3-034-613 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Months: September, 1871. 'The memorable First of September is a familiar anniversary of the commencement of that sporting season in this country which is the most popular in its character, and which the largest number of persons are commonly enabled to enjoy...The prediction of a late harvest this year...has probably caused a difference, here and there, in the readiness of our sportsmen to begin their bloody work on the earliest legitimate day, or in their prospects of immediate success...the corn still remained standing...at the end of the last week, and the [partridges] might have been seen "dropping in to feed," with an apparent security from attack which they will lose when the sheltering stalks are shorn down to a close stubble. They must then trust to their own nimbleness, and bestir their legs and wings, to escape the keen sportsman's deadly pursuit, aided by those most intelligent detectives, his pointers or setters. The green crops, however, will afford them some refuge, and there are snug places under the hedge...where the discreet leader of a covey will, perhaps, find temporary accommodation...And he will even continue, as we see, to hover about near the cut sheaves till they are carried away'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.