Callum McKenzie

University of Strathclyde

Introduction

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, a number of organisations were marshalled to protect, encourage or celebrate the killing of wildlife for sport. One such association, The Shikar Club, symbolised the virility of British imperial big-game hunting, a recreation which was increasingly contrasted with the artificial and emasculated sport to be had in the battue1 or fox-hunting in Britain, sports which by this time were suffering from varying degrees of plutocratic excess, urban decadence, industrial encroachment and, for some, the presence of women.

Although the idea of an international sporting club had been mooted during the 1850s, to provide a forum for `comrades to discuss exploits in the field,'2 the belated emergence of the Shikar Club in 1908 may have reflected the difficulty of masculine and individualistic men conforming to club mentality.3 The establishment in 1908 of the Shikar Club and Wildfowlers Association of Great Britain and Ireland, for manly types who pursued wildfowl on estuaries and foreshore, may also have reflected the perceived moral and humanitarian threats to big-game hunting and wildfowl shooting, sports which underpinned mainstream masculinity at this time.

The Sports Historian, No. 20, 1 (May, 2000), pp. 70-96

PUBLISHED BY THE BRITISH SOCIETY OF SPORTS HISTORY
Although big-hunting has been portrayed as a solitary sport by historians,4 there were elements of fraternal association which became manifest in men's sporting clubs, an area of research peculiarly lacking in the social sciences.5 This paper will examine the British big-game hunting tradition and the development of the Shikar Club, to the 1930s, and the influence of big-game hunting and the associated moral imperatives of masculinity on the lives of some of its members.

The Shikar Club and the British Big-Game Hunting Tradition.

Given the continuity of masculine values from public school, university and the military, it is unsurprising that the Shikar Club was founded by former pupils of Eton and Rugby. Charles Edward Radclyffe and P.B.Vanderbyl6 were both pupils at Eton during the 1870s, whilst Frederick Courtney Selous was at Rugby during the 1860s.7 All three men attained the rank of captain in the British army, and, in keeping with military convention, married in later life, concentrating as young officers on soldiering and big-game shooting.8 The Shikar Club established in 1907, remained a focus for military men, at least until the 1930s, when even then about half of the associations members were drawn from high-ranking officers, typified by father and son Brigadier-General Claude De Crespigny and Major Vivian De Crespigny of Champion Lodge, Heybridge in Essex.9 Sir Claude de Crespigny excelled in a variety of sports, and remained in later life, `one of the hardest and pluckiest men in England...ready to box, ride, walk, run, shoot (at birds for preference now), fence, sail or swim with any one of over fifty years on equal terms.'10 He lived according to spartan values, and enjoyed in particular shooting, riding, boxing, swimming, ballooning, sailing, pedestrianism and `a cold tub before breakfast'.11 Claude Crespigny clearly approached challenging situations with the same characteristic vigour, and was once observed by fellow club member and imperialist, Alfred Pease, `assisting' in the hanging of three criminals as, `he would not care to ask a man to do what he himself was afraid of doing himself.'12 Aristocratic sporting pleasures and military duty, according to De Crespigny, went hand in hand, arguing that every able-bodied Briton had an obligation to defend his country and could not be considered a `man' till he had done so. `Feather-bed aristocrats', particularly those who declined duty were likened to the effeminate French aristocracy, and, in his view, had no place in the British social hierarchy.13

De Crespigny senior served in both the Royal Navy (1860-5) and the Army, (1866-70) and, despite his advancing years, was anxious to play an active part in the Boer War. His son's military success in the war was, according to his father, the result of the family's predilection for field sports and riding: `men who have been good sportsmen at home are the men who will do best and show the greatest amount of resource when on active service.'14 Unsurprisingly, therefore, as was the convention, De Crespigny used field sports as a means of consolidating friendships with other high-ranking military officials.15 Military life with field sports might have provided army careers, but it provoked condemnation from Humanitarians opposed to both.16 However, Humanitarian criticism of soldier and huntsman, in a climate of rampant imperialism,17 undermined its credibility and stigmatised the movement. Henry Salt, for example, reduced the effectiveness of his animal welfare programme by challenging the underlying ethos of masculinity upon which field sports rested.18 Advocates of gun and hound protested that opposition to their manly pursuits was led by urban-based pacifists who led `effeminate and aesthetic lives', and who had acquired a `righteous horror' of anything involving the death of an animal.19 Such `morbid enthusiasts' were more vociferous, such advocates noted, during periods of national languor, an affliction which, according to Baily's Magazine, assisted the Humanitarians' ultimate objectives, namely the emasculation of British manhood and the end of war and nationalism.20

Scottish deer hunting was held up as a example of `masculine virtue' over the `effeminate' disregard for nation-hood.21 Sir Ian Colquhoun,22 a noted authority on Scottish deer-stalking used the sport as the ultimate test of masculine identity despite the increase in the use of stalkers and ghillies to assist in the hunt.23 He lamented that contemporary youth had lost the tradition of hardihood, and were `fundamentally soft, and not the least ashamed of it. If they are tired, they say so with disarming frankness; if they are wet and cold and unwilling to suffer futher discomfort, they do not hesitate to let the stalker know.'24 Henry Seton-Karr25 argued that those `unpatriotically' seeking to limit deer preservation in Scotland lacked `virility and robustness.'26 Seton-Karr, like many others from his class, held that masculine identity was bound to nation-hood, and that `no race of men possess this desire more strongly than the Anglo-Saxons of the British Isles. This passion is an inherited instinct, which civilisation cannot eradicate, of a virile and dominant race, and it forms a healthy natural antidote to the enervating refinements of modern life.'27 Nationalistic shibboleths emphasising personal and national regeneration through hunting underpinned the ideology of the Shikar Club. F.C. Selous, for example, argued that the British range of discovery and exploration should not be inhibited out of deference to the `delicate feelings' of the anti-imperialists.28 Hunting, shooting, coursing, fishing were `natural outlets for masculine energy,' which, of according to the Shikar Club's first chairman, Hugh Cecil Lowther,29 maintained Britain's reputation as a virile and martial nation.30

The Shikar Club embodied and institutionalised this morally exalted position, extending it to include the concept of `fair-play' as a peculiarly British invention. During the year of the Club's inception, for example, Abel Chapman,31 expressed the view, held by many upper-class men, that the `Boers did not understand the elementary significance of our British term, "sport". No sense of respect for game, no admiration of its grace and beauty ever penetrated minds debased by decades of slaughter.'32 The Club considered itself an arbiter of `fair-play,' in field sports being committed to maintaining `the standard of sportsmanship which has been handed down from the past', a tradition which included restraint in the killing of game and other wildlife.(Emphasis added).33 Humanitarians, of course, viewed the influence of `tradition' in a different light; Henry Salt, for example, noted sardonically the amount of `sheer, untempered barbarism' that characterised the sporting elite, adding that the `trouble is not so much that they are in reality savage, as that they suppose themselves to be civilised.' Lowther however, was `proud of tradition in all its forms' and felt `sportsmanship' was a vital part of this hunting tradition and an influence on character formation.35 Unsurprisingly, sports which deviated from the sporting code, such as trap pigeon shooting, were officially denounced by the Club.36 As we shall see, driven-game shooting was similarly condemned.

