The King as a Sportsman in 1876
From an Engraving published by Henry Graves and Co.
Over ten thousand pheasants are annually reared at Sandringham, partly by incubators and partly by the assistance of a thousand ordinary hens. The lake near Sandringham affords wild duck, teal, and widgeon shooting. The King has the largest game-room in the United Kingdom. It holds between six and seven thousand head, and was built not very long after the King bought the estate. After each day’s sport the game is spread for inspection, and a careful record is made of the numbers that have fallen to each gun. It is in the game-room that the game is packed after a big battue to be sent off in hampers to hospitals and to friends. It need hardly be said that none of the King’s game is ever sold. A good deal is kept for the use of the house, and a share is also given to the tenants, to the employés on the estate, and to London tradesmen connected with the Royal Household.
The King’s shooting-parties rarely number more than ten guns, each of whom is assigned his place in the shoot by his Royal host himself. All the beaters at Sandringham wear a very becoming uniform composed of a Royal blue blouse, low crowned hat, and long brown gaiters. Each bears on his left arm a number by which he may readily be identified, and after each day’s shooting every one of the beaters is allowed to take home a hare and a pheasant.
The King is not often seen going north for the opening weeks of the grouse-shooting season. Still, in the early years of his married life, he and Queen Alexandra often entertained shooting-parties at Birkhall. The King generally puts in a certain number of days pheasant-shooting in Windsor Great Park. The preserves swarm with ground game. His Majesty is also fond of shooting with the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, and at Wynyard, Lord Londonderry’s seat in Durham. The King has, however, shot more or less all over England. He was frequently the guest of Lord James of Hereford when the latter had Shoreham Place, where one valley on the farther side of the park is locally known as “The Valley of the Shadow of Death,” from the tremendous slaughter of game that annually takes place there.
Like his father, the late Prince Consort, the King has always been a keen deer-stalker, and when he is staying at Balmoral most of his time is entirely devoted to this sport—in fact, deer-stalking is what first brought him into close connection with his present son-in-law, then the Earl of Fife, who possesses Mar, which is one of the two largest forests in Great Britain, being over 80,000 acres of cleared ground. Balmoral is situated in the heart of the deer country, being within reach of a good number of forests adjoining each other, and extending without a break into five counties. The King is well known to prefer “stalking” to driving, but of late years he has taken an active part in the drives organised at Mar. His marksmanship is universally agreed to be excellent. At one time he was owner of Birkhall, in Glenmuick, but it was purchased for him by Prince Albert, and he had no voice in its selection. Still the King kept it till 1885, when he sold the property, which was very extensive, to Queen Victoria.
The “Britannia”
From a Photograph by Adamson, Rothesay