The Glorious Twelfth

In the UK, August 12 is commonly known as ‘the Glorious Twelfth’ due to its being the start of grouse shooting season, which then leads on into other shooting seasons. This was as true in the Regency era as it is today in England, for August is when those who could—or who can today—fled London’s heat (and the stench of the Thames) for the countryside.

In Britain, ‘hunting’ is considered the proper term for hunting with hounds, as in a fox hunt. Deer hunting is more correctly called deer stalking, and ‘shooting’ applies specifically to shooting game birds. This is why you have George Underhill in his book A Century of English Fox Hunting noting: “In olden days it was the theory, and, I may add, the rule, that the months of September and October should be devoted to shooting, and that hunting commenced on the first Monday in November.” (Hunting meant fox hunting, and cub hunting would start up in late September or early October with drag hunts to train young fox hounds.)

"Pheasant Shooting" by Henry Aiken. Two men in Regency garb are out in the woods with their two dogs. One is taking aim at a pair of pheasants they have startled into flight.

Game laws—for hunting and shooting—trace back to Normal times. William the Conqueror held the feudal idea that all lands belonged to the king, and only he had the right, or could grant the right, to shoot a king’s deer (this was with bow and arrow in those days). The Anglo-Saxons hadn’t held with such ideas, but they lost the battle over who ruled England. William’s idea was that all forests and lands were his—and he could give them out, or not, as he pleased.

In general, the forest laws of old England were designed to provide rights to landed nobles. By the era of Richard II, laws were passed so that those who did not hold any lands, or tenements of less than 40 shillings a year, or clergyman with a living of less than ten pounds a year, were forbidden not just from hunting but from keeping greyhounds, hounds, other hunting dogs, or having any hunting equipment.

Under James I and then Charles II, additional laws set higher property value thresholds for keeping shooting dogs and equipment, and introduced laws specific to shooting deer, rabbits, pheasants, and partridges. The idea was that somehow if the lower classes were allowed to go after game on the lands held by gentry and nobles this encouraged them on toward civil unrest. However, the poor in the countryside often found a way to augment their diets with a rabbit stew or a game bird in the pot.

The Black Act of 1723 came down hard on poachers, due to raids by groups of poachers known as ‘the Blacks’ due to their blacking their faces. The act carried a death penalty for anyone found disguised in a forest and carrying a weapon. This act was repealed in 1823.

The Game Act of 1773 modified tradition, ordering that no one could shoot or even buy “black-game” or “grouse, commonly called red-game,” from the tenth day of December until the twelfth day of August. And so, the Glorious Twelfth became the first day of shooting season. Changes in the law also allowed yeoman farmers and small freeholders to raise pigeons, which meant that dovecotes became far more common than in the earlier centuries and was a great supplement to many country diets.

In 1816, more legal punishments were added for poaching, and game laws limited rights to landowners for pheasant, partridge, hares and rabbits. The penalty for poaching—or even being found in possession of a net to snare a bird or rabbit—was transportation for seven years. Records, however, show that few convictions resulted. Robert Hughes in his book The Fatal Shore quoted research that suggested only 3% of transportees were poachers. This suggests that gamekeepers—or landowners—do not seem to have been all that keen in making themselves unpopular with locals by prosecuting for the occasional poaching crime.

The Night Poaching Act of 1828 forbid night poaching, including taking or destroying game or even entering lands at night with the intent to take or destroy game. Game was deemed to include hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor game, black game, and bustards. But this would soon change.

While August 12 opened—and still opens—the shooting season for grouse, September 1 is the date for partridge (not a native bird, but one introduced to England in the 18th Century) along with duck and goose, and October 1 is the start for woodcock and pheasant seasons. Shooting seasons typically end anywhere from late December to January, with a few—such as for duck—going on into February.

Game birds include: pheasant, grey partridge and red-legged partridge, red and black grouse, woodcock, snipe. Quarry—in other words, birds you might lie in wait for—includes mallards and other ducks, pigeon, plover, goose, and moorhen. Wild game most often would be served stuffed and roasted, or might be put into a pie—and a gift of a brace of pheasant (meaning two birds) was considered quite a nice gift indeed.

Law prohibited shooting on a Sunday, on Christmas, or at night, with daylight being considered after either four, six or eight o’clock, depending on the time of year.

To go shooting, one needed to dress the part and take the right equipment. In the Regency, a gentleman would need a shotgun, also called a scattergun or a fowling piece or simply a piece. (The cook would have the joy of digging the shot from the bird before it was cooked and served.) Shotguns could be unreliable, and might explode or misfire—Charles James Fox was injured when his double-barreled shotgun exploded, and there are numerous reports through to the Victorian era of gentlemen being blinded or killed in shooting accidents. This was not considered a sport for ladies. For a reliable shotgun, Joseph Manton, a gunmaker in Davies Street, Berkeley Square, London until 1825 was renown as the man to provide the best pieces, and his shooting gallery at No. 25 was the place to practice your aim with pistol or shotgun.

A good gun dog would help flush the birds as well as retrieve any game shot. Gun dogs included retrievers, setters, pointers, and spaniels, but different breeds of dogs developed to match needs and environments. This meant water dogs for hunting ducks, and dogs with a soft mouth who would bring back the bird and not eat it.

A gentleman might go out on foot with his friends, or with his game keeper, or if he had extensive lands he might take a shooting cart or shooting break. Cart simply meant a two-wheeled vehicle, while a break was a larger vehicle with four wheels. Any shooting cart or break generally a compartment under the seats in which the dogs traveled.

A leather game bag carried the shot or cartridges to be used in the shotgun and this had a strap so it could be slung across the chest and hung to the hip. Shooting clothes might be a frock coat, double breasted, or a shooting jacket made of a durable fabric such as fustian or serge, along with breeches. For protection against wet, brush and the cold, gaiters or “spatterdashes” made of canvas or leather fastened on the outside of the leg with laces, buttons or buckles. The gaiters made movement easier than riding boots. The Beau Monde magazine of 1807 noted: “Many gentlemen in their morning walks have attempted to introduce a sort of shooting dress, parading in a short coat of any light colour, and with drab coloured cloth or Kerseymere gaiters coming up to the knees.”

The idea of driving birds or battue was introduced from France by Thomas Coke of Norfolk in 1796 (The Poacher and The Squire : A History of Poaching and Game Preservation in England by Charles Chenevix Trench). Prior to this—and even after—some men preferred to simply to walk about accompanied by pointers who would seek out the birds to be shot.

The Sporting Magazine, published from 1792 to 1870 kept gentlemen up on shooting, hunting, racing and sporting event news and fashions.

In 1831, Britain’s hunting laws loosened so that anyone with a permit could hunt game birds, rabbits and hares. The Act made it lawful to take game if you had a game license, and allowed the sale of game with an excise license, and it listed requirements for the appointment of gamekeepers, who had to have a license as well. This would all lead to the excessive shooting parties of the Victorian and Edwardian eras (it is reported that King George V shot over 1,000 pheasants out of a total bag of 3,937),

For more information:
https://reganromancereview.blogspot.com/2015/11/spend-holidays-in-regency-england.html
http://improvisedjaneausten.blogspot.com/2012/12/regency-hunting.html
https://about1816.wordpress.com/tag/game-laws/
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/distress/distress.htm
https://pemberley.com/?kbe_knowledgebase=gentlemans-shooting-jacket
https://www.austenauthors.net/regency-servants-gamekeepers/


Article by Shannon Donnelly for The Quizzing Glass blog and The Regency Reader.