A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE It is curious to find amongst the Hatfield bills, so long ago as 1629, one 'for hens to sit on pheasants' eggs,' which cost is. each, and another for a hen that brought up some partridges. By other bills it appears that a yard was established at Hatfield for breeding partridges and pheasants ; that a dove house existed ; and that tame cormorants were kept for fishing, probably in the Lea. When the Salisbury family went to reside at Quickswood near Baldock, it was from their Hatfield home that they stocked the country round Baldock with partridges. A Captain Philips, writing to Cecil in 1609, offers to send him any number of wild boars to stock Hatfield Park, but this offer does not appear to have been accepted. The livery for the Hatfield gamekeepers in 1629 was green Padua serge laced with silk. Poachers appear to have been severely dealt with in this county down to 1796, for we read in that year of two men being con- victed of taking a brace of hares at night, on Mr. Osgood Hanbury's estate at Coggeshall, the penalties on each of these 'villains' for the above offence were as follows : 5 for no license ; ^5 for being unqualified ; ^5 for killing at night ; 5 for keeping dogs and engines ; and transportation for seven years for beating the gamekeeper. ' In this instance, however, the whole penalty was generously, perhaps too generously for the sake of general society, mitigated to a fine of ^15.' If the full penalty had been inflicted on these men, they could have been fined 100 each. The county records, recently collected and bound by the County Council, contain the depositions of one Joseph Ansell, a gardener, which, if true, does not say much for 'justices' justice ' a hundred years ago in the county. He stated that he was walking along a foot- path through a wood at Kings Walden with a little terrier dog at his heels, when he was suddenly arrested by Joseph Dynes, keeper to Mr. Hale, who, with the assistance of an underkeeper named Cotton, searched him, Cotton holding a sword with its edge close to Ansell's face. After trying unsuccessfully to extract a confession of poaching, the keepers took Ansell before Mr. Brand of Kimpton Hoo, a magistrate for the county. Here he was detained until eleven o'clock at night, as Mr. Brand was playing cards and could not be interrupted. There was no evidence pro- duced against Ansell, except that the keeper said he heard him say ' Chew ' to his dog, but the dog did not leave the footpath. He was nevertheless convicted and fined 10. Shooting at flying game is a comparatively modern sport, not having been practised until the end of the eighteenth century. But at the beginning of last century guns of a primitive nature came into general use for sporting purposes and the sport became more common. In January, 1822, what was thought at that time to be a record bag was made at Ashridge Park. The Earl of Bridgewater having a royal shooting party, shot for three days and bagged 1,200 head. The guns in- cluded H.R.H. the Duke of York, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Londonderry and Lord Verulam. Considering the com- paratively short time that guns of precision had been in use, the shooting appears to have been extremely accurate. First day seven guns had 627 shots and killed 326 head of game. Second day nine guns had 956 shots and killed 511 head of game. Third day eight guns had 388 shots and killed 261 head of game. Double-barrelled guns had just come into use, and it is reported that on this occasion ' The Duke of Wellington's double barrelled gun brought down everything before it.' In 1825 a bet was made by the Marquis of Salisbury with Sir John Sebright, that he would find four gentlemen who would kill 100 brace of wild partridges in one day, only one gun to be used. The match came off on September i, at Hatfield. The four gentlemen chosen were Sir C. Cuyler, who took the gun first. He shot 24 brace in i^ hours on the marquis's farm. Mr. Samuel Whithead then took the gun and shot n brace in i^ hours on the home farm and 14 brace on Pope's manor. Sir C. Cuyler again took the gun and shot 27 brace on the home farm. The remainder of the required 100 were easily shot by the Hon. M. de Ros and Mr. Delm6 Radcliffe the latter, who was one of the best shots in England, killing 18 brace in forty-five minutes. Sir John Sebright ' with great promptitude and good humour ' discharged the debt. On the occasion of her late Majesty's visit to Hatfield House in October, 1846, accom- panied by the Prince Consort, the Marquis of Salisbury arranged a shooting party for the prince. At half-past ten on October 23, the prince, with the Duke of Wellington, Lord Exeter and Lord Spencer, started with one party. Present, but without guns, were Lord Salisbury, Lord Marcus Hill and others. They had excellent sport, and the prince proved to be quite a first-class shot ; he on that occasion shot more game than he had ever done before in the same time. The prince, who shot with four guns, killed 150 head of game, which was at the rate of one head of game per minute for the whole time 360