This role as forum for `fair-play' in shooting derived from the chivalric and virtuous tradition of the elite British hunter-naturalist. That elite shots were becoming aware of their unique identities as `pioneering' men is clear from contemporary sporting literature. In 1861, one hunter advised adventurous and hardy sportsmen to visit `brother sportsmen in America,' whilst others described their sporting peers in terms of a ` united freemasonry of true friends'.37 Public fascination with hunting and big-game strengthened the myths associated with the virile stereotype of the frontiersman. By the 1860s, travelling shots were boasting of the authenticity of overseas sports. By now, a mass of sporting literature appeared aimed at inducing hunters to the Americas. Parker Gillmore's Experiences of a Sportsman in North America, (1869) was written to `encourage British sportsmen to America, provided they were of the right stamp, and didn't mind roughing it in search of sport.'38 Toughening sports in the New World fitted into prevailing notions of upper-middle class masculinity, since shooting there was unsuitable for the `feather-bed sportsman, or the shirker of hard work...provided you have the constitution, make a try, and on your return, you will recall with pleasure the hardships and misadventures you have gone through, for without an odd contretemps, we should become a very unimaginative, unambitious, namby-pamby lot, unfit for wear and tear, bustle and excitement, that all must endure before their course is run.'39 In Captain Flack's Hunters Experiences in the Southern States of America (1866), hunting provided both physical and mental endurance, enabling the hunter to face bodily dangers and difficulties so discouraging to `men of weaker mould.'40 New sporting opportunities in the States provided virile sportsmen with an appropriate venue to display their economic advantages and physical prowess. Grantley Berkeley41 travelled from Liverpool to the States in August, 1859, returning in December in order to reveal to the `rich and rising, adventurous and hardy sportsmen' the limitless hunting opportunities available to English sportsmen in America.42 That Britain had ample sportsmen ready to take up the challenge of sport in the States was cited as evidence of the moral and physical superiority of the `established over the newer civilisations'.43

Given the emasculation of fox-hunting and the rise of driven-game shooting in Britain at this time, the United States, Africa, India and parts of Asia provided new and testing locations for British sportsmen after the 1850s. Some historians have noted the development of new and more compassionate attitudes towards wildlife in Britain led by the urban middle-class.44 Others have argued that the more savage aspects of fox-hunting were ameliorated by a change in emphasis from killing the quarry to watching the dogs perform and the chase itself.45 Arguably, such changes in the function of fox hunting were accompanied by a gradual dissatisfaction with sporting opportunities in England, as industrial and urban encroachment and `plutocratic' game shooting threatened to emasculate the more rigorous aspects of shooting and hunting with dogs.46 Driven-game shooting, for example had been stigmatised as `un-British, humiliating, effeminate and selfish'.47 The sixty per cent increase in the number of gamekeepers between 1860 and 1900 was evidence of the controlled and synthetic nature of shooting as well as the influence of the plutocrat in the countryside, a situation in which shooting was often given priority over farming.48 Advocates of more physically testing sport noted that shooting in England had become `artificial,' and, despite testing marksmanship, failed to provide real `satisfaction' in comparison to the hunting of `wild beasts and birds.'49

Alternatively, overseas hunting was labelled `real sport', in which the pursuit of wild animals on their own `primeval and ancestral ground, as yet unannexed and unappropriated in any way by man,' assumed a mythical identity heightened by the masculine skills required to conquer it.50 Accordingly, `to find true wild pagan sport, such as stirs the blood and brings to the top the hardiest and manliest instincts in human nature, one must go to the hills of Northern India or the wildernesses of tropical Africa.'51 In these wild places, the urban restrictions of England were irrelevant, enabling the sportsman the space to leave `at least 25 miles between himself and the next hunter'.52

The Shikar Club therefore, was a product of a hunting tradition and became an institutional focus for socially powerful men who upheld the traditions of `true' masculine shooting in which merit was derived from effort and respect for game and habitat. The Club rejected `squandered bullets and swollen bags,' preferring a more cerebral approach to hunting which incorporated `a love of forest, mountain and desert; in acquired knowledge of the habits of animals;in the strenuous pursuit of an active and dangerous quarry; in the instinct for a well-devised approach to a fair shooting distance.'53 It was this `clean sport' based on `pluck and chivalry' which had built up the British Empire.54 Those aspects of field sports which did not test physical prowess were sometimes derided by hardened shots. Trout-fishing, for example, `amused the ladies', whilst grouse shooting was `a picnic on the moor.'55 Another Club member asserted that indiscriminate shooting of game without effort, softened by hot luncheons and gun-loaders, was no way to acquire `fieldcraft',56 a requirement for all reputable shots.57 C.V.A. Peel58 dedicated his sporting book, Somali land, (1900) to his father, Charles Peel, who he proudly described as `a crack shot in the true sportsmanlike method of walking up birds with the aid of dogs, a clever rifle-shot, and a superb fly-fisherman.'59

For such men, `real sport', was a release for `blood-lust', which contributed in some way to their innate sense of masculine identity. According to a Club stalwart, this lust to kill was not a product of social and economic advantage, but an instinctive phenomenon evident in `real' men despite the emasculating tendencies of `civilisation'.60 Other exponents of gun and hound argued that this `community of blood,' tied by `sporting blood-lust', was apparent in all classes of men.61 For Henry Seton-Karr, the desire to obtain a `good head' resulted from man's predatory instincts in which the pursuit and `slaughter' of wild game was a `perfectly natural healthy and widespread trait of humanity, even necessary in some cases, for health and happiness and probably intended as an antidote to the purple and fine linen and sumptuous fare of refined civilisations'.62 The graphic, rational and unemotional written descriptions of `the kill' was one way in which the hunter could distance himself and his sport from the moral criticisms of `civilisation'. Maurice Egerton,63 for example, described one foray : `stalked an `old ram,' on which one horn measured 33 inches, `so I decided to have him set up whole. What a difference to pheasant shooting this 1st of October!'64 Two days later, he killed another ram at 130 yards, `shot through the spine and kidney...small head, 22 inches, still very pretty and symmetrical.'65 In a sporting foray, Abel Chapman, extolled the virtues of his new express rifle, in combat with a `much coveted big beast...with head and neck exposed at 80 yards, his white ruff gave a splendid mark, and I dwelt on the aim. The express bullet struck to an inch of where I intended, the beast staggered and I saw he was mine. I spotted a second big buck-I planted the second barrel ball in his shoulder...when next I looked he was dead... a right and left for the first shots of my new express!! He is the most splendid beast I ever killed.'66 By masking big-game hunting in a pseudoscientific language, the sport was distanced from the non-experts and others of tender sensibilities. It also distinguished elite hunting from mere barbarism by necessitating a `civilised' understanding of wildlife, habitats and hunting environments, attributes which capable and educated shooting men were expected to possess. The Club's function in promoting shooting at various international sporting exhibitions throughout Europe was one manifestation of the powerful international status of big-game hunting.67 More than this, linking trophies with sporting art and relics enhanced the reputation of hunting as a refined and artistic phenomenon. Lord Desborough, Lonsdale, the President of the Shikar Club, and T.L. Fairholme, along with C.E. Fagan of the British Museum comprised the British delegation, which competed against the Austrian and German Empires in 1910.68 The plethora of sporting exhibitions at this time was one expression of the importance of male- dominated hunting within national and cultural `identities'.69 The Glasgow Exhibition of 1901, for example, was sardonically described as a `testament to the skill of the Englishman in Scotland's sporting grounds.'70

