Year: 1866

The Prince Of Wales Taking His Ease


The London correspondent Of the New


York Tribune, Mr.. THos. HUGHES, author


Of Tom BrODH al RUgby, and Tom BrotR IA


Oxford writes:


Our pleasant, good-tempered young Prince


has been setting bad example to his sub
jects that are to be at the beginning of the


shooting season. The journals which are in


the habit Of chronieling the doings Of great
folks tellu that the Prince Of Wales has


been highly enjoying splendid "drives."
Now the custom Of driving grouse or other
winged game is one which, l take it, does
not yet obtain on your side the Atlantic. Il
is practiced thus: A moor Is divided into
three or four drives, and at one point in each
drive-generally just under and along the
brow of hill-seven or eight stations are
marked in row at fifty yards apart. Some
times a rough dyke or fence serves the pur-
pose, behind or under which the sportsmen
place themselves; but on all the noted
mOors, each station is a small earthwork
about four feet high, inclosing a space just
large enough for the sportsman, keeper or
under-keeper. to mark his birds asthey fall,
a man to load for him and a setter. When
AiAC otdttOhh diS pCCupicls lnc DcdteTS WHO
have already surrounded the drive in front
Of the line get their signal and advance,
waving small flags and shouting. As they
close in, and they have generally mile or
more to tramp through the deep heather,
first an old bird or two gets up, then two or
three, and then whole packs


Some Of these bowl away at once down
the wind straight toward the row of stations,


.fI frfla NIa r4sr ar,A -.
make away over the line Of beaters, who
shout and wave their flags to turn them in
the right direction, and generally succeed in
doing so. Meantime the sportsmen have
been sitting quietly each in his own little
hut, probably smoking or playing with the
dogs ears The keepers kneel with their
eyes on a level with the Jumps Of heathery
turf which form the side wall Of the station,
or otherwise keep on the alert, and the hold
er has all his spare guns ready and heap
of cartridges set out before him. Presently
there is a single keek, keek, keek," heard
far away in front, and the keepers whisper
that an old cock is up, and that beater or
two is already in sight. The segars are
dropped at once, and the men take their
guns and peer out over the front walls Of
their stations, keeping still as far as possible
concealed. First comes the old cock at
thousand miles an hour, never changing his
course for a moment and perhaps spinning
by without dropping feather, though he
has had two shots at him in front and two
behind the row of stations. Single birds and
small packs of four or five follow, more and
more quickly as the beaters draw nearer.


Many of these see their danger when it is
too late, and bear up right in front of the
guns, trying to change their course, and
thereby presenting the most tempting side
shots. Then come the great packs of one
hundred or more at a time, and all precau-
tions are cast aside. The sportsmen are
standing at their fall height, head and
shoulders visible above their stations, firing
in front to right and left, and behind, as the
birds whirl away, which the latter shooting
is, perhaps, the most difficult of any known
in these islands. The beaters close in on the
front; the birds are all past, or down along
the line and the occupants Of the stations
now all hurry cut TO pick up the birds
which have fallen to them, and compare
notes, and for three or four minutes there is
a questing about dogs a huttering of birds,
and running 10 and fro Of keepers. Then
there is a group to make up books, there
being always some birds claimed by more
than one gun, gentle stroll 20 the next set
Of stations, while the beaters toll away over
the moor so as TO inclose in their line the
whole Of the next range. Now, Of course,
this is capital fun. The excitement in fact
of good drive is, perhaps, greater than all
other shooting; the birds come at such
tremendous pace, there is so much chance
as TO which Of the guns they will come to
as you see them bearing down half mile
away; the rapidity and intensity Of the
crisis, and the pleasant lull as you lie in your
station listening TO the breeze whispering
over the grand purple moors, and waiting
for the summons Of the keeper, lend easily
their special charms 10 it


But il is obviously the most lazy method
OF shooting, the one by which you get the
greatest amount Of shooting at the least
amount Of labor; and, according TO the old
English idea Of sport, which was founded on
the getting at and killing Of your game sci
driving Is no sport at all. In
fact it is practice OF modern growth, and
ON many mOors is still not allowed until the
end Of the grouse season, when the birds
have settled into great packs, and are so wild
that YOU can't get at them in any other way.
I remember the first time l ever saw drive
was late in September, some fifteen years
ago, on the moors Of fine old Durham
squire and when we got home at night and
he heard we had been driving, he shrugged
his shoulders and said it was a kind Of buc-
caneering business at best. But TO return to
the text, what one is sorry for is, not that
the driver should enjoy a drive, but that he
should have encouraged driving at the very
Of the season, when the birds are
all tame enough, and the men ought 20 take
the trouble Of fairly waking them up them
A. ~ L l..
the hard work. This is the way in which
sport is being ruined among US. What with
and battues, and the abOmi-
nable practice which obtains more and more
ers for their own private profit which has
not been fed az their expense, the institution
is beginning to stink in the nostrils Of the
tenant farmers.