The morning call., 1890-11-16
A Modern "Shootins Box" and a
"Lodge"-Often as Grand as a
Magnificent Palace-The British
Huntsman and His LOADER.
Cost of a Brace of Partridge.
One Hundred Pounds Sterling
for a Red Deer.
Special to THE SUNDAY CALL.

llf1N n
lrSSSsGS Il hunting and fishing in
GszssslE fzzzz.s Scotland, it may be easily
understood that. of the three great British
popular days, Derby day" which is nova
Bile sporting day, Bankers Holiday. on
which day every British subject feels en-
titledto his ease and sport, and the statutory
feast-day of the Twelfth of August, the lat
ter, which is the annual day dedicated to
slaughter of grouse, is always rife with the
most intense thrills of antcpatory pleasure.
The pent-up warnings of an army of
British Nimrods explode on this day. The
very mention of the glorious Twelfth at any
other season of the year fills their whole be-
ings with flashes and quiverS OF hunger for
tie moors and fields. 1t would be national
crisis indeed that would compel Parliament
to hold over this initial epoch of the seasons
outdoor sport. If last week the social,
political and financial season" was at its
height; if all the milords, the honorables
This or That and The whole list of artists,
actors, HteratoTs, bankers, manufacturers,
eIerics, scientists, and what-nots, whose do
iDgs make London the real center OF the
world, and this whole tight little island"
the brain and Drawn workshops for Euro
pean civilization and progress, were at their
tenSeSt stralnlngS OF activities tins week,
if it contain the exalting Twelfth" the
foremost people of Great Britain are q
wholly different set of human beings. There
is now an enthusiasm, heartlness, genialIty
aud hilarlousnesS about the British man
that makes you feel you have miSjudged
him. He is no longer stone He is Tad,-
ant, generous human. In Justice, this sill
even apply to the grave and auSiere Scotch.
High-lows and CATERS, balmorals and Tam
o Shanters, corduroyS and collarleSs neckS
endless flap pockets and suggestions OF
T;tSES SbnW this British man of
THE HUNTING SEASON
Of to good advantage besides. His Ian
gua2e is honest and hearty, his laughter
has, l am sorry to say, more Integrity than
the American laugh, which always seems TO
be begging pardon or casting challenge,
and his face is continually wreathed IN
smiles. Tie world seems good to him, and
anybody where he is. And therefore, if he
spends forty instead of twenty millions
for the thing which makes him for even
brief period OF the year bright-faced in
stead of bear-taced BrltOn, he has not
done amiss. After all, the beggarly brace
OF grouse, ptarmigan or pheasants, or the
trembling-kneed and skinny deer lie has
knocked over with his expensive fowling-
piece, IS not so much the yearly motive
which impels him to immense expense
and labor. Whether or not himself con-
sciouS, the impalpable, undetiDable witch
cries of that sweet nature ever calling to
man to be betteie1, is what draws him
on. The wide free moorlands odorous
with countless flowers and warrant weeds;
the glorious sides of mountains, endless
panCramas OF scene and color as the shine
and cloud chase each other across them;
the white wings of mountain mist softly
Tapping the grim old peaks: the purple
heather; the rocky glenS; the stupend0us
straths; the feathery waterfalls; the wimp
ling burns and above all the deep and
dreamful lOchs Of Scotland; these are the
British sportsman real quarry after all.
For month before the Twelfth all kinds
Of preparations are making. The first
eleven days in August almost gives the i'm
preston of the gathering of an army OF
militia, and on the day itself, and indeed for
week before, the Princess-street station,
Edinburgh, Exchange and Lime street sta
Euston-square station of the London
aud Northwestern Railway in London,
present most animated scenes. All
other passenger traffic gives way to
the hunter hosts. Horses and heavy luggage
have been sent on bY the goods trains " in
advance, but the platforms are massed with
hampers, pouches, cases of lowing pieces,
dogs, boxes OF dogs food, and countless
paraphernalia of hunting, while excited
groups OF kennel-keepers, masters ser
wants, leaders" old hunters who are clad
IN the toughest and greasIest OF gar
mentS, and excited amateurs dressed
to proclaim their destination, jostle
each other in good-natured despera-
tlou IN extraordinary efforts to monopollZe
the attentions of porters, guards and train
men. From six to eighteen hours bring
them all to their journeys end; for there is
no shooting" in the remotest portion of
Scotland which cannot be reached in the
latter time from London.
The moarand cabin and the Highland
sheeling. which were formerly the abode of
the British spOrtsmen, have given way to
the modern "sh0Oting-box," Which is never
less than
A HANDSOME COTTAGE,
And the "lOdge," which is often as grand as
the magnificent palace Aside from these
exclusive cOnvenienres for sportsmen, it is
becoming more and more the custom ON the
part Of titled owners Of large northern es
tates, who retain possession of their own
"shootings," or who lease them to others
with privilege of themselves and a certain
number Of guests shooting over their own
preserves, 10 discharge many of their London
social obligations by entertaining their city
friends with "a few days shooting"
We Americans have no comprehension
of the. universally of the sports
man instinct and education in Great Brit
ain. Reading English fiction, and particu-
larry Kingsley's novels, gives an insight into
the importance of hunting and shooting t.
every English bred man. So that the greater
the man be socially. politically or financially
in England the more likely it is that he is
bred from youth. though always living in
London, TO following the hounds and shoot
ing grouse on the m0ors, or pheasantS within
the bounds" walls of great demesnes. He
may neither own nor rent shooting"
But lie has a great London house. This is
open to his northern noble friends dur
ing the London season" The return
courtesy involves entertainment during the
shooting" season; and it is often the case
that large number of the genuine ariS-
tocracy of the island will be found at any
of the numberless great northern palaces
during the autumn than are ever at one
time crowded at one time within sitting
walls at the most exclusive London winter
receptions.
If you were pigriming afoot and alone in
Scotland and should suddenly come upon
one of these hunting parties, whether beat
ing the moorlands for grouse or in mad
gallOp after the hounds for fox or deer you
could never make an error in judg-
ment as to whether you were basking
in the sunshine OF nobility or merely
having the dust flung in your eyes by
parcel of common mortas. The latter.
every year comprising a greater number
OF our own countrymen who have gradu-
ated from the thrilling diversion OF chas--
Ing anlse-seed bags across the moors OF
New Jersey, the sage-brush sand chasms
OF Long Island or the rocky Businesses OF
Westchester County, are accoutered like
band of SHOW" gypsies or the lords and
ladies OF medieval pageant. The old pale
blue blood of British scorns these trap
pings. Your true British nobleman follows
the hounds or beats the moors in raiment
shining with guD-grease and the friction OF
ages, and as odorous Of the chase as Galway
fish-wife's braideen or Nottingham butch
ers snock of her or his vocation.
But to either parvepu OF nobleman the
etiquette Of the British sportsman is sacred
ana lnVlOlable. A hunter is invariably a
guu." certain Americansm
DEFINING ANCESTRY
May have had this remote origin. The
dogs are always hounds" You must say
shooting" and never .'gunning.' You
look for a hare or ''pick it up" and can
not track" it, and the tail of fox is mod
estly termed a brush" 10 head
fox, to hallOa at fox, or to utter
any cry of approval, advice or ex-
ultAtiOn In the field would nrnye a