page_title: Hunting and shooting in the United Kingdom
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Hunting and shooting in the United Kingdom / History
caption_attribution_description: Copper engraving entitled "The Setting Dogg &amp; Partridgs" (detail)
context_page_description: In the United Kingdom, the term hunting with no qualification generally refers to hunting with hounds—normally fox hunting, beagling, stag hunting or minkhunting—whereas shooting is the shooting of game birds. What is called deer hunting elsewhere is deer stalking.
  As of 2012 game shooting and deer stalking are carried on as field sports in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Hunting with hounds in the traditional manner became unlawful in Scotland in 2002 and in England and Wales in 2005, but continues in certain accepted forms. Traditional foxhunting continues in Northern Ireland. Following a trail rather than a live quarry has subsequently grown in importance in Great Britain, as has hunting foxes with a bird of prey.
  The British Association for Shooting and Conservation says that over a million people a year participate in shooting, including game shooting, clay shooting and target shooting. In 2005 it became unlawful in England and Wales to shoot game birds while they are not in flight, an action which has long been considered unsporting.
  To undertake shooting in the UK a valid firearms licence and insurance is required.
context_section_description: Hunting has been practised in Britain since prehistoric times; it was a crucial activity of hunter-gatherer societies before the domestication of animals and the dawn of agriculture.
  During the last ice age, humans and neanderthals hunted mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses by driving them over cliffs; evidence has been found at La Cotte de St Brelade on the island of Jersey.
  In Britain, hunting with hounds was popular in Celtic Britain before the Romans arrived, using the Agassaei breed. The Romans brought their Castorian and Fulpine hound breeds to England, along with importing the brown hare (the mountain hare is native) and fallow deer as quarry. Wild boar was also hunted.
  The earliest known attempt to specifically hunt a fox with hounds was in Norfolk, in the East of England, in 1534, where farmers began chasing down foxes with their dogs as a form of pest control. Packs of hounds were first trained specifically to hunt foxes in the late 17th century, with the oldest such fox hunt likely to be the Bilsdale in Yorkshire. By the end of the 17th century, many organised packs were hunting both hare and fox.
  Shotguns were improved during the 18th and 19th centuries and game shooting became more popular. To protect the pheasants for the shooters, gamekeepers culled competitive species such as foxes, magpies and birds of prey almost to extirpation in popular areas, and landowners improved their coverts and other habitats for game. Game Laws were relaxed in 1831 which meant anyone could obtain a permit to shoot rabbits, hares, and gamebirds, although shooting and taking away any birds or animals on someone else's land without their permission continued to be the crime of poaching, as it still is.
  Hunting was formerly a royal sport, and to an extent shooting still is, with many Kings and Queens being involved in hunting and shooting, including King Edward VII, King George V (who on 18 December 1913 shot over a thousand pheasants out of a total bag of 3937), King George VI and the present day Prince Philip, although Queen Elizabeth II does not shoot. Shooting on the large estates of Scotland has always been a fashionable country sport. This trend is generally attributed to the Victorians, who were inspired by the romantic imagery of the Scottish Highlands.
caption: "The Setting Dogg & Partridgs" (detail) by Richard Blome, from The Gentlemans Recreation (1686)
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