IP.v, 
 
 
 •^^^F 
 
 
 «IS 
 
 ffe- 
 
 "fi# 
 
 
 
^bster Fari I' ' 
 
 ills Uihv. 
 30Westbo;o 
 
 nnary Medicine ; 
 / Medicine at 
 

 TUFTS UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 3 9090 013 414 145 
 

 Sms?"; '^M'©m(S® mjgssisiEm.. 
 
GENERAL GEORGE HANGER 
 
 TO ALL ^ / 
 
 SPORTSMEN, 
 FARMERS, AND GAMEKEEPERS. 
 
 Above Thirty Years' Practice in Horses and Dogs ; to 
 feed and cure them of all common Disorders and to 
 save a Dog which has been poisoned. 
 
 Eflfectually to catch all Vermin. 
 
 THE RAT.CATCHING SECRET; 
 
 TO CATCH EVERY RAT ON THE PREMISES ALIVE, 
 WITHOUT POISON. 
 
 071 Fowlmg'Pieces, Rifles, and Muskets, To 
 prevent Partridges being taken at Night hf 
 . Drag-nets, To breed and feed Pheasants,^ and 
 prevent them being destroyed by Night-shooters 
 and Poachers, To catch flocks of Wood-pigeons 
 and all Jfaterfowl. To shoot Wild-fowl, Pewits, 
 Golden Plover, Wild Geese, and Bustards, by 
 night. To approach Red Deer, within thirty 
 or forty yards. Of Race Horses. Cure for 
 Cattle swelled from eating Clover. Several valua- 
 able Family Receipts, ^c. 
 
 BMBELLISHED WITH A CHARACTERISTIC PORTRAIT OF THE 
 AUTHOR ON HIS RETURN EROM SHOOTING. 
 
 A NEW EDITIOZi. 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 ^aiNTED J^OR J. J. STOCKDALE, No. 41, PALL-MALL 
 
 Price Fifteen Shillings. 
 
V* 
 
 / ■ 
 
TO 
 
 THOMAS COKE, Esa. 
 
 OF 
 
 HOLKHAM, NORFOLK. 
 
 Sir; 
 
 I HAVE frequently read dedi- 
 cations of books, to persons of distinction, 
 attributing almost every virtue, in nature, 
 to them ; and, after the most diligent search 
 to discover where those virtues existed, I 
 could find them no where but in the dedi- 
 *cation. Indeed, many such persons, in 
 my opinion, greatly resemble large china 
 jars, in old family houses, which have out- 
 wardly a noble and handsome appearance, 
 but, when you look into them, you will find 
 nothing but dust and cobwebs. 
 
 B 
 
DEOICATIOK. 
 
 I shall attribute three merits to yon, 
 which the whole world are acquainted 
 with ; passing over those others, which have 
 so firmly attached so many friends to you. 
 First, sir, your conduct in the Senate of the 
 Nation, for so many years, hat incontestably 
 proved you to be a true patriot, zealously 
 attached to the liberties and interests of 
 your fellow-subjects. Secondly, sir, you 
 have been a most laudable agriculturist, 
 expending tens of thousands of pounds, 
 experimentally, for the universal benefit of 
 mankind. Thirdly, sir, you are a good 
 sportsman, and a liberal one. 
 
 I do not attribute this Ust quality to you 
 for that unbounded kindness you have 
 favored me with, by permitting me to 
 shoot over three whole parishes, all j^our 
 own lands; but from your well-known libe- 
 rality to many others. There is, in truth, 
 
DEDICATION. 7 
 
 a very great difference in the conduct of 
 landholders ; for there are many who would 
 as soon lend their wives for a day, as their 
 manors. Your kindness, sir, and that of 
 several others in Norfolk and Suffolk, places 
 me beyond the disagreeable predicament of 
 receiving a refusal on application to them. 
 
 That you may live many years to con- 
 tinue that liberal and sumptuous hospi- 
 tality, which have so much distinguished 
 Holkham Hall, since it has been your 
 country residence, and that you may enjoy 
 every happiness in this world, is the sincere 
 wish of 
 
 Sir, your most respectful. 
 
 Most devoted. 
 And grateful humble servant, 
 
 George Hanger. 
 
 LondoUy 
 April 4, 1814 
 
COLONEL HANGER 
 
 TO 
 
 SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &c. 
 
 i SHALL begin by making known the most 
 useful medicine for horses that I am ac- 
 quainted with. I have constantly used it 
 for above thirty years, and, may in truth 
 say, I have given it one hundred times. I 
 shall relate how I first proved its surprising 
 efficacy. Above thirty years ago, when I wonderful ef- 
 was confederate on the turf with my friend ^nji sulphur 
 
 J balls, given tf 
 
 Mr. Robert Pigott, when his celebrated *^°''''' 
 horse Shark was at his best, — Mr. Pigott 
 trusting the whole conduct of his stables to 
 me, I came, some days before the Meetings, 
 to try his horses and my own, and to see 
 
10 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 his horse Shark take his last sweat, before 
 he ran with Lord Abingdon's Leviathan, 
 for a very large sum of money we both 
 had depending on that race. 
 
 Shark went through his sweat, at the 
 dawn of day, very well, and to my perfect 
 satisfaction ; after which he was taken home, 
 fed, and locked up, till twelve o'clock at 
 noon. At twelve o'clock, when the trainer, 
 Thomas Price, and myself came into his 
 stable, we found all his legs swelled, his 
 hind legs very much indeed, quite up to 
 the hocks, and his fore legs considerably. 
 I was much alarmed, and told Tom Price to 
 keep the door locked, that none of the boys 
 might see the condition he was in, and that 
 I would send a servant to Mr. Pigott, to 
 inform him, that he might get his money 
 off. 
 
 Price said, " Sir, you are alarmed at that 
 which is of no consequence whatever. 
 Horses' legs, after sweating, frequently jfly, 
 and, I assure you, I have had many horses 
 more swelled than Shark is. Provided his 
 legs are not fine by to-morrow night, I will 
 suffer death : and, to prove to you my sin- 
 
SPORTSMEN^ FARMERS^ 8CC. 11 
 
 cerity, I will, if you will allow me, stand 
 every shilling you have on the race ; and I 
 know you have a very large sum depend- 
 ing. I will give him something which, by 
 to-morrow night, shall make his legs as fine 
 as they were yesterday." " You shall give 
 him nothing/' said I, " unless you tell me 
 what the medicine is composed of." " It 
 is the most simple and innocent of medi- 
 cines, sir : I will write it down for you, and 
 you shall go yourself to the apothecary's 
 and have it made up, and see it dven to 
 
 ^ ^ Receipt for the 
 
 him yourself. It is this : one pound of phuJbSfs."''^" 
 
 NITRE, AND HALF A POUND OF SULPHUR, 
 
 (flower of brimstone,) MIXED UP into a 
 MASS WITH MOLASSES. " For Shark, I had 
 it made up with honey, being so valuable a 
 horse ; but I never have given it to any 
 other horse, except made up with molasses ; 
 and I look both on the honey and molasses, 
 as only vehicles to give the nitre and sul- 
 phur. Before one o'clock at noon, I gave 
 Shark a ball of it, as large as a good-sized 
 hen's egg ; at night, another ; the next 
 morning, another; and, in the evening, 
 
12 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 ^ ' about fi ve o'clock, another. At night, when 
 we shut the stable up, we could scarcely 
 perceive that his legs were at all swelled ; 
 and, at day-break the next morning, his 
 legs were as fine as they ever had been. 
 He had txvo balls given him the first two 
 days, but only one every day after, until the 
 day he started for the match, which was 
 seven days after he had taken his sweat. 
 His exercise was stopped only two days, 
 during which time he was only walked, 
 which, I am convinced, benefited him, for 
 nunning hc was a dcHcate horse. All running: horses, 
 
 horses and CJ 
 
 be^pJJgeT'^ ..and hunters, must be well purged ; if they 
 are not, they will never stand their work, 
 without flying to pieces, as the grooms vul- 
 garly call it. 
 purg^nfirJft It is not ncccssary to purge draft- horses, 
 hors«s. or hackneys. I have not physicked one 
 
 for above thirty years. You need only 
 give them one ball, as big as a hen's e^^, 
 every day, until they have taken the whole 
 mass which I have prescribed. Give 
 this in the spring ; and, provided you find 
 their legs swell again, from work, or that 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 13 
 
 they look unkind in their coats, give it 
 them again, — for you need never stop their 
 work. 
 
 Farmers, who are fond of having: their Noxious dmgs 
 
 ^ given to far- 
 
 cart-horses look w^ell in their coats, when ITo^rsesto S^ 
 they go to market, are in the habit of look fmc.' 
 giving antimony and other noxious drugs 
 to their horses ; this medicine will answer 
 every purpose, and is most innocent and 
 simple, and very efficacious. 
 
 Ignorant John Groom, and the farrier, SXines'dt' 
 
 T, . ,1 1 , , trimental to a 
 
 equally is^norant, whenever a horse looks horse's consti^ 
 
 . , tution. 
 
 unkind in his coat, and most particularly 
 when his legs in the least swell, give him, 
 for two or three successive days, a strong 
 diuretic ball ; which makes the horse stale 
 profusely, weakens him, and is detrimental 
 to his constitution. Diuretic balls are com- 
 posed of rosin, juniper-berries, and other 
 violent, strong diuretics, violent in their 
 operations, and noxious to the animal. The 
 medicine I recommend is perfectly inno- 
 cent, and so mild and gentle in its opera- 
 tion, that it acts insensibly on him, and is 
 not to be perceived, but by the cure. 
 
14 COLONEL HAMGBR TO 
 
 of thelfficTcy '^^^ ^^^^^ horse, after Shark, I gave this 
 sui^X^rb^ans?"^ mcdicine to, was a most valuable brown 
 horse, a hunter, presented to me by my 
 worthy and old friend. Lord Egmont. The 
 man who sold him to my friend, had de- 
 ceived him, by telling him, that the horse 
 had been properly physicked before the 
 season. I had not rode him much above 
 a fortnight, ere he flew all to pieces. 
 
 My groom came in one morning, and 
 desired I would look at my horse. I found 
 his coat extremely rough, staring, and 
 unkind to the feel, and his legs very much 
 swelled. I gave him, the first day, two 
 balls; the second day, two balls; and 
 every day after only one ball, until he had 
 taken the whole mass. I hunted him on 
 the fifth day, his legs being nearly as fine 
 as they had been, and his coat every day 
 looking better and kinder to the feel. Since 
 that time I have given it to some hundreds 
 of horses. 
 