Although some men indulged in both big-game and domestic shooting, a subtle hierarchy emerged in which shots who took most risks in challenging more dangerous quarry species were singled out for especial praise.71 The veneration of successful big-game shots was reinforced by numerous written accounts of big-game hunting which emphasised the contest between strong men and wild beasts. Club member, Dennis Lyell,72 for example, reiterated the peerless virtues of Captain Charles Hugh Stigand, who narrowly escaped death from rhinos, lion and elephant during various safaris, even punching a rogue lion who had him in a death grip!73 Hunting hierarchies were implied from expertise in killing particular beasts and the type and calibre of weapon used. Samuel Baker, for example was revered for his criticism of `easy' sport, and lamented that shooting had become a `safe luxury' with the introduction of the breech-loading rifle and the demise of the muzzle-loading gun.74 Denis Lyell and Charles Stigand only used the .256 Mannlicher and .318 rifles for elephant hunting, thereby fulfilling the test of the `true' hunter which required fieldcraft to be sufficiently close to the beast before killing it with an accurate shot to the vital organs.75

The Men of the Club

Alfred Edward Pease,76 was one of a number of Shikar Club members who rejected urban values in favour of rural life and sports despite dependency on industrial capitalism to support his lifestyle.77 The family background was Quaker, closely associated with iron-mining near Middlesborough.78 During his Quaker childhood, despite the prohibition on dancing, novels and music, field sports were not condemned, enabling Pease to fish, shoot and hunt throughout his youth.79 Pease transferred his sporting proclivities to Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he excelled at football, athletics, cricket and hunting.80 Fellow Club member, Robert Lyons Scott81 also utilised industrial income to devote himself to big-game hunting. Such was his dedication to the hunting cult, that he single-handedly furnished Greenock's natural history museum with trophies between the 1890s and his death in 1939.82 Interestingly, Robert Lyons Scott, Maurice Egerton and Abel Chapman, remained unmarried and were heavily influenced by their respective fathers, all of whom were committed travellers in search of sport and adventure.83 Despite the restrictions of World War One, Scott shot, fished and collected in 1914 and 1915 in every Continent of the World.

Whilst Scott's personal image and public integrity was enhanced by his lust for hunting, Pease's unconventional views on the Empire and shooting were unpopular in some quarters. The Spectator, for example, found `no fault with Mr Pease provided he keeps himself to his role of sportsman and traveller. When he leaves this as he is fond of doing, to instruct us in the grave matters of conduct and belief, he is less to be admired.'84 By advocating the colonisation of Africa for outdoor pursuits well away from the unwholesome influence of the plutocrat and asserting that the working-classes could shoot big-game by diverting drinking expenditure towards travel and recreation, Pease gave new and often unwelcome meaning to notions of self-help.85 His enlightened admiration for native cultures, futhermore, impugned an unsympathetic and prejudiced conservative opinion preoccupied with the notion of the `savage', a concept which found ample expression through the hunting experience.86 The notion of the safari, for example, appealed to upper-class Victorian and Edwardian prejudices by enabling the imposition of metropolitan racial and sporting values onto `lower races'.87 Abel Chapman was able to assert with confidence that the `mob of savages' required to attend a safari needed discipline to ensure a successful hunt.88 His observation that natives were `unalterably `lazy' similarly endorsed the notion of hunting as a feature of European colonisation which reinforced moral and assumed physical divisions between virile and "other" inferior cultures, which was subsequently woven into the fabric of colonial ideology and given an aura of respectability.89 In addition, many Victorian observers attacked the utili tarian killing of wildlife by natives because it lacked the `training and testing' so essential for upper-class masculine identity.90 Non-white shots inexcusably preferred to shoot game-birds sitting, because they were easier to kill... `skill and the exercise of it present no advantages. When he goes to shoot, he tries to kill as many birds as possible.'91 African field sports were described by one Victorian observer as savage, uncivilised, and ignorant, lacking in both refinement and `enlightenment'.92 More than this, native inability to master the environment and the dangerous animals within it was construed as evidence of feebleness and lack of manly control.93 Physical qualities, such as `endurance in the sun' and `running from beasts', as noted by one shot, was trivialised and dismissed because it had no moral purpose.94 This flawed manhood was contrasted with European shots who had mastered the physical environment and its inherent dangers, achievements based on rationality, morality qualities, intelligence and physical ability. Consequently, native inadequacies in the face of wild beasts was seized upon by many European shots, eager to promote their role as guardians of the vulnerable. Richard Arkwright,95 for example, was `amused when a rogue elephant ran amok amongst the kaffirs, and I watched them running up trees to hide. I eventually shot the beast, much to the delight of the kaffirs, and left them to the fat, abounding in their glory.'96 It was not until the early twentieth century that the African male received recognition of his skill with the gun.97

Although European shots readily criticised the moral and physical deficiencies of `inferior races', loss of prowess with their own guns occasioned alarm. Shooting big-game in Norway in 1897, for example, Abel Chapman lost his `level head and fired too quick...both eyes open...fatal...an ignominious miss-disgrace. Oh Abel, is nerve and eye beginning to fail? If so farewell to the rifle! But may God forbid!'98 Chapman required a strong physique, as he devoted himself entirely to shooting, fishing and natural history after selling the family brewery-business in 1897.99 His trophies represented a `long-series of the most strenuous endeavour, of tremendous hard work, plus the risk of adventuring into unknown regions, where we had no certainty of success or failure.'100 Like many hunting men, he considered himself a pioneer, and basked in the reflected glory of the `frontiersman.' `Searching' for red-deer, wild-boar, lynx and other game, for example, he travelled the `distant Sierras and other remote areas of Spain', which took him into `wholly unknown districts, wherein (so far as Englishmen were concerned), we were actually pioneers.'101 Chapman's rhetoric was supported by his appetite for travel and sport. He made 23 hunting trips to Spain and Portugal, 46 to Scandinavia, including Spitzbergen, plus forays into France, Morocco, and Scotland, the Shetlands and Outer Hebrides, as well as occasional visits to the North American Continent.102 That Alfred Pease was still able to locate wild and unexplored regions in Abyssinia for the purposes of hunting during the 1900s, perpetuated the masculine tradition of elite hunting during this period of challenge to the continuity of mainstream masculinity and its values.103 Accordingly, noted Club member, John G. Millais, reiterated in 1919 that it was the `sporting pioneer' who had established the British Empire, since their `initial spearhead of courage and noble conduct was the apex of all future advancement. If these men were not our very best gentlemen, progress would have been lost to other nations.'104

The Shikar Club included explorers, naturalists, authors and royalty. It provided a wide-range of middle and upper-class men with an opportunity to be `campfire chums, to cement friendships and revive memories of golden-days.'105 Many members of the Club provided large amounts of contemporary published shooting literature, including C.W.L. Bulpett, C.V. A. Peel, H.C. Maydon and H.A. Bryden.106 In these ways, exploits in the field could be retold, a means of reinforcing distinct gender roles, clear gender identities and the security of superior separateness, since female experience in big-game hunting, such as it was, had not received sanction through any recognised association.107 Big-game hunting experience was essentially for men. Henry Seton-Karr, asserted that his sporting articles were aimed at the `fraternity' of fishing and shooting men, and that they had been `well-received by brother sportsmen'. Writing them, he noted was `pleasant work, since we all like to fight our battles over again.'108 Reminiscences were also an important medium for indoctrinating the young into hunting and strengthening the imperial message. As noted by Lowther, the principal objective of the Shikar Club was the unification of `hunting men, young and old, with the Empire-maker, whether soldier or civilian, and the humble globe-trotter who carries a gun.'(Emphasis added).109 Accordingly, Sir Arthur Vivian, aged 75, rejoiced to see so many young sportsmen at the Club's second annual meet, `ready to testify to the joys of a hunter's life and to the blessing of health which resulted from the pursuit.'110 Fatherly expertise with the gun produced a similar devotion in their offspring. Sir Robert Loder, an expert rider-to hounds and exponent of the sporting gun, was seen as a `good example' of the Victorian country gentleman, emotionally undemonstrative, a good husband, father, administrator, `exacting good conduct and regular habits from those over whom he was placed.'111

