Old British novels often portray the gentry shooting birds for sport. Period TV shows and movies reinforce this image of the British aristocracy. Movies and TV series set in recent decades, such as the James Bond movie "Moonraker" in 1979, the sitcom "To The Manor Born" in 1979--1981, and the 1980's-90s mystery series "Lovejoy," feature similar scenes. Typically, such scenes occur amid pastoral beauty, and depict shooting as a genteel, if not regal, form of sport.
In their own way, such a portrayal of shooting birds for sport suggests a high regard for wildlife. After all, it takes a lot of work to manage the grounds of a vast estate, and a lot of education and experience to successfully maintain a healthy flock of birds.
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| Houses in the Sussex Downs |
E. F. Benson's novel Limitations, originally published in 1896, speaks to this period of British society. Tom Markham, the son of a gentleman, has caught a cold, and stayed inside his father's mansion on the Surrey Downs for a few days. But the groundskeeper's cheery face lures him outside.
“Yes, I’ll come out in half an hour,” said Tom. “Get a few beaters, and we’ll just walk through the woods. And send down to the vicarage to ask Mr. Markham if he’d care for a tramp. They don’t have pheasants in Greece, Kimberley: there’s a country for you!”
After graduating from Cambridge, Tom recently spent a few months in Greece, where he studied the sculpture of Athens. Mr. Markham is the vicar of the local church, and like his son Ted (who studied at Cambridge with Tom) prefers to spend hours of each day translating ancient Greek literature.
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| King's College in Cambridge |
Mr. Markham was devoted to shooting, but of late years had not been able to indulge his taste. Still, as a priest, some of his parish work, and even a quiet hour spent with his beloved Aristophanes, could easily be put off, for the opportunity to shoot birds for sport.
E.F. Benson describes Tom's favorite shooting spot this way:
It stood on a knoll of rising ground, some quarter of a mile away from the house, and by dint of long experience and frequent failure Tom had found that if the pigeons were artfully disturbed by beaters entering towards the centre from opposite sides they always broke cover at two particular points at opposite ends of the knoll, and that one gun stationed at each of these points became a fiery sword, turning, as far as the pigeons were concerned, every way.
While Tom has met Ted's sister May before, he's never paid much attention to her. But after studying the way ancient sculptors portrayed the likenesses of their gods, all thoughts of shooting flee when he sees May. "Oh, all ye gods," he says, "she is a goddess!"
As for Mr. Markham:
The beaters beat, and the pigeons started from the branches, and flew out in the pre-ordained manner, threading their way between the tops of the thick trees, as they and their deceased relations had often done before. Mr. Markham had one of the most delightful five minutes that falls to the lot of sportsmen, and straight over Tom’s head as he stood in the path the steely targets tacked and swerved.
Even May, who unlike her father and brother, prefers to spend her days visiting the poor and sick, exhibits no displeasure in the idea of her father or Tom shooting. "Have you had good sport?" she asks.
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| The Church in Grantchester, a relaxing & scenic stroll from Cambridge |
Much has changed in century-plus since E. F. Benson wrote Limitations. Even scenes such as in "Moonraker," in which multimillionaire industrialist Hugo Drax and James Bond partake of this sport, might well be rewritten to appeal to modern sensibilities. And while the antiques dealer Lovejoy might still sell old guns to the aristocracy for their shooting, I can't recall a single episode of recent TV series "Father Brown" or "Grantchester" which depict a Church of England priest shooting birds for sport.
If it were filmed today, I wonder if Audrey would approve of Richard Devere's desire to shoot birds on the grounds of the mansion she once owned in the 1979-1981 British sitcom "To The Manor Born." It's hard to imagine series creator Peter Spence currently penning a script which involved Audrey helping Richard organize the Hunt Ball on his estate. A later episode, in which she encourages him to ride along with her visiting friend in a hunt, likewise seems a relic of earlier times.
Dragon Dave