The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-10-21 00:00:00

PHEASANT SHOOTING (Concluded.)—No. 9.

It is a thousand pities to kill hen pheasants as men
do—as men do who would really take immenseumbrage
I and look mysterious daggers at us if we said they were
no sportsmen to do so. Their excuse is (which is no
excuse at all, but rather an evidence of greediness,)
when a bin bird is shut, "oh, it's the outskirts of our
shooting; if we had not bowled her over she would
have gone into such and such a wood, and we should
never have seen her again—we never kill our own
hens." Our own hens indeed! Do you suppose your
neighbour does nut know of your shortcomings, and
acts with a like spirit towards you? So ibis; yourforte
is to kill your neighbour's Len birds, especially if you
are not on very good terms, (which is most probable
about September time,) and Pis to kill yours ;, conse-
quently whieh suffers most at the end of the season?
The bad shot, and the least vicious, of course. Yet this
is not a nice style of things, is it? Game cannot be
called individual property, it belongs to those on whose
hind ibis found'; therefore, although you may kill game
on your own laud, and have fair reason to suppose
souse of it was bred upon it, you cannot be sure your
neighbour may not justly say the same, and fairly
argee that he at Last has helped to keep it. Game
should be the joint-stook property of those whose lands
and coverts are contiguous, and fair dealing consequently
observed; then there would be less bickering, and
shooting would be, what we presume on first principles
it is considered, a pleasure and enjoyable recreation.
In the Game Laws we would have the like distinction,
or want of distinction observed. We would certainly
protect the lauded proprietor from the vagabond
marauders over his estate,—those half-thieves, wholly
ruffians, denominated poachers; and to effectually
check the present increasing sympathy in this aban-
doned class, we would simply, as some able speaker
said the other day, make game the property of the in-
dividual on whose land it was found, and snake the
stealing it felony,—a system simple and effective, we I
fancy, if tried. Beck, back, back! to the old question
—hen pheasants. Don't kill them if you can help it.
Some novices say they don't know the difference be-
tween the cock and lien ; then all we can say is, they
are unsafe inon to have in covert, or in the open; they
should stay at home, and shoot cock-robbins. A fine
ought to be inflicted for shooting hen pheasants, and
strictly observed. Listen,—

"But when the hen to thy discerning view
Her sable/pinion spreads of duskier lice,
The attendant keeper's prudent warning hear,
And spare the offspring of the future year;
Else shall the fine, which custom laid of old,
Avenge her slaughter by the forfeit,—gold."

In pheasant shooting, dogs ought, whatever kind we
employ, to be so well broken as not to notice •other
game, particularly hares or rabbits. Rabbits, some
may say, are not game, but they are chiefly found
where game is found; therefore the reader, not satirical,
knows what we mean. Try your ground thoroughly
with yourselves, your dogs, and your beaters. A nide
of pheasants is often collected near together. The
morning's scent also, when almost evaporated, makes
it necessary that yourselves, your doge, and beaters
should work the closer. Try every part of the cover ;
pheasants are very capricious, but in the forenoon are
often found under the bushes and brambles which fre-
quently surround the larger trees of the covert. 11 a
slip is to be found, they are very likely to be there;
and if such slip be mossy and shady, it will probably
harbour a woodcock likewise at the right time of the
year. The period of the season has a great deal of
influence over the methods employed in pheasant
shooting, and the sport altogether materially differs
whether it be in October. or in January. When the
leaves have fallen, not only are the birds more scarce,
but they are more wary also; and if in the early part
of the Season they have been much shot at, they will
almost every one leave the covert as soon as they hear
the sounds of a shooting party. At such times, after
working the covert, it is judgmatical to make a detour
around, when a few shots may be picked up. In point
of time we consider the 31st of December (thus our
Christmas guests can have a day or two if they affection
the work) should close the pheasant shooting season;
and if the owner of the ground be the trespasser after
this date he will surely suffer for it the next season,
for it is two to one that the remaining pheasants will
mate themselves with those of other localities; for
though they are to a certain degree domestic birds,
and if well fed, and not eternally hunted, are tolerably
constant to their birth-place, yet continued warfare will
force them to irrecoverably quit covers so often die.
turbed. We notice battue shooting in conclusion, simply
because it still remains a fancy with even some who
consider themselves sportsmen. We borrow the fashion
from France and Germany, not the field we should
suppose English sportsmen would go to for a sporting
fashion, whatever their wives and daughters may do for
kid gloves, scents, ribbons, and crinolines; but the
battue of France and Germany exhibits much more
masculiae feature than the exhibition of the Dundreary
principle of this country. As we follow the battue, it
seems a cruel waste of innocent and beautiful life—an
indiscriminate slaughter, not only on account of the
animals destroyed, but because we think it affords the
sensitive and the fastidious an excuse for slandering the
sport we are treating of—that is, pheasant shooting, as
murderous and wanton. The battue, which may bring
the sportsman into collision with a noble stag, or to the
rousing of an old boar, or to the unkennelling of an
old wolf, is something LIKE ; in which ooze something
more than child's play is enacted, and the fowling.
piece of the sportsman is hardly sufficient to enable him
to escape scatheless, In India, too, the battuo is sport
for men; and while the well trained negroes ',Tirane the
wild hog, or the jackal, with their spears, &a., their
master and friends are hunting the tiger at force to-day;
to-morrow, probably, himself and friends will be shoot-
ing peacocks, snipes, ko., in the morasses, where the
tiger, the wild boar, or the tempestuous buffalo may
hunt them. This is a batten, worthy of Englishmen;
but the 10,000 pheasants, the 15,000 partridges, and the
20,000 hares, in the space of a fortnight, may be
murder, on a chaise, but it has nothing to do with
sporting, as Englishmen should follow it.—" Cock ,
Shooting" next week.