Recreational hunting created and perpetuated enduring male-friendships, which fitted functionally into contemporary notions of male-bonding.112 Henry Seton-Karr, for example, remained close to many of his shooting colleagues throughout his life. In his view, shooting with other men produced a bond unequalled in any other social interaction.113 Abel Chapman recorded his `close, constant and faithful' friendship with Walter Buck and his son, Bertie, of Jerez, Spain, which lasted `without break or wrong-thought' between March, 1872 and April 1917.114 Similarly, Alfred Pease and Edmund G. Loder remained lifelong friends after an Eton education, often meeting each other in some outpost when hunting.115 Respect between `guns' was not only a consequence of a shared class identity, but an admiration for physically competent men, who combined a rational understanding of wildlife and the environment with marksmanship and emotional self-control. According to Pease, Edmund Loder and his six brothers, for example, represented the ideal of Victorian manhood, distinguishable by their ardour, vitality and attainment in outdoor pursuits, particularly shooting and athletics.116

Although big-game shooting endorsed the moral superiority of the masculine tradition, it was essential that hunting encompassed `civilised' and `gentlemanly' values, necessary for social and moral leadership. In this way, the gentleman shot reinforced his social hegemony by confronting the wilderness and its animals, whilst retaining social behaviour suitable for leadership. Maurice Egerton, for example, tempered his sporting trips to the frontier with frequent visits to the theatre, music halls, society meetings and church.117 Lord Lonsdale shot at Malakand whilst enjoying the cultural refinements of India and China at the turn of the century.118

The Shikar Club was not, of course, a homogenous association, but a striking symmetry existed between the lives of some of its members. Egerton, Chapman and Pease had a healthy aversion to urban culture, and all devoted themselves to big-game hunting, game-fishing and the acquisition and collation of hunting trophies.119 Egerton was dedicated to adventure, and had an aversion to feminine and domestic values. During his formative years, he befriended Richard Burton, a well-known hunter-explorer.120 Burton (Eton, Sandhurst and College of Agriculture, Cheltenham) was described as `a crack shot, a fine boxer, afraid of nothing that either walked, flew or swam',121 and once remarked that `every region is a strong man's home.'122 The essence of Burton's philosophy is captured in this extract from his biography,

`'Wanted: Men.

Not systems fit and wise,

Not faiths with rigid eyes,

Not wealth in mountain piles,

Not power with gracious smiles,

Not even the potent pen;

Wanted, Men.

`'Wanted: Deeds.

Not words of winning note,

Not thoughts from life remote,

Not fond religious airs,

Not sweetly languid prayers,

Not love of scent and creeds;

Wanted: Deeds.

`'Men and Deeds.

Men that can dare and do;

Not longing for the new,

Not pratings of the old:

Good life and action bold -

These the occasion needs,

Men and Deeds.''123

Egerton developed a passion for shooting under the influence of his father, Alan Egerton, an enthusiastic shot and traveller. During the 1890s, both men were in South Africa hunting big-game, but included some military action against the Matebele tribe in 1896.124 Maurice's preoccupation with masculine values manifested itself in a patriarchal welfare programme for boys, notable for the marginalising of females. Boys from all classes were instructed in countryside activities, mirroring the priority given to manly activities for the young within the Edwardian Scout movement.125 This philosophy relied on, according to one contemporary, `military and moral discipline and sheer fun... it takes the zest of fishing, birds-nesting, collecting and all field sports and joins to them the delight of games and the romance of adventure stories. Close observation of the countryside includes knowing how to stalk and take cover. The boys trained in this way are by way of becoming an aristocracy, morally, physically and intellectually, with the added charm of brotherhood.'126 It was appropriate that Egerton supervised the schemes as, according to a contemporary maxim, manliness for boys should be taught by `men, not half men'.127 The lessons of woodcraft and tracking were widely seen as an essential prerequisite for the future shot. According to one noted `shot', such training encouraged the young to search out `foreign countries' in order to `experience the exhilaration of nobler sports than we can find at home.'128 Unsurprisingly then, Egerton insisted that instruction was given in rabbit-shooting, how to use firearms, canoeing, swimming and walking on the estate. Boys from less wealthy backgrounds could now learn the values of `fair play' in relation to field sports. When rabbit-shooting, for example, Egerton asserted that his young charges used only a .22 rifle, to give the quarry a reasonable chance of escape without being ruined by small shot.129 Academically able boys were helped towards special training, or even university. A fortunate few were even sent overseas for holidays. Egerton also financed Salford Lads Club, and the Cheshire Association of Boys Clubs.130 Knutsford Town Hall was redeveloped into a sports equipment repository to be used by the boys of Cheshire. Viewing and studying Egerton's collection of bows, arrows and knives, rare birds eggs and natural history specimens he had acquired on his hunting trips were an integral part of the programme.131

Egerton's `patriarchal' schemes continued the tradition of welfare which had been a feature of Tatton estate life during the nineteenth century. The Rostherne Boys School was owned and financed by his father, Alan Egerton. Fieldsports on the estate sometimes interrupted boys' schooling, as did field sports. In March, 1878, for example, boys were allowed holidays to assist with the Cheshire Hounds meet at Bucklow Hill, whilst in December, 1884, boys' attendance at school was `poor' as many were needed to beat `the covers' for two days.132 Egerton subsequently maintained links with Knutsford Grammar School, where he oversaw the Rifle and Drill Corp. in the years prior to 1914.133

Matthew Egerton's spartan and disciplined approach to life was reflected in a meticulous, self-reliant approach to hunting when overseas, where his hunting trips were invariably physically testing, requiring early starts, often accompanied by freezing temperatures and inclement weather. His preoccupation with early morning starts was important, as it was seen by `traditionalists' as a bulwark against moral and physical decadence.134 The attention to detail and scientific observation, by means of barometers and telescopes, captured the seriousness of the hunt, distancing it from the frivolity of the battue or fox-hunt popular in Britain. Egerton, like many big-game shots, sometimes used local men as hunting guides. This relationship reflected more than `economic' ascendancy, but imaged the hierarchical nature of mens' relationships in particular settings, in which "hegemonic" and "subordinate" "masculinities" can be identified.135

Egerton's quest for game began in earnest in 1900 in Sardinia, chasing unusual quarry not yet acquired by himself or other shots.136 Rising at about 6 a.m. for a number of weeks, Egerton killed a number of hill-sheep, assisted by local shooting guides. Subsequently, he shot in Canada on the Klondyke, hunting and fishing near the Campbell River, in pursuit of fish and game not available in such numbers on the Continent, such as moose, mule deer, muflon, elk and salmon.137 Egerton kept concise records of the best heads from any area he hunted, specifying owner, location and size of quarry. Moose antlers were detailed by length to the longest line, circumference above the burr, greatest width, points and tip to tip.138 Writing to the curator at South Kensington Museum, Egerton remarked that he was the first to shoot a Harvey's Duiker on Mount Elgon in Kenya.139 This killing of the first of a new game species brought distinction, although disputed kills sometimes provoked acrimonious debate, as with Abel Chapman and Francis Issacs over ownership of the first Bongo140 to be shot in Central Africa.141 The quality of the kill also brought merit. Of his first Scottish stag, Abel Chapman wrote, `curiously, this was the first, and at the time, the ONLY stag I had shot in a Scottish forest, yet it comes within the first dozen among the thousands of stags that have been shot in Scotland.'142 Chapman also records that his African trophies comprised `fine examples of all the grandest game-beasts, which stand first on earth.'143

