
Manors of _Hornsey_ and _Finchley_, in the County of Middlesex, with
the liberty of Hunting and Shooting over, and upon, the said Manors,
abounding with game,” &c.
[Illustration: PERCH-FISHING—1804.]
The Epping Hunt, too, where the citizens[54] annually met on Easter
Monday, to vindicate their right to hunt in the Forest, was not
the farce it afterwards became. Most men, then, were accustomed to
horseback, and could manage to stick on somehow.
Fishing and shooting were, of course, as popular as now. Of the
former we have had little to learn since Isaac Walton’s time, and the
illustration shows us that the “Contemplative Man,” in the early part
of this century, knew how to combine his “Recreation” with the charms
of female society.
[Illustration: AFTER A DAY’S SHOOTING—1809.]
Shooting, like hunting, was a totally different thing, in the first
ten years of the century, to what it is now. There were no battues, no
hot, and elaborate, luncheons, no being posted in “warm corners,” no
army of beaters, no breech-loaders, and two attendants to load for you,
and, at the end of a day’s sport, no waggon-loads of slain to be sent
off to market to help pay, in some part, the expenses of breeding, and
keeping, such a head of game. Then, a man went out, preferably with
a friend or two, soon after an early breakfast, accompanied by Don
and Ponto, who were his constant companions in his walks, and whose
education he had personally superintended; to watch their intelligent
movements was in itself one of the pleasures of the day. When a covey
rose, not a shot was wasted, if possible, for, by the time the gun was
reloaded, the birds would be far off. A bit of bread and cheese, as
luncheon, at the nearest farmhouse, or the village pub.; if the former,
a brace of birds, or a hare left, with a kindly message. Enough game
to carry home, without being tired, plenty for the larder, and some
for friends; then dinner, some punch—and Betty would come with the
chamber candle and warming-pan, to find the party asleep and quite
ready for bed.
The Guns, with which our grandfathers shot, were vastly inferior to our
modern breechloader; the workmanship was good, but the flint-lock, with
its tardy firing, and the very weak powder then in use, did not render
the “birding gun” a very efficient weapon.
[Illustration: COCK SHOOTING WITH SPANIELS—1804.]
Thornhill, who wrote the _Shooting Directory_ in 1804, is as great an
authority on the subject of guns as any of his contemporaries; and he
had quite sense enough to see that the old-fashioned long barrel of
four feet, or more, carried no further than one of three feet, and he
counselled the musket length of two feet ten inches, as the standard
length for fowling-piece barrels, and preferred one that carried its
shot close, to one that scattered. The method of proving “that a barrel
will not burst, was to get a ball to fit the exact bore, and put the
exact weight of the ball in powder, with which load, and fire it off by
a train; if it does not burst, you need be under no apprehension. This
is called _Tower-proof_; or put in double the quantity of powder and
shot.”
He recommends as a proper charge for a fowling-piece of ordinary
calibre, a drachm and a quarter, or a drachm and a half, of good
powder, and an ounce, or an ounce and a quarter, of shot; and, when
treating on the subject of recoil, he gives one or two anecdotes
of overloading. “The overloading of the piece is the reason of the
recoil; respecting sportsmen who are in the habit of overloading with
shot, such are properly ridiculed in a treatise published some time
since, entitled, ‘Cautions to Young Sportsmen,’ in which we find an
advertisement levelled at some persons who were going to a Pigeon
Shooting Match at _Ballingbear-Warren House_. It was as follows: ‘Take
notice, that no person will be allowed to load with more than four
ounces of shot.’ A gamekeeper to whom this author mentioned the story,
told him he thought it a pretty fair allowance, and, on being told what
charge and weight of shot he generally used, replied, he divided a
pound into five charges.... A friend of the gentleman who relates this
story, seeing his keeper equipped for a pigeon match, had the curiosity
to examine his charge, and, after trying it with his rammer, expressed
his surprise at finding it rather less than usual. ‘Oh, sir,’ replied
the keeper, ‘I have only put in the powder yet;’ and, on putting in
the shot, the charge, altogether, was _eleven_ fingers. The reason he
assigned was ‘that he always liked to give his piece a belly full.’”
The Percussion Cap, which was destined to make such a revolution in
small arms, was patented April 11, 1807, by the inventor, the Rev. A.
J. Forsyth, of Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire. It soon came into use, for
we find an advertisement in the _Morning Post_, December 23, 1808:
“To SPORTSMEN. The PATENT GUN-LOCK invented by Mr. Forsyth is to
be had at No. 10, Piccadilly, near the Haymarket. Those who may be
unacquainted with the excellence of this Invention are informed that
the inflammation is produced without the assistance of flint, and is
much more rapid than in the common way. The Lock is so constructed as
to render it completely impervious to water, or damp of any kind, and
may, in fact, be fired under water.”
Grouse, partridge, and other shooting, commenced on the same dates as
now, and game certificates were as necessary then, as at the present
time. Heavy bags were not the rule. Thornhill supplies us with his
ideal of a luxurious sportsman of his time, with every appliance for
slaughter, and game _ad libitum_. Compare his butcher’s bill with that
of a modern _battue_. “A man of fortune, surrounded with gamekeepers
(let us suppose the scene for the present in Norfolk), pointers,
setters, &c., without number, _Manton_[55] Guns, and all in compleat
retinue, going out at, perhaps, twelve o’clock (the hour of indolent,
and _feather bed_ gunners), into the highest preserved covers in that
County, where the game is so very tame, that twenty birds may be
killed in a few hours; their servants with clean guns ready, and, if
necessary, loaded by them; and probably, if the dog of one of these
_elegant_ sportsmen is admired, or gains credit, if his master is asked
his name, he makes for answer ‘he really cannot tell you, but will ask
his gamekeeper.’”
A large bag is spoken of by Daniel, in his _Field Sports_, where he
says that in 1796, on Mr. Colquhoun’s manor at Wretham, in Norfolk, the
Duke of Bedford, and six other gentlemen, killed eighty cock pheasants,
and forty hares, besides some partridges, in one day.
Mr. Coke, of Holkham, kept up a wonderful head of game, so that his
performances ought not to be looked upon in the light of phenomenal
sportsmanship, because his victims were so plentifully to hand. As an
instance, on October 7, 1797, upon his manor at Warham, and within a
mile’s circumference, he bagged forty brace of partridges, in eight
hours, at ninety-three shots; and, on the previous day, over the same
ground, he killed twenty-two brace and a half, in three hours. In 1801,
he killed, in five days, _seven hundred and twenty-six partridges_.
In January, 1803, Mr. Coke, Sir John Shelley, and Tom Sheridan went to
Lord Cholmondeley’s place at Houghton, in Norfolk, and killed there, in
one day, to their three guns only, fourteen and a half brace of hares,
sixteen couples of rabbits, twenty-four brace of pheasants, thirteen
brace of partridges, and sixteen couples of woodcock.
In the _Morning Post_ of the 21st of January, 1801, we find: “Col.
Thornton some time ago made a bet that he would kill 400 head of game
at 400 shots, the result was, that, in the year 1800, he bagged 417
head of game (consisting of partridges, pheasants, hares, snipe, and
woodcock) at 411 shots. Enumerated amongst these are a black wild duck,
and a white pheasant cock, and at the last point he killed a brace of
cock pheasants, one with each barrel; on the leg of the one last killed
(an amazing fine bird) was found a ring, proving that he had been taken
by Colonel Thornton when hawking, and turned out again in the year
1792.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]