 I gave this receipt to a horse dealer in 
 London, an old acquaintance of mine, who 
 was accustomed, whenever he had pur- 
 
8P0RTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. IB 
 
 chased a lot of horses in the country, when 
 any of them flew at the heels, their legs 
 swelled, or looked unkind in their coats, to 
 put them under a regular course of physic; 
 by which method he lost the sale of his horses 
 for six weeks. He has assured me that, 
 ever since I gave him my receipt, his 
 horses have, in ten days, befen fit to shew 
 to any gentleman, 
 
 I do not assert that this medicine will P® ^f^ase m 
 
 horses* 
 
 cure a confirmed grease in horses' heels, 
 but it will cure an incipient disorder. Be 
 sure never to apply any grease or ointment 
 to the horses' heels, nothing but a turnip 
 poultice. If the grease be obstinate, 
 nothing but mercury will cure him, thus 
 administered : Give the horse two drachms J^^^^^i^g^L 
 
 OF CALOMEL OVER-NIGHT, AND THE NEXT ^'^"^* 
 MORN A COMMON ALGETIC PURGE. This 
 
 must be repeated three times, stopping one 
 or two days between each dose ; after which 
 give him the nitre and sulphur balls. This 
 process will cleanse him thoroughly. 
 
 When horses come in from hunting and ufoTof di^o- 
 
 P , . vering Worm» 
 
 perfectly empty in the stomach, when you injHorses.mis- 
 
 *■ J I J 'J taken often for 
 
 give them a double feed of corn, before *^^ ^"p^*' 
 
16 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 they have eaten one half, you sometimes 
 will observe them leave off feeding for a 
 time, turn their heads back and look iat 
 their flanks ; sometimes they will even lie 
 down for a minute or two, then get up, 
 and finish their corn. Wise John Groom 
 says directly, to a master as wise as himself, 
 " Sir, your honour's horse has got the gripes ; 
 I will give him a comfortable drink, which 
 will soon relieve him/' John Groom might 
 just as well rub the horse's, or his own 
 backside with a brick-bat. This proceeds 
 from the horse having worms. The worms, 
 as hungry as the horse, begin to feed and, 
 by moving about in the body of the horse, 
 make the horse, for a time, sick. 
 
 'iiiecure. Two drachms of calomel, given over- 
 
 night, tying his head up to the rack, so 
 that he cannot eat any thing, and half a 
 dose of the common aloetic physic the 
 next moning, three times repeated, will kill 
 the worms, and bring them from the horse. 
 
 Peculiar case J ^^^.q kucw a marc which took three 
 
 of a Mare. 
 
 doses, and they had no effect on her ; but a 
 fourth dose brought very great quantities 
 from her ; her coat began to look fine, and 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 17 
 
 her corn did her good, which it did not 
 before she was perfectly freed from them. 
 
 Courteous Reader., (as the man who makes 
 Moore's Almanack, ever addresses his cus- 
 tomers,) be pleased to observe, that 1 posi- 
 tively decline even entering into any 
 difficult and intricate disorders which horses 
 may have. I presume only to point out 
 the methods which should be practised with 
 all horses afflicted with simple and common 
 complaints, which are so easily known and 
 distinguished by any man, who has the 
 least knowledge of horses. Provided your 
 horse be afflicted by a greater malady than 
 common, send for a Veterinary Surgeon. 
 That description of men have arrived at 
 great perfection, and there is scarcely a 
 large town in England, where there is not 
 one to be found of some proficiency. Pro- 
 vided you doctor your horse, when you 
 know not what his disorder is, it is three 
 to one but you kill him. 
 
 If your horse be attacked with a putrid 
 fever, (which is easily ktiown from a com- 
 mon inflammatory fever, proceeding from a 
 Jiorse having caught a violent cold, and 
 
18 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 all perspiration checked, by having been put 
 into a cold damp stable, and not well 
 rubbed down, and well clothed, ever 
 having been used to a warm stable and 
 good attendance ; or from standing in a 
 great perspiration, hung to some ale-house 
 by a master, by far more brute than the 
 animal,) send for a veterinary surgeon. 
 Yet, in complicated complaints, more 
 commonly known by the name of chroni- 
 cal diseases, I am of opinion, that nature 
 acts infinitely beneficent, kind, and great, 
 in our favour. That the doctor may assist 
 nature, I allow ; but his skill cannot take 
 the lead of her : and I am persuaded that, 
 provided your apothecary and surgeon be 
 a man of good sense, and of considerable 
 practice in his profession, when he finds 
 that all the medicines he has given you 
 have been of no avail, and desires that you 
 will call in a physician, it is only for this 
 fcTotheca?' ^^^^son, — that, provided three people die in 
 the year, attended by an apothecary only, 
 it makes a greater noise in the parish than 
 when three thousand die under the care of 
 physicians ; for scarcely does any one die 
 
SPORTSMliN, FARMERS, 8CC. 19 
 
 (excepting they drop down suddenly in a 
 fit) without having this satisfaction and 
 consolation left to their friends, that they 
 died, or were killed, secundum ariem. 
 
 Now I will frankly ask any physician, ^p^Jf^'g^Jg^^ 
 whether he has not many advantages when veter^arV^'*" 
 
 , , . . I'll • Surgeon can- 
 
 he attends his patient, which the veterinary not have. 
 surgeon cannot have ? When I send for a 
 veterinary surgeon to attend my horse, he 
 goes into the stable ;— he certainly can feel 
 the horse's pulse; so can the physician, fee! 
 his patient's pulse ; but the physician has a 
 hundred advantages to make himself 
 acquainted with his patient's disorder, 
 which the veterinary surgeon cannot have; 
 for the veterinary surgeon's patient cannot 
 speak, and tell him where the complaint 
 lies, or in what part of his body he feels 
 pain, or whether he be cold, hot, or thirsty, . 
 or in great pain in any particular part of 
 his body or limbs. This the veterinary 
 surgeon has to find out. — Now I will state 
 the following to the candid reader. Were 
 I extremely ill indeed, and were to send 
 for a physician,-— when he is attending me, 
 he first asks me how I feel, where the pain 
 
20 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 lies, whether it be in my foot, backside, ot 
 head, or in any other part of the body. 
 Instead of answering him, were I to say, 
 
 ' *' Sir, I sent for you to tell me how, and 
 
 where, I was affected ; and not to inform 
 you where the pain and disorder lies, toge- 
 ther with all its symptoms, — that is your 
 business to find out;" I will candidly ask 
 the reader whether he would not hastily 
 quit my bed-side, get into his carriage, 
 drive away, and tell the whole town that I , 
 was mad ? But yet what I have stated is a 
 fact. — The only advantage the veterinary 
 surgeon can have is, that his patient cannot 
 be affected with such chronic disorders, 
 from the simple and innocent nature of the 
 horse's aliment, as man, from gluttony, 
 drunkenness, and debauchery, is afflicted 
 
 Nature and a with. lu short, I am of opiuiou, provided 
 
 good constitu- 
 tion nine times the disorder be not very easily known, 
 
 :a ten perform J J 
 
 the cure. ^^^ distinguished, both the horse and the 
 man have but very little hopes from the 
 veterinary surgeon's, or the physician's 
 assistance. Nature, and a good constitution, 
 nine times in ten, perform the cure, both in 
 man, and horse. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FAKMERS, &C. 2l 
 
 I shall now speak concerning inflamma- Sr/pevS"*' 
 tory fevers. They are not difficult to cure. 
 First, the horse's pulse should be felt, to 
 ascertain the height of the fever; a horse's Horse's p^u.. 
 pulse is to be felt by applying the palm of 
 your hand, pressing hard, just behind the ,ji r^f^i^*- ^^ 
 elbow of the left fore -leg. A horse's pulse, ^.^ ,^ /^i. 
 
 in good health, should beat about forty or ^y^'^^^ - ^' 
 
 forty-two pulsations in one minute. I have 
 known a horse's pulse to beat above 80 ; „ 
 
 1 ' How to treat 
 
 but then the fever was very violent, and the inflammarorr 
 horse must be plentifully bled; and he must 
 be bled again the second day, provided the 
 fever is not abated. To this one horse I 
 now speak of, I gave four ounces of 
 MITRE EVERY DAY ; but, in general, three 
 ounces is sufficient, unless the fever be very 
 high. As the horse will not eat corn, in 
 which the nitre may be given, you must 
 make the nitre into a ball, and give it him ; 
 and be sure to drench him plentifully with 
 water- gruel. 
 
 When a horse is much reduced by ill- ingtoHorses^^ 
 
 "^ after an III- 
 
 ness, but has recovered his appetite, the "^'*' 
 best thing to nourish him, I know, is malt. 
 
 c 
 
Danger of 
 
 22 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 Put the malt into a stable-bucket, and just 
 cover it over with boilins: water ; throw a 
 cloth over the pail, and let it steam for 
 about half an hour. A person I knew 
 well, who used to prepare the physic for 
 Jivrngye'rctt- his horses himself, put a certain quantity 
 
 ryto Horses. n i • . V^. " 
 
 of calomel to a certam quantity of aloes 
 and other ingredients, into an earthen pot, 
 and boiled them together. From not 
 stirring the ingredients constantly, until 
 they were quite cold and stiff, the calomel 
 all settled at the bottom of the pot. The 
 first year he physicked his race-horses, they 
 did well ; but the second year, coming to 
 the bottom of the pot for the pliysic, he 
 killed two or three of his young racing 
 colts, and materially injured some of the 
 aged horses, 
 Mercur>A7i?h To obvlatc this danger, when it be judged 
 necessary to give a horse calomel, let two 
 DRACHMS be given over night, and the 
 aloetic purge the next morning. To a 
 young colt, of two or three years old, you 
 must not give above htAf the quantity of 
 calomel. 
 
 safety. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. ' 23 
 
 For the gripes or cholic in horses, the Sj^J^VSIri' 
 very best thing you can give them is a *"" ^"^^^ 
 
 WHOLE BOTTLE OF DAFFV'S ELIXIR, MIXED 
 IN ABOUT HALF A PINT OF WARM ALE, 
 AND A LITTLE GRATED GINGER. 
 
 When I kept a stable of horses, I never 
 was without three or four bottles in the 
 stable. It is an expensive medicine, I ac- 
 knowledge ; but what of that ? — purging 
 must be promoted, not checked. We all 
 know that Daffy's Elixir is made of a 
 decoction of sena and warm spices. The 
 sena purges gently, and the warm spices 
 comfort and warm the horse's* stomach. 
 You will find a horse sometimes shew that 
 he is in considerable pain, endeavouring 
 frequently to stale and cannot. This is fom^iumes* 
 frequently taken for the gripes ; but it is not Gripes.""^* *, 
 the gripes : it proceeds from costiveness in 
 the horse, and the dung-bag being so full 
 as to press hard on the bladder, which pre- 
 vents the horse from staling. Let a boy, 
 with a small hand, well oiled, rake him : 
 the hoa^se will stale directly. 
 