North America, especially Upper Stickeen, the Yukon and Alaska, was a popular venue for members of the Shikar Club.144 P. Van der Byl, Captain Radclyfe, J.G. Millais, F.C. Selous, and Edmund Loder were the established record-holders for these localities. The potential for trophies or memorable sport justified the expense and distance of these hunting trips, elements which deterred those with insufficient time or means and the mere "dilettante". Since it was the norm for men rather than women to travel extensively in search of adventure, it was unsurprising that the search for new trophies had few geographical limitations.145 In September, 1902, Egerton fished for salmon on the Campbell River, beginning at 6 am, and caught a 49lb fish, 3 ft 8 inches in length, with a girth of 2 ft 4 inches.146

Others travelled well-beyond North America. Chapman travelled extensively in search of records, describing as `unique' the acquisition of the `Royal Mezquitillas',147 with `curious' 8 point cast antlers, from the Sierra Morena.148 Chapman shot Norwegian Elk, Newfoundland Caribou, Scottish and Spanish deer, during the early 1890s, and acquired some of the `best' trophies ever taken in Africa.149

Despite forays to Nort America, Africa was also Egerton's first choice as a sporting destination. He eventually owned a number of farms and plantations at Njora in Kenya, to complement his hunting activities.150 From July 1921 to October 1939, Overall, Egerton shot about six-hundred head of game for display from the African Continent.151 There, he developed close ties with Ewart Scott Grogan and Hugh Delamere, both members of Shikar Club. Grogan had four declared ambitions as a child: to slay a lion, rhinoceros and a elephant... and to see Tanganyika. He subsequently described his first lion-hunt as the `defining moment' in his life.152 Delamere was Egerton's neighbour at Vale Royal in Cheshire, but disliked the emotional restrictions of English upper-class life.153 In East Africa, he found financial security through farming and big-game hunting. He became the first man to penetrate East Africa from the North, instead of via Zanzibar and the Arab slave routes. In 1903, Delamere led the settlement drive of English aristocrats, including Ewart Grogan, interested in perpetuating a feudal lifestyle and developing the economic possibilities of East Africa. However, the Shikar Club's sporting code seems to have gone unheeded by Delamere, who used live donkeys as bait for lion-shooting at night. He also accrued £14000 worth of elephant ivory in one year from Kenya.154 Less controversially, Delamere established the Masara Pack, a `proper hunt, complete with English foxhounds, redcoats, huntsman's caps.'155

Although the cult of shooting and collecting was still extant between the wars, there was by this time a greater emphasis on conservation, a development reflected within the Shikar Club, which increasingly sought the patronage of politically influential sportsmen, such as Robert Coryndon, Alfred Sharpe and A.L.Butler, all prominent members of the Society for the Preservation of the (Wild) Fauna of the Empire. By 1926, a number of distinguished members belonging to the S.P.F.E. had joined the Shikar Club, including Lord Elphinstone and Major Wigram of the Kashmir Game Preservation Department.156 During the 1920s, the Club, anxious to publicise its role within the burgeoning conservation movement, condemned public films showing `unethical' practices, including hunting from motor cars and the filming of wounded and dying animals.157 The Committee complained that such practices were `utterly opposed to all ethics of good sportsmanship, and are liable to give uninitiated members of the public an entirely erroneous view of how real sportsmen behave on shooting expeditions.'158 Alternatively, Major Radclyffe-Dugmore's production, `The Wonderland of Big-Game', presented shooting in a skilful and artistic way emphasising `fair-play' towards game and an ecological awareness: `the test of the true hunter lay in his `love of forest, mountain and desert; in acquired knowledge of the habits of animals; in the strenuous pursuit of a wary and dangerous quarry; in the instinct for a well-devised approach to a fair shooting distance; and in the patient retrieve of a wounded animal.'159 However, despite these gestures to conservation, many observers remained sceptical about the Club. In February 1925, for example, Lonsdale looked to formalise ties with the S.P.F.E, to widen the Club's sphere of influence in conservation politics. This prospect was greeted with alarm by many members of the Preservation Society. This, together with Lonsdales's ultimate failure to incorporate the Club into the Society, cast doubt on the intentions of those who ostensibly embraced conservation whilst at the same time representing themselves as guardians of the masculine tradition through hunting.160

Conclusion

The establishment of the Shikar Club during a period of transition for mainstream masculinity enables certain conclusions to be drawn about the relationship between masculine identity and field sports.161 The Club grew out of the nineteenth century masculine tradition of British big-game hunting. Although many shots saw their sport as an extension of man's role as a natural predator,162 the club was clearly the product and celebration of cultural values, reflecting the political, social and economic power of physically competent, advantaged men. The social and material conditions under which elite hunting flourished enabled privileged men to indulge in sport sanctioned and legitimised by the wider community. Prowess with the gun symbolised `national,' `personal', political, economic and moral superiority over `others'. Membership of the Shikar Club demonstrated that access had been gained to those cultural resources which conferred manhood, since definitions of manhood were closely connected to these resources. Successful hunters remained the apotheosis of an ideal manhood, in both metropolitan and native societies.163 Those who were unable or unwilling to participate in hunting were stigmatised. According to Club member, Dennis Lyell, civilisation, with its `false policy of nurturing the diseased and unfit', was upsetting the balance of nature and threatening British virility.164 As explained by H.Anderson Bryden, big-game hunting was the antidote to the degeneracy of the times, which enabled the celebration of great men, usually warriors as well as sportsmen.165

The Shikar Club was a symbol of `public patriarchy',166 which perpetuated an elite through the killing of wildlife to become part of a wider, subjective identity. The Club, in short, was an explicitly masculine organisation in which membership signified an advanced degree of manhood, based on both achievement in the field, and political and economic and social status. The collective consciousness of those men who made up the Shikar Club viewed hunting as way of transcending the mediocrity of artificial, bourgeois values. This elite was not to be bound by the work ethic or subservient to the laws of the market, and consequently sought the dignity of manhood and personal worth through leisure and the natural world. The dispensing of superfluous luxuries in the wild was another way of rejecting the cluttered, urban world of the plutocrat. As explained by Abel Chapman, `one reads of pound sterling being paid for antiques or curios...and those articles may be worth it too. But we nature lovers enjoy our exquisite design, all pure and fresh, without cost.'167 In reality, of course, elite hunting was an expensive affair, clearly dependant upon those economic resources so readily dismissed by the gentleman shot.

According to one eminent historian, `imperialism was a habit of mind, a dominant idea in the era of European world supremacy, which had widespread intellectual, cultural and technical expressions.'168 Despite the lack of formal record, membership of the Shikar Club perpetuated this habit, through ritual and hunting, and was thus one manifestation of territorial domination achieved by the English elite male in a period of high imperialism.

References

Primary Sources

Arkwright, Robert Wigram, South African Diary, MS, T/B 577, held at Essex Record Office, Chelmsford.

Chapman Archives held at the Hancock Museum, Newcastle University.

Chapman, Abel, Catalogue of My Collections, n.d.;

Diaries, AS/C3/S2, H130/11, 1882-4; Diary, 1905.

Houxty Records and Results, MS, H130-139, 1918,

Egerton, Maurice, Egerton Archives, DET/3229/123; 60/2;123/ 78;

African Adventure, n.d. notes held at Tatton Park;

Biographical Notes, n.d., held at Tatton Park.

Manuscript Notes from Rostherne Boys School Log, 1863-1912, Cheshire Records Office.

