The best things in life are sometimes free. Growing up in Ireland shooting was almost free.
Flighting pigeons, shooting pigeons over decoys and shooting walked-up snipe were my chief entertainment and the only costs were petrol and cartridges. When I came to live in England I found that shooting driven pheasant was completely different, requiring planning and preparation all year and well organised teamwork on shooting days. That doesn’t come cheap for shoot owners. I was fortunate to be invited by friends. R.B. Thornhill dispenses this advice in his 1804 The Shooting Directory.
“If a sportsman is fond of cock shooting, it will repay him well for his trouble to take a trip to Ireland; it is not material what part to recommend, as it is impossible almost to go to a bad place for sport. As to asking leave, it is needless; as the only cause of jealousy that can subsist between the visitor and the owner of the ground will be for not acquainting him of his coming, in order that he might have it in his power to receive him with the usual hospitable manner, by providing beaters to show him sport, giving him the best of fare, a good bottle of claret, a sincere and hearty welcome, assuring his guest the longer he stays and honours him with his company, the more welcome he is, and the happier he will make him.”
It would be unusual today to find an owner of a shoot – even in Ireland – as generous and hospitable as Thornhill envisages.
A propos the above I have just been given a book entitled “Land, Lust and Gun Smoke. A Social History of Game Shoots in Ireland” by Peter Bacon, published in 2012 by The History Press Ireland. I am not a shooting man but still found it of great interest and it has some excellent photographs. You may well already have it in your extensive library.