2-995-625 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Grouse-shooting - from a drawing by Harrison Weir, 1860. Blood sports. 'Several bags averaged above 18 brace. That of the Prince Consort and Sir George Grey and suite, in the Moss of Monaltrie, was a truly Royal one, and included 120 brace [ie pairs of birds], beside several hares...Reports from the Cumberland moors are favourable, and one of the members for the county, with six guns to help him, bagged 60 brace near Gilsland before the twelve-o'clock halt was called; while another gentleman, on an adjacent moor, shot 29 brace and two snipes in the same space...The Northumberland moors were generally very bare of grouse, but, as on the Scottish ones, there was a tolerable supply of black game...In Ayrshire we hear of one bag of 41 brace, which is eight brace above its owner's number last year...such is the perfection to which shooting is brought, that last season a noble Lord killed the greater number of his grouse with ball; and of course all rifle volunteers with a certificate are in duty bound to follow his example...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.