Personal Jottings, 1939 , held at Tatton Park.

Letters to Oldfield Thomas, Natural History Museum, Ref DF232/6.

Robb, Johnstone, Letter, October, 1999.

Newspapers, Magazines, and Reviews

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Knutsford Guardian May 18, 1958, and Knutsford Guardian, August 8, 1997, p.6.

The Meteor, Rugby School Magazine, June, 10, 1897, pp.58-61.

The Spectator, Vol. 103, September 25, 1909.

Essex Portraits, VIII, in Essex Review, 13, 1904.

Essex Review, 44, 1935.

Who's Who in Essex, Worcester, 1935.

Essex Leaders, Social and Political, Exeter;

Grant, J., ed., Essex: Historical Biographical and Personal, 1913.

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Baden-Powell, R.S., Scouting for Boys, London, C.A.Pearson, 1908.

Baker, S.W., The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon, London, Longmans and Company, 1874.

Berkeley, G. The English Sportsman in the Western Prairies, London, Hurst and Blackett, 1861.

Blaine, D.P., An Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports, London, 1840, reprinted 1875.

Bryden, H.A., Nature and Sport in South Africa, London, Chapman and Hall, 1897.

Burton, I., The Life of Captain Richard Burton, London, Henry and Company, 1893.

Cartmill, M., A View to a Death in the Morning, Harvard University Press, 1993.

Chapman, A. On Safari, London, Edward Arnold, 1908.

Connell, R., Masculinities, Cambridge, Polity, 1995.

Crespigny, C.C. de, Forty Years of a Sportsman's Life, London, Mills and Boon,1925.. Dawson, L. Lonsdale: The Authorised Life of Hugh Lowther Oldhams, London, Odhams Press, 1946.

Escott, T.H.S., Society in London, London, Chatto and Windus, 1885.

Faulkner, H. Elephant Haunts, Being a Sportman's narrative of the Search for Dr. Livingston, London, 1868.

Filene, P.G., Him/Her/Self, Sex-Roles in Modern America, New York, Harvard University Press, 1975.

Flack, "Captain", A Hunter's Experiences in the Southern States of America, London, 1866.

Gillmore, P. (Ubique), Accessible Fieldsports and the Experiences of a Sportsman in North America, London, 1869.

Grogan, E.S. and Sharpe, A., From the Cape to Cairo, London Hurst and Blackett, 1902.

Hall,S., and Gieben, B, .eds., Formations of Modernity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 177-228

Harry Hieover, Sporting Facts and Fancies, London, Woking, 1853.

Hobson, J.A., Imperialism, reprinted 1972, Uni. of Michigan Press, 1902.

Huxley, E., White Man's Country, London, Macmillan and Company, 1935.

Hyam, R., Britain's Imperial Century, 1850-1914, London, Batsford, 1976.

Lowerson, J., Sport and the English Middle-Classes, 1870-1914, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1992.

Lyell, D., and Stigand, C., Central African Game and its Spoor, Seeley and Company, 1906; Memories of an African Hunter, London, T.Fisher Unwin, 1923.

Mackenzie, J., The Empire of Nature, Manchester, Manchester University Press,1988.

Mangan, J.A., Continuities, paper forthcoming, 2000; The Cultural Bond, London, Cass, 1986; and Walvin, J., (eds.,) Manliness and Morality, Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain and America, 1800-1950, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1987.

Middleton, D., Baker of the Nile, London, Falcon Press, 1949.

Millais, J., Wanderings and Memories, London, Longmans and Company, 1919.

Mingay, G, ed., The Victorian Countryside, 2 Vols., 1981.

Monkton, C.W., Experiences of a New Guinea President Magistrate, (London) nd.

Nauright, J, and Chandler, T.L., eds., Making Men, Rugby and Masculine Identity , London, Cass, 1996.

Pease, A.E., The Diaries of Edward Pease, London, Headley Brothers, 1907; The Book of the Lion, London, John Murray, 1913; Edmund Loder, London, John Murray, 1923; Half a Century of Sport, 1932, London, John Murray, 1932;

Peel, C.V.A., Somaliland: An Account of Two Expeditions into the Far Interior, London, F.E.Robinson and Company, 1900.

Portland, Fifty Years and More of Sport in Scotland, London, Faber and Faber, 1933.

Prichard,H., Hunting Camps in Woods and Wilderness, London, William Heinemann, 1910.

Ritvo, H., The Animal Estate, New York, Harvard University press,1987.

Ross, J., and Gunn, H (eds.), The Book of the Red Deer and Empire Big Game, London, Simpkin and Marshall, 1925.

Russell, F., The Hunting Animal, London, Hutchinson, 1984.

Said, E., Culture and Imperialism, London, Vintage, 1994.

Salt, H., Killing for Sport, 1913, and Seventy Years Among the Savages, London, Allen and Unwin, 1921; `The Sportsman at Bay,' The International Journal of Ethics, XVI, 1906, p.491.

Selous, F.C., Travel and Adventure in South East Africa, London, Rowland Ward and Company, 1893.

Seton-Karr, H. My Sporting Holidays, London, Edward Arnold, 1904.

Stigand, C., The Elephant in Africa, New York, Macmillan and Company, 1913.

Thomas, K., Man and the Natural World, 1986.

Thompson, J.O., Dr.Salter of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, London, Hamilton and Company, 1933.

Tosh, J., and Roper, M. Manful Assertions, London, Routledge, 1991.

Weiner, M., English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Notes

1 The battue was a term for the shooting of driven-game as distinct from `walking-up' game.

2 H.A. Levenson, `An Old Shekarry', `The Algerian Sporting Expedition', The Field, Vol. 8, November 21, 1857, p.353.

3 Membership of the the Shikar Club required that the hunter have corroborated proof that he had killed game in three separate Continents. I have been unable to locate any formal record books, but am grateful to Henry North of Clifford Hall, Yealand Conyers, Carnforth, whose family have been well-represented in the Club. The Club was administered by a Committee led by P.B.Vanderbyl and its chairman, Hugh Cecil Lowther and organised from their respective houses. (See below) The Club met for an annual dinner at various London hotels, but met informally at the Savoy Hotel. ( See below).

4 See for example, Mackenzie, 1988 and Ritvo, 1987.

5 Note John Lowerson's observation in Sport and the English Middle-Classes, 1870-1914, 1992, pp.21-3.

6 Charles Edward Radclyffe (1864-1915) served with the Rifle Brigade from the mid 1880s, and was wounded in the Burmese War, 1885-7, and the South African Campaign, for which he received the D.S.O. P.B. Vanderbyl, (1867-1930), of Wappenham House, Towcester, Northampton. See The Field, Vol. CXLII, November 15, 1923, p.717. Vanderbyl eventually married at the age of 60.

7 Frederick Courtney Selous at Rugby School, see The Meteor, (Rugby School Magazine), June, 10, 1897, pp.58-61.

8 Hyam, 1976, pp.50-1.

9 I am grateful to Janet Smith at the Essex County Records Office for her kind assistance in locating sources for the De Crespigny family.

10 Essex Portraits, VIII, in Essex Review, 13, 1904, pp. 241-2, and see, Essex Review, 44, 1935, p.192, and, Who's Who in Essex, Worcester, 1935, p.58, Essex Leaders, Social and Political Exeter, and J. Grant, ed., Essex: Historical Biographical and Personal, 1913. The multi-talented aristocratic sportsman, of course, was appreciated and respected by the Victorian public, exemplified by the likes of George Osbaldeston and Thomas Ashetton Smith. In this way, De Crespigny was continuing the tradition of the competent `all-round' sportsman. (Emphasis added).