 For bots, which often lie in the horse's ^J , 
 
 ' the Anus; how 
 
 anus, A DECOCTION of SHAG TOBACCO with '° ''"' """" 
 
 - c 2 
 
How to treat 
 
 24 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 linseed oil will destroy them. The de- 
 coction must be thrown up by means of a 
 syringe, and the horse's tail held fast down 
 with a cloth on the fundament, for ten 
 minutes, to prevent the decoction from 
 being discharged. 
 
 dryThard!and To casc pain in a horse's foot, or to make 
 a dry, hard, brittle, or contracted foot sup- 
 ple and expand, I know nothing equal to 
 boiled linseed, applied warm to the foot. 
 
 t'ie FeT^''" When the foot be wounded by picking up 
 a nail, cut by glass, or by some other acci- 
 dent, in which case gravel may have got 
 into the foot, it will be necessary to apply a 
 common poultice with Venice turpentine, 
 to draw the gravel out. 
 
 Horse's'^hoofs, Ncvcr ou any account grease a horse's hoof, 
 
 but dab them i*iii • ti r^ i j^i 
 
 with Cham- which all-Wise J ohn (jrrooms do, as they say, 
 
 berlie. 
 
 to supple it and keep it from cracking ; 
 grease has a contrary effect. Take your 
 horses out from the clean straw and dab 
 their hoofs well, morning and evening, with 
 stale chamberlie. 
 fffSt's^of Take a dry hoof of a horse, cut it in half, 
 
 and Grease on stccp ouc half for scvcral days in a pot of 
 chamberlie, and the other in a pot of 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. S5 
 
 grease; take them out, wash them both 
 clean, and lay them aside. In a short time 
 you will find the one steeped in chamberlie 
 tough, genial, and pliant, the other steeped 
 in grease will be hard and brittle : this has 
 been tried. You may anoint the coronet 
 of the foot with a little fresh grease, but no 
 other part of the foot. 
 
 Provided a splint lies on the bone of the leg, Zv^f^'tr!U 
 so as not to impede the action of the sinew, 
 I recommend, by all means, to let it alone 
 and do nothing to it ; but, if it lies near 
 the sinew, it must be taken away. The 
 best method I am acquainted with, is to 
 rub it with a round stick, till it feels some- 
 what soft, then prick it in many places Avith 
 a bodkin or packing-needle, moderately 
 hot ; be sure to make two or three holes 
 quite at the bottom. A gentle blister will 
 then reduce it. 
 
 With spavins and ring-bones I will have an/Rfng- 
 nothing to do. Send for a skilful veteri- 
 nary surgeon. It requires skill and prac- 
 tice to operate on the vein in blood-spavins, 
 and I believe bone-spavins generally in- 
 curable ; at least the horse will not hav^ 
 
S6 
 
 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 Of Corns. 
 
 Of Running 
 Thrushes. 
 
 the free use again of his joint ; and ring- 
 bones are very bad maladies. 
 
 Corns should be clean cut out, and a 
 wide wash extended from the shoe, in the 
 form of three thirds of a circle, and about 
 two inches broad, over the part where the 
 corn was, to guard it from sharp stones, 
 gravel, &c. I do not approve of a bar 
 shoe, it confines the dirt in the foot too 
 much. 
 
 It is dangerous to attempt to dry up run- 
 ning thrushes, unless the horse be put un- 
 der a course of strong physic ; for, if, by 
 sharp washes alone, you attempt to dry 
 them up, the disorder frequently flies to the 
 eyes, when, for a time, you nearly blind 
 .the horse. I look on running thrushes as 
 a discharge of nature, much the same as 
 sweaty feet in man : dry them up, and I 
 imagine the disease will fly to some other 
 part of his body. I am certain it always 
 will in a horse. The only safe method of 
 How to treat treating them is, to wash them CON- 
 
 Thrushts. ^ 
 
 STANTLY WITH STALE CHAMBERLIE. I 
 
 would also particularly recommend giving 
 
 A FEW OF THE NITRE AND SULPHUR BALLS, 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 27 
 
 provided the thrushes run abundantly, and 
 smell very foetid. 
 
 A horse cannot easily be lamed in the pf Lameness 
 
 J in the shonl- 
 
 shoulder, except from a fall, a blow, or how\o"dfstin.^ 
 
 .. . . lit guish it from 
 
 irom runnm2' aramst some haid substance. Lameness 
 
 ^ ^ ^ below. 
 
 But wise John Groom, and the farrier, pro- 
 vided they know not where the lameness 
 really lies, swear the horse is lame in the f^''^e?a'ui? 
 shoulder ; whereas the lameness is in their 
 heads, and not in the horse's shoulder. 
 
 I will give you an infallible method to 
 know whether a horse be lame or not, in 
 the shoulder. When you trot the horse, 
 if he be lame in the shoulder, the muscles 
 are affected, so as to prevent his extending 
 that leg, or stepping out so far with it, as 
 he will with the other leg ; he will step 
 considerably shorter with that leg. When 
 the lameness lies below, he will extend the 
 lame leg as far as the other ; but, when he 
 puts the foot to the ground, will shew lame- 
 ness. If the cause of lameness be not very 
 visible to the eye, you may rest assured it 
 lies in the foot or fetlock joint : in this case 
 send for a veterinary surgeon ; for, to cure 
 it, great skill and practice is necessary, ajid 
 
Horses- 
 
 £8 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of 
 the foot, and fetlock joint. I have known 
 several horses totally spoiled by lameness 
 in the feet, and never fit for any other use 
 but to draw a carl or waggon, where they 
 never are forced beyond a walk. 
 c>f Gun-shot The best method of treatino^ srun-shot 
 
 wounds m no 
 
 wounds in horses, is, to inject spirit of wine ; 
 if that cannot be procured, use brandy, 
 which will do extremely well ; if that be 
 not at hand, use rum. It is wonderful 
 how speedily horses recover from gun-shot 
 wounds, provided they are not shot in the 
 bowels or other dangerous parts of the 
 body. Yet I once had a horse shot directly 
 through the centre of the body, about five 
 inches above the bottom of his belly, and 
 he was very well in a short time : and an- 
 other horse of mine (it v/as singular) had 
 a ball absolutely flattened on the bone of 
 the hind-leg, just above the fetlock, which 
 I cut out in the afternoon with a common 
 pen-knife ; the side of the ball next the 
 bone was quite flat, and as broad as a shil- 
 ling : it lamed him for some time. — I 
 saw a horse belonging to a captain in ou^^ 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 29 
 
 regiment, in a very few months shot once 
 through the neck, and the second time 
 through both buttocks. In about five 
 weeks after each wound, his master rode 
 him ; so very quick does the flesh of horses 
 heal. 
 
 Ointments should seldom be used to any ?ive\"to"be 
 lacerated part, and never to gun-shot xvounds ; shot wounds^ 
 
 and very 
 
 but when absolutely necessary. The fol- 'f^tr wounds. 
 lowing is the best, as there is very little 
 
 grease m it. 
 
 The only 
 
 Take, of linimentum ahc.ei (arcnajs ointment m 
 
 to be used- 
 
 liniment), one ounce; oil of turpen- 
 tine, two" drachms ; VERDIGREASE, A 
 SUFFICIENT QUANTITY TO TURN IT TO A 
 
 DARKISH GREEN COLOUR. Thisis an excellent wonderful 
 
 use of the 
 
 healins: ointment ; but simple oil of tur- ^-^p'^ ^^''^f 
 
 <~> ' Turpentine. 
 
 PENTINE WILL DO WONDERS. 
 
 I have not made any observations rela- Horsesiiishod 
 live to the shoeing of horses for several 
 years at Newmarket : formerly they were 
 scandalously ill shod. It is to be hoped 
 that since skilful veterinary surgeons have 
 resided there, the method of shoeing has 
 been altered. I have seen many horses* 
 feet so narrowed at the heels bv bad shoe- 
 
How to widen 
 a Horse's Foot 
 
 SO COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 ing, that the points of the fore shoes have 
 nearly touched at the heel. I am certain 
 this has been the cause of laming numbers, 
 and would have lamed many more v^ere it 
 not from the fme soft turf they are ex- 
 ercised on. 
 
 I have frequently bought strong boney 
 horses, v/ith feet infinitely contracted. In 
 four or five times shoeing I have widened 
 their feet above one inch, and, in time, 
 brought them to have a good foot, broad 
 and open at the heel. To accomphsh this, 
 the shoe must be made quite straight, from 
 the centre, to the heel, not in the smallest 
 degree turned in at the points ; pare the 
 contracted points away, and let the point 
 of the heels rest on the shoe. The heel, 
 thus rested on the shoe, will naturally ex- 
 pand. Some people may say this method 
 of shoeing may make the horse cut: I deny 
 it ; the horse never cuts with the heels of 
 his shoes ^ naj^, even in the speedy ^cut, he 
 strikes his leg with the centre of the shoe. 
 When a Run- Wlicu a runuino^ horse is badly let down, 
 
 ning Horse or O J , ' 
 
 badiy^^eT '' ^s it is tcmied, in the back sinews, the best 
 
 down in the . . i r r 
 
 sinews of the wav IS to tum him to the stud : tor 1 am 
 
 fore leg- *^ 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. 31 
 
 certain he will never stand a severe race ; 
 and whatever you do to him, if you hunt 
 him, he is ever liable to break down in deep 
 ground. However, in case you are deter- 
 mined to try him, the leg must be reduced 
 first as much as it is possible, and then he 
 must be blistered and fired ; but above all, 
 he must have long rest given him, and 
 the whole ivinter's run, in a very dry padock, 
 wherein there is no marshy nor wet ground. 
 The winter's fi^ost and cold air, in a dry 
 padock, will, I believe, perform the greater 
 part of the cure, together with long rest. 
 
