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The diary of Colonel Peter Hawker, 1802-1853
The diary of Colonel Peter Hawker 18021853 Author:Ralph Payne-Gallwey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XXIV September 1st.—An incessant pour of rain from daylight till dark, which put a stop to all shooting, and which I had reason to exult at, as I was ... more »so unwell all night that a clay's hard fagging might have laid me up with a fever. 2nd.—A stormy day, with thunder and lightning and tremendous showers. Went out at eleven with Peter, and my bag was ten brace of birds, which, though the worst first day on record, was vastly well for the little we found, as wild as the birds were. So little as I got, I did as well as it was possible for anyone to have done. yd.—14 partridges, all I shot at. Birds scarce and extremely wild. 4/A.—Sunday. Was at Hurstbournc Park and Andover, where, as far as I could learn, all the other sportsmen were far more unsuccessful than ourselves, so the complaint of scarcity appears general in this country. Mr. Fellowes informed me that the sport has been so bad that instead of sending off baskets of game, as usual, he was sending off letters to his friends, to say that none was likely to be got this season, beyond the immediate consumption of the house, and that an excellent sportsman had been sent out the whole day, and only get seven shots on Lord Portsmouth's best property. 6th.—Wet again. Shot after twelve o'clock, and bagged 14 partridges, having missed nothing, either far or near. During my stay at Longparish, I have killed just 21 brace of birds without once missing a shot. N.B.—On the evening of the 6th, the da)' before my return to town, a man of our village just come home from Winchester gaol, confessed to me that he had in the spring destroyed above a hundred partridges' nests, and another man had feasted on above 200 partridges' eggs, besides destroying others, and all this they confessed was done to spite the lord of...« less