11 de Crespigny, 1925, pp. 274-5

12 Pease, 1932, p.100.

13 Essex Review, 1904, and De Crespigny, Forty Years, ibid., pp. 230-2.

14 De Crespigny, Forty Years, pp. 238, and 240-1.

15 Essex Review, 1904, pp.341-2.

16 Henry Salt, 1851-1939, son of Colonel T. Salt, was educated at Eton and Kings College, Cambridge. Assistant Master of Eton, 1875-84. Salt was the catalyst for the Humanitarian League, and particularly disapproved of `blood-sports.' See, Killing for Sport, 1913, pp.152-5 edited by Salt, and Seventy Years Among the Savages, 1921.

17 See J.A. Mangan, Continuities, paper forthcoming, 2000.

18 Salt, Seventy Years p.11.

19 `The Defence of Field sports,' Baily's Magazine, Vol.., August, 1885, pp.318-326.

20 Ibid.

21 Seton-Karr,1904, pp. 44, 68, 91-2.

22 Iain Colquhoun, Bart., D.S.O., Lord-Lieutenant of Dumbartonshire. Major, Scots Guards, served in European War. Owner of Scottish deer-forest and authority on the sport.

23 Portland, 1933, p.41.

24 I. Colquhoun, `The Future of Deerstalking,' in J. Ross and H. Gunn, eds.,1925, p.111.

25 Henry Seton-Karr, C.M.G., M.P., son of George Berkeley Seton-Karr, an Indian Civil Servant. Educated at Harrow and Oxford, called to the Bar of Lincoln's Inn, Conservative MP for St. Helens, 1885-1906, JP for Roxburghshire. Author of A Call to Arms, 1901, My Sporting Holidays, 1904, In Praise of Field sports, 1906, and contributor to Baily's Magazine and the Badminton Volumes.

26 Seton-Karr, 1904, pp. 44, 68, 91-2.

27 Seton-Karr, 1904, pp. 5-6, and see, H. Salt, `The Sportsman at Bay,' The International Journal of Ethics, XVI, 1906, p.491.

28 Selous, F.C., 1893, p.91.

29 Hugh Cecil Lowther, 1857-1944, son of Henry Lowther. Educated at Eton. Who's Who in Cumberland and Westmoreland, 1937, pp. 147,48. Hugh Cecil Lowther was an extraordinary sportsman, an occasional big-game shot and Master of the Cottesmore and Quorn Hounds. See L. Dawson, Lonsdale: The Authorised Life of Hugh Lowther Oldhams, 1946 See also, D. Sutherland, The Yellow Earl, 1965, p.170

30 J.0. Thompson, ` Lonsdale,' preface to J.O. Thompson, Dr.Salter of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, 1933.

31 Abel Chapman, 1851-1929, eldest son of T.E. Chapman, of Silksworth Hall, Sunderland. Abel was educated at Rugby, after which he became a partner in the family firm, brewers and wine merchants. See, `Memoir' written by George Bolam in A. Chapman, Four Score Years Less Two, 1929. Chapman became a prolific writer and shot, the results of both are currently held at the Hancock Museum, Newcastle University, administered by Les Jessop, whose kind and authoritative assistance was invaluable in compiling a greater understanding of Chapman's unerring `masculinity'!

32 Chapman,1908, p.4.

33 Lonsdale, The Field, Vol.122, June 14,1923, p.900.

34 Salt, 1921, pp.14-15.

35 Dawson, 1946, pp.21 and 58.

36 Lonsdale, The Field, Vol 122, June 14, 1923, p.900.

37 Berkeley, 1861, p.2 and Baker, 1874, p.xi/xii.

38 Gillmore, (Ubique), 1869, preface.

39 Ibid., pp. 2-3.

40 Captain Flack' 1866, p.1

41 Grantley Berkeley, 1800-81, described as an `aristocrat in his own opinion but unable to convince the world to agree with him', in C. Kirby, The English Country Gentleman, p.42. See Baily's Magazine, X, June 1865, pp. 10-19, August, 1865, pp. 118-24, and April, 1881, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 71-3.

42 Berkeley, 1861, pp. 1-2.

43 `The Englishman Abroad,' Baily's Magazine, January, 1895, p.10.

44 Thomas, 1986.

45 Ellias and E. Dunning, 1986, p.160.

46 See' Englishmen's Sport in the Future', Baily's Magazine, Vol. 85, January-June, 1906, p.347, `The Decadence of Sport,' Baily's Magazine, Vol. 83, January-June, pp. 198-202, `The Future of Wildlife in England,' The Field, Vol.. 113, May 29th., 1909, p.895.

47 See The Field, XX, August 2, 1862, p.101, and The Times, August 4, 1862, p.8. Surtees commented on driven-game shooting, as the `old womanly sport of battuing', see A.Steel, Jorrock's England, 1932, p.167.

48 Escott, 1886, p.22, and Thompson,`Landowners and the Rural Community', in G. Mingay, 1981, pp. 457-475.

49 Felix, `Sport in England,' Baily's Magazine, Vol. 90, July-December, 1908, pp. 417-420.

50 W. Bromley-Davenport quoted in Prichard, 1910, pp. 3-4.

51 Selous,1893, p.91

52 Stigand and Lyell, 1906, p.4.

53 `The Shikar Club', in Dawson, 1946, pp.205-6.

54 `A Record of Clean Sport', in the Field, Vol. 140, October, 28, 1922, p.648, reviewing Major-General N.Woodyatt, My Sporting Memories, (1922).

55 Seton-Karr, 1904, pp. 66-7.

56 Fieldcraft remains the gauge by which true sportsmen are measured, and indicates their knowledge of the natural environment as well as skill with the gun.

57 Chapman, `On the Ethics of Sport', Records, MS., No 3, p.10.

58 Charles Victor Alexander Peel, F.Z.S., F.R.G.S., was a member of the Oxford Natural History Society, and Field Club. Peel contributed to the Field, the Sporting and Dramatic News and the Gentlewoman, and wrote three books: Wild Sport in the Outer Hebrides, 1900, Somaliland, An Account of Two Expeditions into the Far Interior, 1901, and the Zoological Gardens of Europe, 1903.

59 Peel, 1900, preface.

60 Reminiscences of the Rockies,' The Badminton Magazine, Vol. VIII, 1897, pp. 256-9 and H. Seton-Karr, My Sporting Holidays, 1904, p.145.

61 Baily's Magazine, September, 1912, p170.

62 Seton-Karr, 1904, p.145.

63 Maurice Egerton of Tatton Hall, Cheshire (1874-1958).

64 Egerton Archives, DET/3229/60/2

65 Ibid.

66 Chapman, 1918.

67 See for example, `The Vienna Sports Exhibition', The Field, Vol.. 115, 1, 1910, p.480

68 ibid.

69 For a wider treatment of national identity, see, J.A. Mangan, Tribal Identities: Nationalism, Europe, Sport, 1996, and, G. Jarvie, ed., Sport in the Making of Celtic Cultures, 1999

70 `The Glasgow Exhibition', The Field, Vol. 97, April 27th., 1901, p.564

71 See for example, R.S. Baden-Powell, Pigsticking or Hoghunting, 1924, pp. 29-30

72 Dennis Lyell, (of Eastwood, Broughty Ferry, Forfarshire, Scotland.)

73 Stigand and Lyell, 1906, pp. 142-3, and see, D.D. Lyell, 1924, p.140.

74 See Baker, 1874, preface, and Wild Beasts and their Ways, 1890, quoted in Middleton, 1940, p.35. For a wider treatment of guns, see, R. Riling, Guns and Shooting, A Selected Chronological Bibliography, New York, 1951.

