Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
There is an interesting article on this that covers a lot of the points raised in this thread. Here is an extract from the Mail on-line.
By Amanda Platell
>>>>>>>>>>>>>Like many townies, my prejudices about the Glorious Twelfth were well and truly fully formed. The official start of the shooting season was nothing more than an ancient ritual to massacre thousands of defenceless birds.
The killers were a bunch of men with Prince Charles cut-crystal accents looking down their long aristocratic noses at ordinary folk like me, city folk, you know, the kind who have to buy their own furniture. Their dogs would have better pedigrees than me.
So it was with some cynicism and not a little trepidation that I agreed to take part in the Glorious Twelfth last Tuesday, the traditional start of the shooting season, on a moor on the Durham/ Northumberland border.......
........... I wasn't doing this because I wanted to see birds shot. I'm a soppy animal lover and can't bear the thought of creatures being hurt or killed. I even pick up slugs on paths and place them in bushes to stop them getting squashed........
..........I anticipated snobbery and a healthy dash of misogyny. What the hell was a woman doing there with a gun? Shouldn't she be carrying the guns, or the kids, or the whisky?
Moreover, I expected to be sickened by the sight of hundreds of slaughtered grouse falling from the sky like rain, no chance of survival, only sure and painful death. And for what? For rich men's fun. Less sport, more mass murder.......
.......The first step was to teach me how to fire a gun. The dashing Nick Foster at the West London Shooting School in Northolt had the unlucky task. To everyone's surprise, not least my own, I was a crack shot and hit five of the first six clay pigeons, then most of the 20 or so after that.
At least I could hold my own on the moors. Or so I thought.
And I was assured it would not be a case of the killing skies, that the take would be modest and each bird would end up on a table, either being taken home by those on the shoot or sold to local butchers to help pay for the running of the event............
...........We were a group of about 30 - dog trainers, beaters, farm workers, mums with babies, young people, old people, titled, working class, a barrister beside a former jockey, a motley crew. In fact, all they seemed to have in common was their friendship and the grouse.......
...........There are two ways to shoot grouse, either from behind a fixed butt or 'walking up'. We were doing the latter, which involved pairs or single setters set off into the heather by their handler. The scent is detected, the dogs freeze, the guns shoot.
Each time there were no more than ten birds in the covey, which, as it happens, means a good year. No skies turning black with birds, no mass slaughter. On each point only two of three birds were usually shot, 35 1/2 brace, which for the uninitiated is 71 birds.
Having missed my first bird and about to hand over my place to the next gun, I looked back at the group. Mums with red-faced babies, teenage boys ripe with excitement, the woman dog trainer, fathers, sons, daughters, neighbours, all chatting in the rain.
It was then that I got it. This was as much about friendship as it was about sport. It was like a pub with no building and no beer, a gathering of family and friends, rich and poor. It was something most of we townies have lost. It was a community.
Everyone at some stage suffered the indignity of falling into a ditch. But there was always a helping hand, pulling you out of bogs.......
.......I was surprised to see how involved people were in each other's lives, how the shoot entwined housewives with landed gentry, hill farmers with estate owners.
It was a local shoot, which meant many people in the area depended upon it - dog trainers, beaters, farmers, cooks, pub landlords.
It will surprise no one that I failed to shoot anything. In my defence, the birds are so fast, flying at speeds of 60-80 mph, zooming off in every direction, that I could hardly get my gun to my shoulder before they were gone.
Perhaps it wasn't poor shooting, but that when it came to it, this townie wasn't up for the kill.
I had come expecting carnage and found moderation. I had expected a bunch of arrogant aristos bent on bloodshed, but found a platoon of people who all had their part to play and who showed the utmost respect for the birds and their habitat.
The Twelfth was glorious in the end, but not in the way I expected.
The glory came from the unique beauty of our countryside and from the real sense of community - two of our greatest assets, both in danger of extinction........
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
It's an article from The Mail, I don't think their readership are really that anti!
Now I must say I'm quite partial to a bit of game but purely from a food point of view. I have no problem with the shooting for eating. The article above is just one example of a 'sport' that is still very much stuck in the past, dominated by class. My best friend is the head butler for an aristocratic family (much to my disgust) and he is very busy at this time of year tending to the needs of people with 'Prince Charles cut-crystal accents looking down their long aristocratic noses' (Infact the Royals will be there at some point). I can comfirm that it is arrogant aristos, tanked up on champagne, driving around obnoxiously large estates in 4x4's, breaking for elevenses (probably more than the average family sees in a week) then off to shoot some more things purely for the fun of it.
Stupid decadent behaviour....Tallyho!
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Now, now DT1 - Amanda Platel did not find what you desribed and I have already pointed out elsewhere what I know personally and that the image you paint is wrong.
You are demonstrating an unattractive example of us spoilt townies that Platell described in parts of the article that I did not re-produce. It is a rather horrible picture in fact, of soft wooly headed middle class urban hypocracy.
By the way, what on earth has the fact that this appears in the Mail to do with anything?
You sound to me full of left wing envy and prejudice that is a long way from reality.
Is it remotely possible that Miss Platel had her own agenda, paid for by the Daily Mail?
DT1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 15 Apr 2008
- Posts: 1,116
I fully accept that shoots of a more dilluted nature now exist and you or I would not be out of place on such an outing. I went shooting clays just last week with a nice bunch of middle class types (Daily Mail readers)
Barry, I have no doubt about the experiences of your clients, however I am presenting the primary evidence of someone that sees the more traditional manifestation of this decadent act. I'll reproduce some of my last post and remove any prejudice and personal opinion, just the facts:
My friend is a head butler for an aristocratic family and at this time of year he tending to the needs of royalty and the aristocracy. These guests, after a champagne breakfast and a few shots from their hip flasks, drive around an 3 sq mile estate (and adjoining land) in 4x4's. They break for elevenses in the shooting house (built purely for this purpose) and eat expensive snacks, drink some more alcohol then set off to shoot some more birds. It would be unfair of my friend to include anymore information.
The fact that the article is from the Mail speaks volumes about the angle it takes. They (as do all the main newspapers) write what the people that buy it want to read, affirming their outlook of traditional middle England. The paper is mindlessly obsessed with; the royals; shock ASBO asylum stories; how anyone wearing a hood will stab you with a pedophile; why not to leave your house; lots of women wearing Laura Ashley garments and for some reason HRT stories. Oh and let's not forget good old Lord Rothermere...nice chap!
I'm not the envious type (vaguely to left maybe) Nothing wooly headed or hypocritical here and just because I don't have a flat cap, whippet or work down mine, it certainly does not make me middle class! The chip on my shoulder is purely working class!
Go DT1!!!!! I'll have a pint of brown ale and a game of dominos stat!!!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i am always surprised by the town versus country issue.
there are a large number of people that are very much against hunting with dogs, and in some cases shooting.
when a hunt follows a pack of dogs across someone's private garden, ripping up the flower beds and leaving family pets ripped to death, people can get miffed.
shooting, we are told, is carried out on private estates, bullets do not recognise this distinction when leaving a gun barrel.
I am also always surprised when people appear unaware of the consequences of firing said weapon. It leaves dirty great holes in people and animals........duh!!!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
in my last post, i should have made it clear that there are a large number "in rural areas" etc etc.