 I own the following is a fancy of my in'^'nlver"'^ 
 own, and that I never have tried it ; but in 
 my poor opinion I think it stands to reason. 
 On the former lame leg, the shoe should 
 be made full half an inch thicker at the 
 heel than the shoe on the other foot, to give 
 the injured sinew some additional relief 
 Indeed, I once had a capital cantering 
 hackney fired on both fore-legs. I always 
 shod him at the heel of both feet, much 
 thicker than any other horse ; but then I 
 never cantered him at above the rate of pe^^eat per- 
 
 fectioii m the 
 
 ten miles in the hour. He went so com- Hol^es^^ 
 pletely on his haunches, that but litile 
 
52 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 strain laid on his fore-legs. This is the 
 great perfection in all horses' actions. 
 All of them go from their hinder parts, but 
 very few go completely on their hinder parts; 
 no hunter can go through deep ground 
 unless he does ; and no horse, which goes 
 differently, can be used on the road with 
 safety to your neck. 
 
 hLscs^'"^ I once knew a most valuable horse 
 
 killed by nicking his tail ; it mortified. The 
 surest method is to give him a dose of 
 physic the morning before the operation 
 is performed, and at least one dose more 
 the third da)^ 
 
 Of sore barks J^ thc British Lcdou Cavalry, in Ame- 
 
 in a Regiment ~ J ' 
 
 «t Cavalry, ^.j^^^ ^^,^ j^^^l ^^ ^^^^ backs ; for a blanket, six 
 or eight times doubled, was always laid on 
 the horse's back, under the saddle. All our 
 cavalry, on service, should have a blanket, 
 eight times doubled, under the saddle. It is 
 of great utility ; for, with care, you never 
 will have a horse with a sore back ; and, 
 at night, the man may draw it from under 
 the saddle, and cover himself with it ; thus 
 he will have two blankets to cover himself 
 But road-horses, and waggon-horses too, 
 frequently have sore backs, 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. S3 
 
 The best method of curing sore backs, baX^""''"" 
 and I have frequently experienced the 
 efficacy of it, is to dissolve half an 
 
 OUNCE OF BLUE VITRIOL IN A PINT OF 
 
 WATER, and dab the inj ured parts with it four 
 or five times a day. — The best captain of 
 cavahy, I know, is not he who only fights 
 his troop well in action ; but he who has 
 his horses in the best condition, and has the 
 fewest sore backs in his troop. What a 
 laudable example tlie German hussars, and 
 other cavalry, shew us, in the care of their 
 horses. The attention they pay to their 
 horses is wonderfullv meritorious. 
 
 1 never allow a horse of mine, which is no Horse out 
 
 in all weathers, 
 
 out in all weather, and frequently stands stm in^lfj"° 
 
 ^ , . , , f, . streets, should 
 
 tor hours in the street, and verv oiten in be curried or 
 
 ^ brushed. 
 
 rain, to be curried, or brushed : currying 
 and brushing thins their coats, and makes 
 them more liable to catch cold. Nor do I 
 ever allow them to be covered in the stable 
 with a cloth. Thej^ are rubbed well with 
 a whisp of straw, and then with a coarse 
 hair-cloth ; this makes the blood circulate, 
 and it is fully sufficient. I am thoroughly 
 persuaded, no cavalry horse, on service, at 
 
54 
 
 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 No Horse 
 should stand 
 on litter in 
 the day-time. 
 
 the picket cord, should ever be curried or 
 brushed: indeed a couple of curry-combs 
 may be kept in each troop, in case a horse 
 may have some hard dirt caked on, which 
 cannot otherwise be rubbed off. 
 
 I never allow a horse to stand on litter in 
 the day-time in the stable. I speak not of 
 running-horses or hunters. Provided the 
 straw be not perfectly dry and clean, it 
 perishes the feet. Look to horses which 
 stand upon half-perished litter, as one half 
 of them do at the livery-stables ; you will 
 find their feet full of dirty half-perished 
 litter. This materially injures the feet. 
 
 For the present, I have nearly done with 
 the treatment of horses ; but will give you 
 i^tion^l'r^^^ one receipt more, which, of all the medicines 
 aliTsprahls^^V in the \vorld, is the most efficacious. It is 
 as beneficial to man and woman, as it is 
 both to horses and dogs. You should 
 never be without a bottle of it in the house. 
 It is infallible in its cure of all bruises, 
 blows, and gentle strains, which horses and 
 dogs receive in the field. I do not mean 
 to say that it will cure a horse, which is 
 absolutely let down in the sinews; but, in 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 35 
 
 every other respect, it is a sovereign remedy. 
 I have had, in the course of time, four or 
 five servants who have shpped down stairs, 
 and have terribly bruised their legs, and 
 sprained their ancles, I have also given it 
 to numbers who have received injuries in 
 their limbs from falls, blows, or bruises, and 
 I never have known it to fail. It was given 
 to me by an old huntsman, thirty years ago. 
 It may even be used when the skin is 
 broken or rubbed off; not absolutely on 
 the wound itself, because it will occasion 
 great* pain ; but it may be rubbed in 
 well all round the wound. Take, of 
 
 SPIRIT OF WINE, EIGHT OUNCES; DISSOLVE 
 ONE OUNCE OF CAMPHOR FIRST, IN THE 
 SPIRITS OF WINE, THEN ADD ONE OUNCE 
 OF OIL OF TURPENTINE, ONE OUNCE OF 
 SPIRIT OF SAL AMMONIAC ; OIL OF ORIGA- 
 NUM HALF AN OUNCE, AND ONE LARGE 
 TABLE-SPOON FULL OF LIQUID LAUDANUM. 
 
 It must be w^ell rubbed in with the hand, 
 for full a quarter of an hour, every time it 
 is used ; which must be four times each 
 day. You will be astonished at its efticacy 
 when you try it. 
 
36 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 w to'kifow a I will now inform you how for certain 
 goodlyTfrom vou mav know whether a horse has a strong 
 
 a weak one. i Ti i 
 
 and good eye, or a weak eye, and hkely to 
 go bUnd. People in general turn a horse's 
 head to a bright hght to examine his eyes. 
 You can know very little, by this method, 
 what sort of an eye the horse has, unless 
 it be a very defective one. You must ex- 
 amine the eye first, when the horse stands 
 w ith his head to the manger. Look care- 
 fully at the pupil of the eye in a horse ; it 
 is of an oblong form : carry the size of the 
 pupil in your mind, then turn the horse 
 about, bring him to a bright light, and if) 
 in the bright light, the pupil of the eye 
 contracts, and appears much smaller than 
 it was in the darker light, then you may 
 be sure the horse has a strong, good eye ; 
 but, provided the pupil remains nearly of 
 the same size as it appeared in the darker 
 light, the horse has a weak eye ; therefore 
 have nothing to do with him. There are- 
 contracting and dilating muscles in the 
 eye, which will plainly shew you, provided 
 you follow my instructions, in what state 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 37 ' 
 
 the eye is, whether it be a strong or a 
 weak one. 
 
 Many horses are attacked in their eyes 
 when coming five years old. This is vul- 
 garly called moon - blindness. It is a 
 periodical blindness, which comes and goes, 
 sometimes three or four times ; but, if it 
 ever comes above once, I imagine his eyes 
 to be in great danger. 
 
 I have often read, in farriers' works, and i^^i^n^X'rs^e^; 
 in those of veterinary surgeons, of worms ^^°°'^*^' 
 in a horse's stomach : for my OAvn part, I 
 cannot credit it ; for the peristaltic motion 
 of the stomach is so powerful and the 
 heat so great, when the horse is alive, 
 that 1 am of opinion that worms may as 
 well live between two mill-stones, when at 
 work, or in a hot baker's oven, as in a 
 horse's stomach : and this I have a right to 
 say, that, w hen the motion of the stomach 
 ceases, which it does with the life of the 
 animal, in half a minute, worms may 
 move from their former quarters into the 
 stomach, particularly if the stomach be 
 replete with food. Certain we are, that no 
 person has ever seen the stomach of a horse 
 
 D 
 
38 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 when alive ; therefore I am justified hi 
 saying, that I imagine it must be con- 
 jecture, and that I give a good reason for 
 my opinion : however, I will not assert, 
 or be positive in an opinion which may 
 be contrary to that of more experienced 
 men. 
 Wounds in Wouuds iu the skin of horses will q^e- 
 
 the skin of ^ 
 
 hGrses. nerally be cured by lint dipped in Friar's 
 Balsam. I have already mentioned the 
 great benefit of nitre in inflammatory fevers. 
 Osmer relates a story of a horse, which he 
 asserts to be a fact : — that a horse, with the 
 nitad staggers on him, broke out of the 
 stable at a powder-mill, and got to a cistern 
 of water in which a large quantity of salt- 
 petre had been dissolved. He drank plen- 
 tifully of it, after which he became imme- 
 diately well, without any thing else being 
 given him. He mentions this, to shew the 
 good effect of nitre in fevers. 
 If Daffy s I have already mentioned, that A bottle 
 
 explnsive^ive OF Daffy's Elixir is thc best medicine I 
 
 Phi Ionium Ro- 
 
 oiaaum. ^vcr tried for a horse taken with the 
 cholic, or gripes, from drinking cold water, 
 kc. &c. But, as Daffy's Elixir is expensive;, 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. ' SJ 
 
 you may give him one ounce of phi- 
 LONIUM ROMANUM : repeat the dose in one 
 hour, if the horse be not relieved. You 
 must be particularly careful to distinguish, 
 
 r -1 . A. c \^ ^' ' Two sorts of 
 
 lor there are two sorts ot cnolic or gripes ; choiic an* 
 
 f^ ^ .. . Gripes: ho%v- 
 
 the one proceeds from the horse bemsr to distingruish 
 
 * O them, and to 
 
 chilled by cold water, &c. ; the other pro- '^'^'''^• 
 ceeds from costiveness and inflammation of 
 the bowels. In the latter disorder you must 
 be guided by feeling the horse's pulse, to 
 ascertain whether it be attended with any 
 degree of fever. I have told you already 
 how to feel a horse^s pulse, and how often, 
 in a minute, a horse's pulse, free from fever, 
 should beat. — In this latter disorder th& 
 dung must be constantly raked away, as 
 it falls into the rectum. Give the horse 
 sweet oil inwardly, to relax the intestines, 
 and to supple the hard excrement, which, 
 from dryness, may be lodged in the gut, 
 which is frequently the cause of this complaint. 
 Give him, every four hours, one ounce of 
 the common purging salts. In this case 
 nitre is not to be given, as it acts mortally 
 as a diuretic. If the horse be in considera- 
 ble pain, he should be bled, and, if the pain 
 D 2 
 
40 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 be very violent, bleeding should be re- 
 peated, because there will be inflammation. 
 
 Horr^s^''^ ^^' ^ ^^^^^ §i^^ ^^^ particular receipt how to 
 prepare physic for a horse, as the purging 
 balls, sold by most chemists, are nearly 
 composed of the same ingredients, and I 
 have found them to operate very well. 
 
