Picking-up partridges

THERE’S NO BETTER way to learn about shooting in the early 19th century than by reading the two volumes of The Diary of Colonel Peter Hawker, 1802-1853.

Hawker was a passionately keen shooter and wildfowler, though as Colin McKelvie notes in his foreword to the 1988 edition of the diaries (published by Greenhill Books), “the image he has left of himself is decidedly unattractive, for he often appears unacceptably self-absorbed, cock-sure and downright arrogant”. His writing does, however, have a terrific fascination, especially as he was writing