LIFEBOAT SERVICES. -During the past two years the
lifeboats of the National Lifeboat Institution have
saved seven hundred and forty shipwrecked persons on
the coasts of the United Kingdom. This valuable and
important society is. now earnestly appealing to the
public for additional support, to meet the heavy and
continued charges on its one hundred and twenty-three
lifeboat establishments. We may add that contribu-
tions, in aid of the funds of this Instituti 11, are re-
ceived the secretary, Mr. Richard Lewis, at the Insti-
tution, 14, John-street, Adelphi, London.
ARGENTINE SILVER. -Until very lately articles of
silver for the table were considered necessaries that no
nerson of competent means could dispense with; but
the frequent robberies of plate induced men of science to
seek for a substitute which in appearance and purity
would supply its place. This seems to have been
happily eccomplished, and the articles which are now
mauufmtured by Mr. Benson, of Cornhill, from Argen-
tine silver, appear certainly to offer the desideratum
sought after. He manufactures it into all kinds of
patterns of articles for which silver was previously used,
and employing, as he does, first-rate workmen, gives
to the articles a finish which would defy detection were
it not for the absence of the customary silver mark.
We understand that the duty payable on silver articles
is alone equal to the charge for an equivalent in this
beautiful metaL—Curnartem Herald, April 20th, 1861.
—J. W. Benson, Prize Medallist, No. 6605, Inter-
national Exhibition 1862, has just published a most
elaborate and complete catalogue of his manufactures
both in Argentine and silver plate. It consists of 130
pp. Imperial Bvo,, and includes a full and carefully
arranged price list, and upwards of 300 engravings of
articles of various kinds. It will be sent post-free by
enclosing six stains to J. W. Benson, 46 and 47,
Cornhill, London, E.C.

" On the 13th inst. the Lord Mayor received, at the
Mansion House, for the Operatives Relief Fund, from
Messrs. Cassell, Fetter and Galpin, one-half of the
first instalment of £5OO subscribed by readers of
Cassell's Illustrated Family Pape?, the other half
being paid to the Bridgwater House Committee on
the same day. Further payments of considerable
amount are expected from the same rmree."

The Chief Commissioner of the Sanitary Report,
visited the Docks to inspect the PURE Tits imported by
HORNIMAN & CO., LONDON, from having on investiga-
tion found that many teas in general use are covered
by the Chinese with an objectionable powdered colour
which is drank when the tea is made. Hornitnan's
Green is a natural dull olive,—not bluish,—the Black
is not intensely dark; by importing the leaf twice/oared,
the Chinese cannot disguise and muss off as the best,
brown wintery fisvourless sorts, consequently, Bonn-
man's Pure Tea is uniformly strong, delicious, and
wholesome. Sold in Packets by 2,280 Agents.—Agents
in THIS LOCALITY are advertised in OW 001GUnG of this
day.
THE OFFICIAL CATALOGUE of the International
Exhibition, in its explanation of the diagram of the
trophies in the middle avenue, describes Benson's great
clock as follows:—" 48. A clock, by Benson; striking
the hours and quarters on five bells, the largest weighing
22 cwt. The works are 300 feet from the dial, which
is situated in the great centre tower, the connexions
being carried underground, the weights exceed a ton,
and are 200 feet from the works. A new remontoir
escapement allows the use of the great weight required
to drive a clock of such size, so distant from the dial,
and moving hands of such magnitude, sometimes in
opposition to the wind. A two-seconds compensation
pendulums is employed." See the official catalogue, page
ay. J. W. Benson begs to inform the public that lie
has every facility for the manufacture, on a large scale,
of all kinds of clocks and timepieces. With the aid
of steam machinery he is able to produce turret clocks
at prices varying from 2,000 guineas to the small but
accurate timepieces suitable for a village church or
school at 15 guineas ; and to supply at much lower prices
than are usually charged all kinds of carriage, railway-
station, inimical and chime clocks, regulators, &c., ate.
Benson's illnstrat...d pamphlet on clocks contains
numerous patterns suitable for the drawing and dining
rooms, the library, the hall, shop, warehouse, office, or
counting house, w ith an historical account of the rise
and progress of clockmaking, and a carefully prepared
price list of every description of clock post-free for two
stamps, front the manufactory, 33 and 34, Ludgate Hill,
London, B.C. Established 1749.