Hide Article Text (OCR)
ON THE NATURE OF GAME PRESERVES. That in all situations the hand of power is necessary to their protection, is obvious; but the soil’must be congenial to the nature of game, otherwise what was meant as the parent stock, will migrrate, in spite of every effort to detain Hie It is a mystery which probably will never be unravelled, that some places apparently particularly suited to them, whether winged or quadruped, they will not frequent, however plenty they may be in the surroundig neighbourhood; and it has been ob served, that where, according to tradition, they thrived for merly, there, for reasons independent of food, they continue to thrive, if attended to, though not to such a degree, generally speaking. For the breed alike of all sorts of game, few counties equal Norfolk and Suffolk; whilst, in comparison with most of the northern counties, the West of England claims attention, as the Shires of Gloucester, Wilts, Somerset, and particularly Dor set. In the last-named county, as appendages to opulence, ‘* Critchill,” ‘ Grange,” ‘* Rempstone,” *‘ High Hall,” ‘ Dearborough, ** Bryanstone,” and other shites almost too numerous to mention, have each their respective preserves. At Abbey Milror, the seat of Lady Caroline Dumer, there was a time when the keepers complained that the pheasants were so very numerous, that they did not grow to their full and proper size. In a line from the splenlid mansion between two hills, wooded nearly to the foot of each, towards a farm called * 'Tufton,” about a mile distant, the whole perspective has been often viewed of a summer's evening so thickly studded with pheasants, hares, and rabbits, as to excite astonishment in the spectator; and to count them, from their maze-like motions, was impossible. Taking the lands more suited to the propagation of game throughout the kingdom into consideration, there is evidently a diminution, in comparison with former times; yet are there exceptions to this position. A wood of ten acres only, near the seat of Lord Glastonbury, Somerset, has, by computation, contained at once, and very lately, more than one hundred brace of hares. Another, on the Bridewater road (about 204), 200 brace. Nearly 100 brace of hares have been seen feeding together, in an inclosure of only five acres, on an estate of Lord Dorchester’s, at Sherborne, Gloucestershire, and as many on a similar space at Farmington, in that neighbourhood. But for pheasants in particular, at the present day, in a compara tively open country (open at least near the country road ,‘* Cor sham, the seat of P. Methuen,Esq., late Member for Wilts, is as celebrated as most places in the kingdom. Journeying (says a Correspondent) from the eastward to Bath, early in the morn ing, in the month of April last, on the roof of a coach, I could not but join my fellow-travellers, as we approached the place, in exclamations of surprise at the quantities of these fine birds, from within a few yards, at times, of the carriage, to half a mile, and further, indeed, on each side of us. In a field, about thirty acres, we counted sixty-three pheasants, as not exceedin half of what the said field aunts and when Coachee told his charge that more in proportion would be seen as we pro ceeded, we could not but think him romancing. Just before entering ‘* Corsham, ’ however, roused by a sailor’s expression, “ My eyes, Jack, look there .”’ (he had stood up as on the look out), our attention was drawn to where his finger directed. There in a spot about twice the circumference of a common cast net,and within as we advanced, half a gun-shot of the carriage, 13, 4 of which only were hens, were feeding together; nor did they in the least notice the united halloos of our whole company. In all, and within a space of three miles, we must have seen up wards of 180 brace ; and as such was the population in so ex posed a part of these domains too (it is not to be supposed that the coverts had poured out the ‘* whole’ of their treasures for our inspection), what must be the contents of the woods and plantations contiguous to the noble mansion of ‘* Corsham '”
Newspaper Details
Morning Chronicle
London, Middlesex, GB
Mon, Feb 16, 1824
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 16 Feb 2026
Other Publications Near London, Middlesex
Bingleys Journal
Arminian Magazine
London Daily Mail
London Stars and Stripes
London Daily Universal Register