 Remarks con- J g}-^r^ii touch but slis-hllv on the method 
 
 cernin.sr tram- o ^ 
 
 Slwmarket.^^ of training horses at Nev/market; for, if I 
 were to enter into particulars, I might- 
 write a whole volume on the absurdities I 
 have seen practised there. All horses, ge- 
 nerally speaking, are treated alike, unless 
 they fortunately fall into the hands of some 
 trainer (the number of which are but few), 
 who acts according to reason and common 
 sejise, and whose brains does not lie in his 
 guts, (pardon me this vulgar expression,) 
 and his guts in his head — for they are 
 fond of good living. 
 
 There is a certain cant term, and method 
 of speaking, aniongst these most ignorant 
 felfows, which I ever despised, when I was 
 on the turf; and I equally despise it now. 
 When a gentleman has matched his 
 horse at the Jockey Club, he tells his 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 41 
 
 trainer what he has done, and asks his 
 opinion on the match ; the trainer replies, 
 " I think your hononr has got to wind- 
 ward of the flats,'' or some such vulgar 
 and low-bred ignorant expression ; — al- 
 though this fellow knows that your horse is 
 so bad a racer, . that, provided he be 
 matched (giving weight) against a com- 
 mon post-horse, he will be troubled to beat 
 him. — His interest is not whether you 
 lose, or win, your match ; his interest is, 
 to encourage you to continue on the turf, 
 and to persuade you, that your horses are 
 much better than they really are ; for, if 
 he were honest enough to tell you, that, out 
 of ten horses you had, in your stable, you 
 had Imt one horse which could be called a 
 racer, — then every man, who was not 
 bigoted to his own obstinate follj^ and igno- 
 rance, w^ould send every horse in his stables 
 to the Junniiier, excepting that- one horse, ' 
 to be sold for w hat they would be knoiked 
 dozen at, — But this does not suit or agree 
 with the trainer's interest. He lives by the 
 sieve, and by the sieve only, together with the 
 money you pay for the boys board and lodgings 
 
4a ' COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 who exercises your horse ; and by this, and 
 hy this only, they accumulate, in time, good 
 fortunes. 
 
 It is by the sieve, and by the sieve ma- 
 terially, they make their fortunes. Every 
 time they shake the sieve, to feed your 
 horses, it is to their profit. Generally 
 speaking, they give one horse as much 
 ^mSZTli exercise as the other, whether, from his 
 Horses. naturc, he carries more or less flesh. Can 
 any thing be so absurd, tig to see all the 
 young colts, coming three years old, brush- 
 ing along, as it is termed, after the aged 
 horses, many of them carrying heavier 
 lads, than the aged horses ? I am certain, 
 that most of the delicate horses, v^hich, by 
 nature, do not carry so much flesh as' 
 others, are overtrained and considerably 
 weakened by being immoderately sweated. 
 Every horse should be sweated according 
 to his constitution, and the quantity of 
 flesli he makes. I am certain, that nine 
 in ten would run better, provided they 
 went gently for the last three or four 
 days. 
 
 Horses, of gross habits of body, must 
 
SPORTSMEN, FATIMERS, SCC. 43. 
 
 not be stopped in their exercise; if they 
 are, they will grow pursive, 
 
 I do not believe there ever was a better 
 horse than Mr. Robert Pigott's Shark, ex- 
 cepting Eclipse, which was a very uncom- 
 mon horse. — I will tell you what Shark 
 could do, by which you may give a tolera- 
 bly good guess whether you have nearly 
 the best horse of his year. Run five or six liovrtojudg* 
 
 ; whether or not 
 
 of your young colts together, one mile: JJ^f^y^J^cX 
 if they all come in well together, you may ^^^^^^^^^^ 
 be sure that not one of them is worthy to 
 be kept in training, excepting you have 
 one amongst them, which is an uncom- 
 monly large sized colt, large limbed and 
 loose made. It is possible that, when he 
 comes to his strength, and fills up, he may 
 turn out a good horse. If you have one 
 colt, which, in the trial, ruus clear away 
 from all the rest, you may expect that he 
 will turn out a good runner. Take him, 
 about a fortnight after, run him with two of 
 the others which were the two first of tlflse 
 beaten ; for you must not run him with the 
 worst or last of the lot. Let him give them 
 both twenty-one pounds. If fete does not beat 
 
44 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 them cleverly, you have no right to expect 
 that he is the best, or nearly the best horse 
 of his year. I will inform you of a won- 
 derful trial, when Shark was coming six 
 
 A remarkable ^^^^^ ^jj jj^ ^,^^ ^^^^ ^^^ jqj^^,^ j^ j 
 
 borrowed a mare, a good runner, of Mr. 
 Vernon. I think her name was Atalanta, 
 but I cannot mention her name for certain. 
 ^ I gave Mr. Vernon fifty guineas for the 
 hire of her ; but, then, I agreed to have 
 her for a fortnight before the race, in our 
 stables, that he should not run her to 
 death, by which I might have been de- 
 ceived in the trial. I promised him to run 
 her only once, from the Ditch in, and, on 
 the third day, again one mile only, and then 
 to return her. John Oakley rode Shark, 
 and Anthony Wheatley rode the trial mare. 
 Shark gave all the other horses, except the 
 mare, twenty-one pounds. There were 
 three others ; my horse St. George, Salo- 
 pian, and Jack of Hicton, The mare car- 
 rie^l four pounds more than them ; conse- 
 quently Shark gave her only seventeen 
 pounds. • As the mare and the rest of the 
 tiorses were coming down that small decli-: 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 45 
 
 vity just past the Furzes on the town side, 
 Shark had beaten them full three hundred 
 yards ; so much so, that I rode up to Oak- 
 ley and told him to pull Shark up, and go 
 in, in the centre of the groupe. St. George 
 and the mare had a very severe race : he 
 just won it ; the other two were beaten 
 three or four lengths. 
 
 St. George had been turned out in a 
 padock, at mj^ own house, in Berkshire, for 
 ten months, and well fed with corn the 
 whole time. He was wonderfully im- 
 proved ; for, before I turned him out, I ran 
 him with Salopian, across the Flat, and 
 Salopian beat him shamefully. 
 
 Remember, every horse, including the 
 mare, was of the same age, — six years 
 old. Twentv-one pounds is the test of ^fae test ot 
 
 1 speed m 
 
 speed ; and this your colt must be able to ^^^''' 
 give to one which is a tolerable good run- 
 ner, and not to one which cannot run at 
 all, or yor. have not the best, or nearly the 
 best colt of the year. — So much for racing. 
 
 We will now proceed to speak concern- 
 ijig the stud aad the breeding of colts. A 
 
 Of the Stud, 
 and breedinjj- 
 of Horses. 
 
4b COLONEL HANOER TO 
 
 sportsman has a mare (for argument's sake, 
 we will say) which is a sister to King He- 
 rod, and a horse which is brother to Eclipse. 
 They neither of them have any good shape, 
 make, nor symmetry, and run so very bad 
 that he is obliged to turn them out of 
 training ; but, as they are brother and sis- 
 ter to two such famous racers, he puts the 
 horse and the mare together, and, being 
 both of such excellent blood, he expects to 
 have them produce a colt, which will run 
 well. Can any thing be so absurd ? Be 
 assured, there is nothing more certain than 
 that shape, make, and symmetry xvill beget 
 shape, make, and symmetry ; and that twQ 
 very bad racers, without any good shape, 
 make, or symmetry, can never produce a 
 good racer. 
 
 There is one method by which j^ou may 
 perhaps have a good colt, by a very mean, 
 bad-shaped mare, with this one proviso, 
 that she be roomy in the flanks, and has a 
 large bag, sufficiently so to contain a good- 
 sized colt. Send her to the best racer of 
 his time, and you may have a good colt ; 
 but not by a horse which never in his life 
 
SPOnTSMEN, TARMERS, 8CC. 47 
 
 could run one yard. Our best stallions, I 
 arn certain, cover too many mares in one 
 season ; and this is the reason why they 
 get so few good colts. Look to a real Arabian 
 
 Asses and 
 
 Arabian ass, such as the many sons of ^"^Jjg^g 
 princes rode on, who cam^ to visit King 
 Solomon ; — and view one of our English 
 donkeys. The Arabian asses have great 
 speed, with beautiful symmetry and shape. 
 Our English donkeys have no shape nor 
 make to be compared to them. Do you 
 think it is not the same with race-horses ? 
 
 Let us return. Sot a short time, to the 
 diseases of horses. Osmer informs us how 
 to make a medicine nearly analagous to 
 Doctor James's Pov/der : thus it is : — Take 
 
 TWO PARTS OF NITRE, AND ONE OF ANTI- 
 MONY, FIRST RUBBED TOGETHER, AND DE- 
 FLAGRATE THEM OVER A FIRE, IN A CRUCI- 
 BLE, BY PUTTING IN A LITTLE AT A TIME. 
 
 One or two ounces may be given once or 
 twice a day. I confess I never have tried 
 this medicine ; but it is composed of two 
 excellent medicines, and, provided it be 
 analagous to Doctor James's Powder, it must 
 be a valuable medicine. He savs it is ?7iost 
 
46 • COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 efficacious in the distemper in horses, and 
 also in horned cattle. 
 
 Of Bullocks k 
 
 Cow "being' Speaking of horned cattle, which, in clo- . 
 
 hove or sprung . , , , tit 
 
 from eating yer or Hch pasturc, are what, 1 believe, 
 farmers term it, hove or sprung ; that is to 
 say, the beast, from overcharging its sto- 
 mach, is much swelled, and will die, if not 
 relieved ; the excrement must be con- 
 stantly raked from the straight gut, and 
 ONE OUNCE OF SALTPETRE given every two 
 hours, till the beast has taken three ounces : 
 after this you may give him some purging 
 salts : indeed, if the salts be given in about 
 two hours after he be first afflicted, it will 
 be more efficacious. Osmer also assures 
 us, that the nitre and antimony, deflagrated, 
 is a very potent remedy in the farcy, in cuta- 
 neous diseases, local swellings, in all in- 
 flammatory disorders, and in fevers of every 
 kind. I think this medicine is worthy of 
 being tried, for Osm^r w^as not a common 
 farrier, but a regular bred surgeon, . 
 
 For a horse's back, which is crushed 
 with the saddle, common camphorated spi- 
 rits of w^ne will be found sufficient ; but, 
 should his back be much ^welled, particu-. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, SCC. 49 
 
 larly if the bruise be near the withers, the 
 following will be found more efficacious : — 
 
 SPIRITS OF WINE, FOUR OUNCES ; CAMPHOR 
 AND BOLE, POWDERED, EACH ONE DRACHM; 
 
 AauA-FORTis, TWENTY DROPS. Remember 
 that warm cloths must be bound on the 
 parts ; if not, the medicine will not have so 
 desirable an eftect, as warmth is ever}' thing 
 to assist in the cure of such swellings. 
 Liat or tow must be dipped in this liquid 
 and laid on the part, after first rubbing 
 some of it well on the part, and dabbing 
 it wTth the mixture^. Use this, twice a 
 dav. If matter should form under the skin, 
 when you find it fluctuate under the fin- 
 ger, it must be let out. This liquid will 
 generally perform the cure without any 
 digestive ointment whatever. 
 
