Litchfield enquirer., 1871-09-14
ENGLISH SPORTING.

ENGLISH SPORTING.
 i A correspondent of the Boston Journal,
 explains the English method of sporting,
 and the enormous "scores'' run up by the
 aristocratic sportmen, as follows
 Scores 10 single guus in average hands
 will range from % to 50 brac3 full days
 shooting. Good shots kill some 80 odd.
 Lord Cairns reports 120 brace, which, for 6
 man of brains. is not so bad. The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, next of age to Albert Edward, Prince of Wales," shot
 but ''three and twenty brace," showing
 that the scores are not according to the so
 cial rank of sportsmen, as is the case in
 France and other continental countries
 where the ranking gun" is always made
 to tally most, even through His Imperial or other highness hasn't rnffed feather
 To shoot a hundred and sixty brace-three hundred birds and odd-may strike the un initiated as something more like work than ''sport''-ft service for small battalion of foot, or Paris mitrailleuse: But 1t is not so much like work as you would suppose who haven't shot in ''Milor's preserves, J or do not know the royal dodges practiced there. To do this slaughter with two nor tai bands, admitting that they use two guns. seems quite prodigious, that is, I say until you know the dodges.
 Don't deiude yourself with the idea that the noble sportsman does anything so very natural as to weary his lordly legs with the labor of looking, or. as we Say, hunting" for his innocent victims, or that the noble shoulder Is made sore and weary from the weight of his three hundred dollar gun, or that the noble hands are soiled aud scared by anything so very menial as the labor of loading for the featnery fray. No, not as thou dost, manly sportsman of the prairies and the plains, but thusly and by expert ence of ''our artist on the spot :'' Mine host. Lord W-cliffe, proud son of q long line of noble peers, K. G., c. B., P. B :, all the alphabet in general-X. Y. E. the !lY A for that par sxcellt nee of Eng of the term little later the morning suchh as the little island seldom boasts-clear, cool and comfortable ; a rattling ten mile drive in the Briton's delight, dog cart;' the roads such as any country might be proud of, and (parenthetically) whose ex- cellence is readily explained by the ire quency with which one Is privileged to contribute to their support-the number of ''toll bars' throughout the Dominion, and their extravagaut tariffs, ever. suggest ing that they are established for the ex press accommodation of occasional strangers whose contributions must alone pay all ex- penses to the entire community of the pen y-loving British public. But it is not how to run public road you want to know but how we shoot in England. Arrived at Miors ''shootlng-box, of which the English is, very pretty little vlae grown villa on the heather covered moor, our first surprise and evidence of plebeian ignorance arises at the numbers of our party, since we were to be. but four. and there seem to be fourteen. We count and are confirmed. What explanation? A dozen staffs or more, ten feet in length, with little flags at end, like guidons of regiment of horse, stick in the ground and merely futter in the breeze. We look and wonder, but ask no self condemning questions. ArraE gements for the day begin. The Lord and gentle men are ready and move; all mystery dis appears, and the "dodges' are explained; no longer do we wonder how they do such frightful slaughter and survive. s'Our par ty" is but four; the score of others are but -''beaters,' bearers of our bags. etc.-sorts of human dogs and dun mics, who leave us naught to do but pull the triggers and our pipes. The merry little flags are soon seen far before us beating the heather and the brush, moving toward us in open order, as line of skirmishers, driving" the flying focks before them and directly over our heads. With guns all ready. sometimes two and three guns to a man, the game quite tame, young birds weak and clumsy and flying pretty close together, do you longer marvel at the s'scores" we make in England. One field cleared, We leisurely .'change our stand, and the death-dealing process is repeated. At mid day we meet . very refreshing lunch, and almost sleep on our posts when next on guard. So the day delightfully."- passes, and we are not so
 much surprised at night to find ourselves with hundred brace of birds apiece and legs that we can stand on. No man in the kingdom can own or even carry gun with out a Government paid-for license. and runs that isn't the personal property of some one. The same rule holds with eve- " fish that swims. Of course all lands are not preserved bv their owners, many being leased to wealthy agents" and to shooting clubs. Moor. ,, lands, of value only for the shooting, find ASeAoJ cesAS AtA PesA tS ~ AIOLA tWO red to two hundred and fifty dollars per acre. Many farms are let for grazing and cropping, with all game rights reserved,
 and the army of keepers almost equals,
 if not exceeds, the army of defence. The
 game crop of an estate is made quite as
 much an item of revenue as any other product, and although the markets in season, are generally we'll supplied. the
 privileged consumer pays tribute for the luxury to both nobility and royalty. An invitation to shoot' in England doesn't
 mean what an American would suppose. ssTo shoot" is one thing, and the pleasure yours if you're lucky enough to skill" To
 possess any of the fruits of your prowess though, is quite another thing. and re.
 quiring quite another invitation. One may
 have 'sbagged" whole scores of birds. vel
 go home with bag quite empty; sometimes literally comparatively, almost always
 Milor may say, or through his keeper,
 ssWhat would you like to take" or s.wonld
 you take any" ]" and what you thus receive \ ~a.ls