75 Lyell, 1924, p.147.

76 Alfred Edward Pease, of Guisborough, 2nd. Bart., 1857-1939.

77 Weiner, 1981.

78 Pease, 1907.

79 Pease, 1907, p.29, and see `Alfred Edward Pease', Baily's Magazine, Vol. CL, March, 1914, pp. 161-163.

80 Baily's Magazine, Vol. CL, March, 1914, pp. 161-2.

81 Robert Lyons Scott, (1871-1939), Chairman of Scotts, 1916-39.

82 Information from Valerie Bough, Curator, Mclean Museum, Greenock.

83 Robert's father, John (1830-1903), was a devoted shot, and a Honorary Colonel of the Dumbarton Royal Garrison. Robert was schooled at Wellington College, and developed his shooting skills at an early age. I am grateful for assistance given by Johnstone Robb, Greenock, an ex-employee of Scotts.

84 The Spectator, Review of Travel and Sport in Africa, Vol 59, 1903, p.536.

85 Pease, 1913, Chapter One.

86 See for example, Blaine, 1840.

87 Hobson, 1902, pp. 223-4 and see, Russell, 1984, p.28, and Cartmill, 1993 pp. 136-7.

88 Chapman, 1908, pp. 284-5

89 Said, 1993, p.296, and see, S.H. Atlas The Myth of the Lazy Native, 1977.

90 See Mangan, ed., 1986, pp.15-23.

91 `The West Indian as a Sportsman,' The Field Vol. 103, May 28 1904, p.86.

92 Blaine, 1840, p.45.

93 Ibid.

94 Stigand, 1913, p.210 and pp.535-536.

95 Richard Wigram Arkwright, 1822-88, eldest son of Joseph Arkwright, vicar of Latton, Essex. Robert attained the rank of Captain.

96 Arkwright, p.89, and Stigand, 1913, p.205.

97 See `The African Native as Sportsmen', Baily's Magazine, Vol. 112, July-December, 1919, pp. 115-20.

98 Chapman, M.S.1897.

99 See His works, particularly Savage Sudan, Its Wild Tribes, Big-game and Bird life, (1921), On Safari, (1908), Unexplored Spain, (1910), Wild Norway, (1897) and Wild Spain, (1910) and Records and Results MS.

100 Chapman, `African Big-Game,' p.27, 1918.

101 Chapman, 1918 p.8.

102 Chapman, 1918, p.8.

103 Letters to Oldfield Thomas, Natural History Museum, p.342.

104 Millais, 1919, p.167 See also, H. Gunn and J. Ross, eds., 1925, pp.137-8.

105 `The Shikar Club', The Field, Vol.. 147, June 17, 1926, p.952.

106 See for example, C.W.L. Bulpett, A Picnic in Africa, 1908, H.Anderson Bryden, Great and Small Game of Africa, 1899, Animals of Africa, 1900, Nature and Sport in Africa, 1897.

107 Nauright Chandler, 1996, for a wider discussion of male identity in sport.

108 Seton-Karr, 1904, preface.

109 `The Shikar Club,' The Field, Vol. 147, June 17, 1926, p.952, and see, Dawson, Lonsdale, pp.205-6.

110 `The Shikar Club', The Field, Vol. 111, June13, 1908, p.1006.

111 Pease, 1923, pp.54, 5.

112 See, Jeffrey Richards in Mangan and Walvin, eds., 1987.

113 Seton-Karr, 1904, p.97.

114 Chapman, 1918, p.8.

115 Edmund Loder, Ed. Eton and Cambridge, 1849-72. b Aug. 7 1849, d April 14 1920.

116 Pease, 1923, pp.54-5 .

117 This information is derived mainly from Egerton Diaries, DET/, Chester County Records Office and details from Tatton Hall, Cheshire. I am grateful for help received from Margaret Mckean, archivist at Tatton.

118 Dawson, 1946 p.182.

119 See African Adventure Notes n.d., and Egerton Diaries.

120 African Adventure Notes, p.3.

121 Monkton, n.d., p.111.

122 Burton. 1893, p.17

123 Ibid.

124 For a full and detailed account of Maurice Egerton in South Africa, see Diaries, DET, and African Adventure, p.6.

125 See J. Springhall, `Youth and Empire: A Study of the Propagation of Imperialism to the Young in Edwardian Britain,' D.Phil. thesis, Sussex University, 1968.

126 The Spectator, Vol. 103, September 25, 1909, pp. 463-4.

127 Baden-Powell, 1908, p.266.

128 Stigand, and Lyell, 1906, p.2.

129 Biographical Notes, n.d. held at Tatton Park.

130 From Personal Jottings, 1939 , and see, Knutsford Guardian May 18, 1958, and Knutsford Guardian, August 8, 1997, p.6.

131 Biographical Notes n.d.

132 Manuscript Notes from Rostherne Boys School Log, 1863-1912.

133 Ibid..

134 See Blaine, 1840, p.155 and see Hieover, 1853.

135 See Connell, 1995.

136 Egerton, Diaries, DET/3229/60/2.

137 Ibid.

138 The location and holder of the `best' moose were given in Egerton's Diaries. W.W.Hart and F.B.Tolhurst held the record for Alaska, with beasts having over 20 points. See DET/3229/60/2, Chester Records Office.

139 Letters, from Lord Egerton, January 10th., 1925, DET/3229/107, N-R.

140 The Bongo provoked a great deal of excitement amongst elite shots, probably owing to the difficulty of locating and acquiring it. It was described as `rare with a red coat, with ten, vertical silver stripes, `Bongo Safari,' The Field, Vol 141, May 10, 1928, p.710.

141 See The Times, 4th October, 1901, p.4, and Chapman, 1908, p.288.

142 Chapman, ` Catalogue of My Collections', p.3; and Chapman, 1918.

143 Chapman, 1918. pp. 27-28.

144 Chapman, 1918, pp.27-28.

145 Hall, and Gieben, eds., pp. 177-228.

146 Egerton, Diaries. .

147 The `Royal Mezquitillas' was a noted area for wild deer hunting in Spain.

148 Chapman,1918, p.3.

149 Chapman,1892, 1894, and 1918. pp. 27-8.

150 Egerton, Biographical Notes, pp. 19-20.

151 Egerton, Big-game Book, DET, 3229/123.

152 Grogan and Sharpe, 1900, p.xv, and p.12.

153 See Huxley, 1935.

154 `Night Shooting', Badminton Magazine, Vol. II, 1896, pp. 597-609 and R. Oliver, Sir Harry Johnson and the Scramble For Africa, 1957, p.295.

155 Huxley, pp. 257-8.

156 `The Shikar Club', The Field, Vol. 147, June 17 1926, p.952.

157 `The Shikar Club,' The Field, August 23 1923, Vol. 142, p.275.

158 Ibid.

159 `The Shikar Club,' The Field, Vol. 147, June 1926.

160 Minutes of Meetings, S.P.F.E., 27 February 1925, pp. 16-17.

161 Filene, 1975

162 For a wider discussion of this, see R. Lee and I. Vore, eds., Man the Hunter, Chicago, 1968, p.319.

163 Faulkner,1868, pp. 27-28.

164 Lyell,1923, p.19.

165 Bryden,1897, p.281.

166 The term `patriarchy' in historical context is discussed in Tosh and Roper,1991, p.9.

167 Chapman, 1905, pp. 7-8.

168 Mackenzie,1988, p.ix.