 I shall now leave the subject of horses, ^^'^ 
 
 J ' Dog 
 
 for a time, and will treat on the maladies 
 and management of dogs, in which I have 
 had very great practice. I have ever, 
 throughout life, fed mv own dogs, after 
 
 oncejinin! 
 
60 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 thev came home from the day's S|X)rt. If 
 
 Feed your ^ '^ ' 
 
 Doge yourself. J j^^cl twenty servants, one should prepare 
 the food for them ; but I would not so 
 much as allow him to be present when 
 they are fed. The advantages you acquire 
 are very great, by doing this yourself: — 
 first, you make the dog attached to you, 
 and only to you ; for which reason he will 
 hunt the better for you, and infallibly be 
 more obedient. If your servant feeds him, 
 the dog is always looking after him, and 
 cares not one curse for you. What a 
 pretty situation you are in, with an igno- 
 rant groom, who knows not, in the smallest 
 degree, how to hunt or treat a dog in the 
 field : — by heavens ! you had as well stay 
 at home, either for the pleasure or the sport 
 you will have ! It is different with gentle- 
 men of fortune, who can afford to keep a 
 regular game-keeper and dog-breaker, who 
 knows well his business. Then the master 
 has nothing more to do than to go up and 
 shoot, when his dogs stand : every thing 
 else is the keeper's business. This is going 
 into the field in grand style, as it may be 
 truly said ; but a wandering, poor vagabond 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. ^l 
 
 like myself, mounted on a mule, with a 
 boy, hired for the time, riding behmd me, 
 cannot enjoy such luxuries. 
 
 I will tell you a story relative to one of 
 the best pointers I ever had in my life, and 
 one of the most speedy ; for I declare I have 
 seen him frequently turn a hare two or 
 three times, considerably above half grown^ 
 before she could get out of the field. I 
 know this is very irregular sporting ; but I 
 am, as in most other things, a very irregular 
 sportsman, of which you shall hear further 
 in due time ; and why I teach all my dogs 
 to run hares. Even when put into my 
 hands, so perfectly well broke, that they 
 will not look at a hare, which gets up 
 before them, I confess it mortifies me much ; 
 and their regularity, to me, is very un- 
 pleasant for a time ; but I soon prevail on 
 them te forego those great regularities ; then 
 they become amiable, please me much, 
 and are thoroughly useful to my method of 
 sporting. 
 
 I was sitting, some years ago, in the 
 coffee-room at Newmarket ; this was in the 
 Spring Meeting; and my worthy old 
 
6t COLONEL HANGER, TO 
 
 acquaintance, Charles Wyndham, came and 
 sate down by me. After some racing con- 
 versation, he said to me, " George, I will 
 give yon one of the very best pointers in Eng- 
 land." After thanking him kindly, I said, 
 '' My dear Charles, yoli will not, I trust, take 
 it ill of me if I ask you one question?" " Cer- 
 tainly not," he rephed. — " How can you, 
 who are fond of shooting yourself, give me 
 a most excellent pointer?" — '' Why. I will 
 give you my reason. My groom feeds all 
 my dogs, and, having other business to per- 
 form, he cannot always attend me shooting; 
 and this dog, when he has hunted a short 
 time, if I speak even a little harshly to 
 him, runs away home, and I know I shall 
 one day or other shoot him. It is a pity 
 so good a dog should come to any harm, 
 and, as I know you always feed your own 
 dogs, he will be attached to you, and be a 
 most useful animal." — He was kind enough 
 to send him shortly to my house in London. 
 I always make my dogs 7717/ companwTis, in 
 the shooting season ; taking them into the 
 ^, ,, room where 1 sit, after I am returned from 
 
 Wavmlh no- ' 
 
 gen&uo"an the field ; letting them bask themselves by 
 
 awimah. 
 
SPOnTSMEN, FARMERS, &Ci 53 
 
 the fire, which coitiforts them, and does 
 them h great deal of good, especially when> 
 after rain, the turnips are very wet. This 
 method, I am certain, prevents many from 
 having the rheumatism* 
 
 Would you like, when yon return from 
 shooting, to he put into a parlour,, as they 
 call it, at an ale-house, in which there has 
 not been a fire lighted for a week ? — I 
 always request the favour that I may be 
 permitted to have a small round table, near 
 the fire, in the kitchen. There I sit and 
 roast myself till I am nearly hot through $ 
 and I am certain that method has pre- 
 served me from disorders and maladies ; 
 particularly from the rheumatism, for I 
 never experienced the smallest attack from 
 it in my life, which is a very singular thing 
 for an officer to assert, who has, for many 
 years, slept under the canopy of heaven, 
 (generally speaking,) and nothing above 
 him but the skies. 
 
 Now, on service, I attribute the blessinet' The sotdier'* 
 
 ^ health preser- 
 
 of good health, in America I speak of, to the ^e^'^yfi"- 
 abundant quantity of wood, particularly to 
 the southward, in those unhealthy climates, 
 
 E 
 
54 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 where the person who owns the timber is 
 infinitely obhged to you for cutting it 
 down ; for you clear his land by so doing, 
 and do him a service. Our fires in Ame- 
 rica were so large, that you could not ap- 
 proach them within two or three yards. 
 Our soldiers ever laid themselves down to 
 rest with their feet to the fire, for two good 
 reasons : first, a man, lying lengthwise be- 
 fore the fire, takes up too much room ; 
 secondly, if the feet be kept warm by the 
 fire, the whole body is warm. I declare I 
 have frequently seen soldiers get up and. 
 retire from the fire, their feet and leg§ 
 being too warm. 
 AH nature re- AH auimals are fond of warmth. Do 
 
 quires warmth 
 
 you not see, in the cold weather, that the 
 cattle shelter themselves under a thick 
 northern hedge, to enjoy the southern sun- 
 beams ? All nature requires warmth, and, 
 to all nature, it is genial and beneficial. 
 
 Lord Thanet, the father of my worthy 
 and kind friend, the present Lord, Avas a 
 great fox-hunter. He had a kennel so 
 constituted, on purpose for his hounds, with 
 a large circular place in the centre railed 
 
SPORTSMEN, FAHMERS, &Ci 55 
 
 in, which contained a very large coal fire ; 
 the kennel-man always, at night, replenish* 
 ing the fire. Round this the hounds laid 
 and basked themselves, after the day's 
 chase ; by which, I trust it will be allowed, 
 they were materially benefited. In short, 
 all nature requires warmth. 
 
 Naw this pointer, Mr. Wyndham gave 
 me, I took great care of; for he was one 
 of the handsomest dogs, as well as one of the 
 best, I ever had. This dog was very large 
 boned and lofty. I judged, from such a 
 shape, that he should have a good quantity 
 of flesh put on him ; but I never was more 
 out in my judgment — for he never could 
 hunt unless you could lay one of your 
 fingers between his ribs. I took him down 
 to my old friend's, Mr. Brand, the father of 
 the present, in Hertfordshire, where I gene- 
 rally used to shoot the first week in 
 September, and thence proceed to Suffolk 
 and Norfolk. The first day he scarcely 
 hunted at all, and never faster than a 
 gentle canter. 
 
 A man who broke dogs for Mr. Brand, 
 met me, and told me that he was a won- 
 
 E 2 
 
50 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 derfully fine dog, but not worth a guinea. 
 I replied, I was certain Mr. Wyndham 
 would not deceive me. In short, I took 
 him out every day, and gave him nothing 
 but some broth at night, and a lump of 
 bread as big as my hand, for five days. 
 He increased in his hunting every day, and 
 the sixth day, he set a hunting like the 
 very devil, and continued it the whole 
 season ; and I declare I never had a faster 
 or a stouter. I mention this only to shew 
 how necessary it is to observe, by the 
 bone and make of dogs, which one should 
 carry flesh, and which should not ; yet, 
 generally speaking, they are all fed alike, 
 and, for certain, if they are fed by an igno- 
 rant servant lad. 
 
 Did you ever see a man, a pugilist, with 
 a belly, fleshy, and bubbies as large as a 
 w^oman, who could ever fight? — That 
 great overgrown beast O'Brien, the giant, 
 who was shewn for inonej% for some j-ears, 
 would have been beaten on a stage in a 
 very few minutes by many lads, not weigh- 
 ing eleven stone, who drive the jack-asses 
 to fetch garden-stuff* from Covent- Garden 
 
SPORTSMHN, FARMERS, &C. 57 
 
 market. Wind is strength, and strengtK is 
 wind ; without it, no exercise can be well 
 performed. It is the same in a man, in a 
 horse, and in a dog ; therefore, look to this - *• 
 particularly ; for, provided your dog be not 
 in good wind, he cannot hunt. Delicate 
 small-boned dogs cannot be fed too much ; 
 but the best method is not to have any 
 thing to do with them ; for I never saw one 
 in my life, which would hunt three days 
 without tiring, and I would not give one 
 tarthing for a dog, which will not hunt 
 every daj^ throughout the season. I cannot 
 afford to keep many dogs ; therefore, the 
 few I have, must work well. 
 
 You shall now know my reason why I ofshooting 
 
 ^ -^ . haves. 
 
 teach all my dogs to run hares. I will not 
 defend the practice, for I well know it is 
 very unsportsman-like, and contrary to all 
 rule and order. I scarcely know the time 
 when I have missed a hare, I mean when 
 she gets up before me in a field, or out of 
 a hedge ; not when they are bobbing about 
 in a cover ; then it is very difficult to shoot 
 them, and a man must shoot very quick 
 indeed, a perfection which I never attained, 
 
58 COLON Eli HANGER TO 
 
 I always take a long aim. In three days 
 and three hours (for it began to rain on the 
 fourth day, very heavy, by tv/elve o'clock,) 
 my partner and 1 shot eighty-six hares. I 
 shot above fifty of them, and we neither of 
 us missed one shot. 
 
 Shooting with . t i 1 i. '^1 
 
 large siiot. As 1 always shoot with uncommon 
 
 large shot, Number 2, patent, from the 
 first of September, to the last day of Janu- 
 ary, I frequently mortally wound hares at 
 a great distance. Knowing, when I hold 
 them well, that I must have wounded them, 
 I always follow them with my dogs, and 
 many dozens have I recovered above a 
 quarter of a mile distant, v. hich otherwise 
 would have crept into a ditch and died. I 
 
 Effect of large golemuly dcclarc I have shot numbers of 
 hares above seventy yards, when they ran 
 across me, so as to shoot them in the fore- 
 quarters ; so that they never have run five 
 yards : and once I saw a man, with a gun 
 of mine, shoot a hare one or two yards 
 above eighty, and she never ran above one 
 hundred and fifty yards. These distances 
 were measured, not computed, 
 
 I once shot a partridge flying directly 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C, 69 
 
 from me seventy-four yards. I cut his 
 foot off, to know him from the rest. In 
 the evening I had him picked : I found 
 that three shot had entered behind, under 
 the tail ; two had passed through him and 
 came out at the breast, the third remained 
 in the body. I have frequently shot phea- 
 sants through and through the body at 
 very long distances. 
 
 It is the custom of most sportsmen, in 
 Norfolk and Suffolk, to shoot all the year 
 with Number 5; nay, some even shoot 
 with Number 6. I have seen them hit 
 many pheasants, which must have died 
 afterwards, and were lost to them : — this is 
 destroying game to no purpose. An old hare, 
 at seventy yards, will laugh at you, if you 
 shoot with Number 5. 
 
 It is much the fashion to have doffs of Dogs bro* 
 
 '-' ken to drop 
 
 broken to lie down when the gun goes off. JoeToff^ ^"^^ 
 I do not approve of it : I am certain it 
 checks their hunting. Is it not sufficient 
 for the dogs to come in and lie down whilst 
 you charge ? 
 
 Now to the diseases of do^fs. — I aim TheDistempe^ 
 
 ^ in Dogs. 
 
 acquainted but with two, which are most 
 
60 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 fatal to them, namely, the distemper, and a 
 violent bilious fever, which they are very 
 subject to, from hunting in hot weather ; 
 particularly if they have not been tho- 
 roughly pm^ged before the season. I never 
 ^ as yet have found any medicine which can 
 
 be relied on as a cure for the distemper in 
 dogs, I have given Doctor James's pow- 
 ders, and many other medicines. Some 
 have died, some have lived. The most 
 efficacious I know of, is one which I have 
 frequently tried for above eighteen years, 
 and never gave any other. It is not always 
 to be relied on ; but it is by far more cer- 
 tain than any other. I cured two dogs last 
 year, 1813, whicii were both very bad, so 
 piuch so, that I despaired of their lives. 
 The raedicine is as follows : Turbith 
 
 Thebestmcdi^ MINERAL, TWELVE GRAINS, MADE INTO A 
 
 cine for the >^ • t 
 
 0istemi>erm BALL^ WITH ANY SYRUP. (jlVe OUC doSC 
 Dogs. '' 
 
 every day, for three or four days in succes- 
 sion. This is the quantity for a full-grown 
 pointer : give a young puppy, three or four 
 months old, five grains \ one of seven 
 months old, seven or eight grains, 
 
 I have observed that dogs, in the dis-^ 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. ()1 
 
 temper, absolutely die for want of nourish- 
 ment; for, if very bad, they refuse all food. 
 I am convinced that I have saved the lives 
 of several, by drenching them, three or four 
 times a day, vv ith strong beef or horse broth, ' 
 
 with a little meal in it; making it a thin 
 gruel. 
 
 I have found the turbith mineral, in the 
 distemper, by many degrees the most effi- 
 cacious ; and I can with truth say, it does 
 not often fail, when given in the early stage 
 of the disorder. Although this medicine is 
 not a certain cure in the distemper, yet, in a 
 violent and fatal disorder, which dogs are 
 very subject to, I never kneivit fail, if given 
 when the dog was first taken ill. 
 
 The disorder I shall next speak of, is a ^'j^j;;^'^^!^^ 
 violent bilious fever, which kills a dog in verysubllaYo! 
 three days, provided he be not relieved. 
 The symptoms are as follow: first, he feeds 
 very sparingly ; shortly after that, he loses 
 that fine, florid, flesh colour, in his mouth 
 and gums, which begin to assume a pale 
 cast ; in a very few hours after, he will turn 
 as yellow as a guinea in the mouth and eyes. 
 
62 COLONEL HANGER Td 
 
 Th6 moment he looks dull and heavy, re- 
 fuses his food, and begins to look pale in the 
 mouth, before he turns, in any considerable 
 degree, yellow, you must give him the me- 
 dicine, or I will not be answerable for his 
 cure. The quantity is twelve grains of 
 
 TURBITH MINERAL, MADE INTO A BALL, WITH 
 
 ANY SYRUP, the same as in the distemper. 
 Give this three or four days following: on 
 the fourth day, he will either be totally out 
 of danger or dead. You must by no means 
 bleed him in this disorder ; if j^ou do, you 
 will kill him. In a very fev/ years, I have 
 had six or seven dogs taken with this dis- 
 order; and, upon my word, I never lost 
 but one, and that by my own negligence ; 
 which I will prove to you. 
 
 An old gamekeeper and huntsman, who 
 was my servant, said to me, just as I was at 
 breakfast : '' One of your dogs, sir, did not 
 feed last night well ; you observed that, and 
 told me to look to the dog, and examine 
 him the very first thing in the morning. I 
 let him, sir, out of the stable, to run about; 
 but I observed him to be rather dull, and 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 03 
 
 not in such good spirits or so gay as the 
 others. I wish, sir, you would come and 
 look at him." 
 
 I went directly, and examined him ; 
 looked into his mouth, and examined his 
 eyes. I did not observe that he was even 
 faint-coloured in the mouth ; but I left him 
 at home that day, intending to return about 
 five o'clock ; desiring the ostler to feed and 
 take care of him. I went that day above 
 twelve miles distant, and, finding a great 
 deal of game, I stopped at a village conti- 
 guous, sported there the next morning, and 
 shot my v/ay home to where I had left my 
 dog. On my arrival, I found him very bad 
 indeed : he was as yellow as a guinea in his 
 mouth, and lay stretched out and extended 
 on his side. I gave him the above medi- 
 cine, but he died the next evening. Had I 
 returned home the first evening, I should 
 have saved my dog : the most early atten- 
 tion and relief is necessary in this disorder, 
 as well as in most others. 
 
 I vfill now inform you how I have, for of th« Mange 
 
 in dogs ; how 
 
 above twenty years, treated dogs which ^est to cure it. 
 have had the mange. About that time I 
 
G4 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 was very much employed in the recruiting 
 service, and could not give up much time to 
 my dogs; so I sent for an old man, who 
 made a good livelihood by curing dogs. 
 My dog had the mange ; not very bad, but 
 something much worse with it; he had eight 
 or ten large blotches on his body, as big as 
 large hazle-nuts. The old man took a 
 bottle out of his pocket, and first dabbed 
 the blotches with a bit of tow, each two or 
 three times. He then stopped about five 
 minutes, for that to dry in and penetrate ; 
 after which he took a pot of ointment, and 
 rubbed the dog in well, for at least ten mi- 
 nutes, under the fore legs, and on the belly, 
 but particularly on the back bone. He then 
 desired me not to wash the dog, or let him 
 go into the water; tellings me, that he 
 would call in about five daj^s. When he 
 called, the dog was apparently well ; so 
 much so, that he said he did not think it 
 necessary to rub the dog again: however, I 
 made him dab the blotches again, and rub 
 once more in. — When he called to be paid, 
 I told him that, upon my honour, if he 
 >fould discover how the h(|ui(i and oint- 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 65 
 
 ment were made, I would give him two 
 guineas, and never discover it till after his 
 death. He consented. The Hquid is thus 
 made: — Half an ounce of quicksilver 
 
 IS PUT INTO A BOTTLE, WITH HALF AN OUNCE 
 
 OF OIL OF TURPENTINE, FOR ABOUT EIGHT 
 HOURS BEFORE USING IT: SHAKE THE BOTTLE 
 
 FREQUENTLY, AND SHAKE IT ALWAYS W^HEN 
 
 YOU USE IT, f or there will be a sediment at 
 the bottom. The ointment is thus made: — - 
 Take half an ounce of quicksilver ; put 
 it into a bottle, with half an ounce 
 of oil of turpentine ; let it stand for 
 eight hours, shaking the bottle fre- 
 quently : the n take four ounces of 
 hog's-lard, and, by degrees, mix both 
 together, a little of each at a time, 
 till the whole be incorporated . — he 
 told me, that he always carried two pots of 
 ointment with him, one stronger than the 
 Other, in case of a dog being very bad with 
 the mange. The strongest ointment was 
 made with ojili/ three ounces of hog's-lard, 
 but with the same quantity of the quick- 
 silver and turpentine. 
 
66 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 S^ofp?y"ic?an. Thcrc wRs 9. fcUow in this town (I forget 
 his name) who was called the Queen's Dog 
 Physician. From his attending her ma- 
 * jesty*s dogs, he went to all the women of 
 fashion, to doctor their dogs also. He ne- 
 ver would undertake them, unless he was 
 permitted to take them home with him for 
 ten days. There was seldom any thing 
 more the matter with them than a gross 
 habit of body ; fat to a degree, from the 
 scandalous method they are fed, giving 
 them every day more good meat than 
 would supply two poor children. When 
 Quiets Dog he got Chloe home, he physicked her, and 
 treats my Mvc hcr nothino^ but dry bread for some 
 
 lady'slap-dog. "^ *- j 
 
 time. She would not eat, the first three or 
 four days, of such insipid food, and, the first 
 day, howled most bitterly ; however, he soon 
 cured her of that, by giving her four or five 
 sound floggings, to prevent her annoying 
 his neighbours. I think it scandalous to 
 give dogs what a human being would be 
 grateful to receive : however, this must be 
 passed over in oblivion, provided a gentle- 
 man be making love to the lady, for then 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 67 
 
 it is necessary to make a considerable deal 
 of love to the lap-dog also. In about ten 
 days the Queen's dog physician brings my 
 lady her dog home, as tine as a star, sleek 
 in his coat, and in tolerable good condition, 
 for he has fed it tolerably well for the last 
 four or five days. Her ladyship is charmed 
 with the looks of her dog ; he is as merry 
 as a grig; jumps, frisks,, and plays about; 
 when, before, he could hardly walk down 
 stairs to dinner. She pays him very hand- 
 somely ; he goes away contented, laughing 
 in his sleeve at her ladyship. 
 
 I have mentioned all the fatal and bad concemms 
 
 Mad Dogs. 
 
 maladies to which a dog is subjected, ex- 
 cepting madness. Fortunately, no dog of 
 mine ever went mad, or was bitten by a 
 mad dog ; therefore, on that subject, I can 
 give no just opinion : but, provided I had 
 a dog, ever so valuable, bitten very deep, 
 particularly if near to the head, I would 
 destroy him. If he were bitten but slight- 
 ly, I would cut the bitten part out, and 
 burn the wound well with a hot iron ; then 
 pour some liquid caustic on the wound, and 
 rub in, two or three times every day, some. 
 
64? COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 very strong mercurial ointment ; and, for 
 certain, I would give him tivelve grains of 
 Turbith viineraL Osmer asserts positively 
 that he has given it to many dogs, badly 
 bitten, and never knew it fail ; and several 
 others assert the same. I would rub strong 
 mercurial ointment into the wound every 
 day, for at least one month ; and give him, 
 every week, for a month, two doses of the 
 Turbith mineral. Provided a dog went 
 mad in my kennel, I would discharge the 
 person w ho looks after them ; for no dog 
 goes mad without first rejecting his food. 
 The moment a dog refuses his food, or 
 feeds very sparingly, he should be taken, 
 from the others, and chained up in some 
 safe place. 
 
 hl^tlixllt''' I s^^^^l "O'*^ proceed, and speak concern- 
 ing dogs* feet, — the most essential point 
 about the animal ; for, without a good, 
 firm foot, he can never hunt long. I 
 never look at a dog which has a thin, flat, 
 wide, and spread foot ; they are not worth 
 two-pence. 
 
 It has been a constant custom with me 
 to wash my pointers' feet with strong salt 
 
 thorn. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 6§ 
 
 and water after the day's sport. I have 
 found my error, and am convinced that it 
 is a wrong practice. I never altered my 
 method until three years ago. A game- 
 keeper in Suffolk, seeing that a boy was 
 washing my dogs* feet with strong salt and 
 water, (his name was Cooper,) said to me : 
 " Sir, I think you do wrong to wash your 
 dogs' feet in salt and water, at this early 
 part of the shooting season, (it was the first 
 week in September,) at this time, sir, when 
 the ground is uncommonly dry, and as hard 
 as a rock. If you will feel their feet, you 
 will find there is a considerable degree of 
 feverish heat in the dogs' feet, from hav- 
 ing hunted all daj^ on hard and dry ground. 
 A dog, sir, in such weatl^ter, should have his 
 feet suppled and comforted. As long as 
 the ground is dry and hard, I always wash 
 my dog's feet with warm soap and water, 
 and clean them well, particularly between 
 the toes, and balls of the feet ; this com- 
 forts his feet, allays the heat, and promotes 
 the circulation in the feet. In the more 
 advanced period of the season, when the 
 ground is very wet, then salt and water 
 
 F 
 
70 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 may l)e proper." I approved much of the 
 reasons he gave ; it shewed the sense of his 
 practice, and the folly of mine : since that 
 period I have taken his advice. 
 
 Friar's Balsam WhEN DOGS' FEET ARE CUT BY FLINT 
 
 for wounds m 
 
 Dogs' Feet. ^^^ ^^ OTHER ACCIDENTS, FrIAR'S BAL- 
 SAM, I HAVE USED FOR YEARS, AND FIND 
 
 EXCELLENT. You may generally hunt 
 the dog the next day, with a piece of 
 strong wash-leather, four double, tied round 
 the foot ; and when their feet are chafed or 
 galled, or the skin is absolutely worn off. 
 Friar's balsam is the only thing I ever 
 have used for many and many years. 
 S^thelifside^of Dogs are sometimes afflicted with a dis- 
 Dogs ars. q^.^j^^^ callcd thc caukcr, in the inside of the 
 ear, and some distance in it also. In this 
 disorder I have never had much practice, 
 for I do not recollect that I ever had above 
 jfour or five dogs so disordered. I have 
 found the following method beneficial. 
 Lay the dog down on his side, with that 
 ear, in which the disorder lies, uppermost : 
 put a lump of soft soap, as big as a walnut, 
 into the ear ; pour one table -spoonful of 
 brandy on it ; hold the ear close, and rub it 
 
SPOKTSMEN, FARMERS,' &C. 71 
 
 well, until the soap comes to a lather ; 
 then pour another table-spoonful, and so 
 continue to do, until you have used three 
 or four table-spoons full, constantly rubbing 
 the ear till the soap and brandy be well 
 mixed. Use this method three or four 
 days following. This disorder is known 
 by the dog shaking his head perpetually, 
 and by his smacking his ears against his 
 head and neck ; a nasty, stinking humour 
 is also discharged from the ear. 
 
 There is another sort of canker, which SfouSdfoT 
 
 generally lies at the tip, or bottom side of thecure/^ 
 the ear. This is very visible to the eye, 
 and dogs are very subject to it. I will 
 state to you a method of treating this 
 disorder, invented and practised by that 
 celebrated physician Doctor James, the in- 
 ventor of the fever powders, who paid 
 much attention to the disorders of dogs. I 
 am certain I have used it to fifty dogs, and 
 7icve7' knew it fail. 
 
 Take equal parts of red precipi- 
 tate AND hog's - LARD, WELL MIXE D 
 TOGETHER. Brush both sides of the do^'s 
 ear where the disorder lies, with a soft 
 
 F 2 
 
 -i 
 
/ 7*2 COLONEL HANGER TO * 
 
 I tooth-brush, having some of this ointment 
 
 laid on it. Be sure never to brush against 
 the hair, but always the wa}^ the hair lies. 
 About four dressings, once every day, is 
 generally sufficient. 
 
 Provided you do not choose to rub your 
 dog in with the quick-silver ointment, and 
 dab him with the quicksilver dissolved in oil 
 of turpentine, when he has got the mange ; (in 
 the former pages of this book, I have told you 
 how to make them ;) the following is the 
 Another re- bcst thiu^' I kuow, after the mercurial oint- 
 
 ceipt to cure <-' 
 
 ge^Mange in j^^j^^ . ^^^^ bcfore 1 was acquaiutcd with 
 that, I always used it, and found it answer 
 well ; but then it must be used at least 
 three times, which causes much trouble. 
 It is made after the following method. 
 Take half a pint of train-oil, half 
 
 V^4^^ "^M*^^^ I'lNT OF OIL OF TURPENTINE, HALF A 
 
 ^> *^^ POUND OF SULPHUR VIVUM, (the black 
 ''^^'^'^^'^'^'^coloured sulphur, and not the flower of 
 ii,//^/^a^*^^brimstone,) and one ounce of roach 
 
 *" ' alum, very finely powdered; mix them 
 
 all VfELL together. It Certainly is not 
 prudent to use a strong mercurial oint- 
 
SPpKTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 73 
 
 ment and wash, in very cold weather, nor 
 unless your dog lies warm and dry. I 
 know not what might be the consequence 
 of such imprudence; but surely, with proper 
 care, the dog can receive no injury. 
 
 The most cursed and tormenting malady a 
 dog can have, is to be badly troubled with 
 worms. Give him the best of food, it does 
 him but little good ; he alwaj^s looks 
 unkindly in his coat, and will not carry 
 flesh. I have generally been very suc- 
 cessful in destroying the worms in dogs, 
 BY THE USE OF CALOMEL ; nor have I used 
 any thin^ else for years : the quantity worms in 
 
 ^ ^ ' ^ ' Dogs. 
 
 I GIVE IS TEN GRAINS ; FOUR DOSES, 
 
 STOPPING ONE DAY BETWEEN EACH DOSE. 
 
 This year, 1813, I had a dog so troubled 
 with them for above ten months, so very bad, 
 that I could not destroy them. I tried 
 many things: f{V^t, four closes of calomel, ten 
 grains in each dose ; then I gave him 
 saviti; then bear's-foot; after that, poivdered 
 glass, four doses, as much in each dose as 
 would lie on a shilling, heaped up. Then 
 a medical gentleman of my acquaintance 
 told me that I did not give him enough 
 
How to cure 
 the Worms in 
 Dogs, 
 
 74 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 calomel ; but that first I should boil a pint 
 of milk, cool it, and sweeten it well with 
 brown sugar ; give this first to the dog, that 
 the worms might feed well on it, and in 
 about twenty minutes afterwards, give him 
 twenty grains {one scruple) of calomel. This 
 I gave him three times ; it brought a n^m- 
 ber of worms from him : but, in about five 
 or six days, he had nearly as many as 
 before ; then I knew not what step to take 
 with him. One day, by chance, I met 
 with a very old acquaintance of mine, a 
 tradesman, and happened to mention to 
 him how teiTibly troubled the dog was 
 with worms. He said : " It is very 
 singular, sir, having known me for so many 
 years, that you should not be aware that I 
 have cured some hundreds of the human 
 race, and my medicine is equally efficacious 
 to the brute creation. This medicine is 
 nothing but THE leaves of the walnut 
 TREE. In summer, when the leaves are 
 green, they must be dried and baked in a 
 plate before the fire, then rubbed to a fine 
 powder with the hands. In winter, when 
 dry, you must buy them at the medical 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, Scc. 75 
 
 herb-shop, Covent-Garden. I gave my 
 
 dog TWO LARGISH TEA-SPOONS FULL, HEAPED 
 
 UP; first boiling half a pint of milk, letting 
 it cool, and putting the powdered leaves 
 into it : the dog will take it well ; but he 
 will not take it in grease, for the leaves 
 have a very strong taste, and smell. By 
 the bye, I caution all sportsmen never to Never give 
 
 •^ ^ milk which has 
 
 give dogs milk, which has not been boiled, ed^toTo-^.'^" 
 for it will purge them as much as a dose of 
 physic. I gave my dog, eight days fol- 
 lowing, one dose ; after which, for above two 
 months, he never voided one single worm. 
 
 There is a peculiar excellence in these 
 leaves ; they never, in the least, purged my 
 dog : his body was in the same state, as if 
 I never had given him any thing. This is 
 a vast benefit ; for, as it does not purge the 
 dog, it may be given him even when he 
 hunts. I am told by medical men, who 
 have studied botany, that walnut leaves are 
 a positive poison to worms, btit by no 
 means detrimental to man or beast. 
 
 You may observe, in the autumn, when 
 the caterpillars and grubs eat the leaves of 
 trees, and destroy the garden-stuff, you will 
 
7S COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 never see the leaves of walnut-trees eaten by 
 them : no caterpillar nor grub will approach 
 a walnut-tree. Besides, I will give you another 
 proof of their abhorrence of walnut leaves: 
 in summer, when the ground is so dry that 
 you cannot dig for worms to go fishing 
 with, fill a pail, about one-third full, of wal- 
 nut-tree leaves, and pour a large kettle of 
 boiling water on them ; cover the pail over 
 with a thick cloth, and let them stand till 
 cold; then, go to a bowling-green, where 
 you observe many worm-casts ; spread the 
 water over the grass, and the worms will 
 immediately come up above the ground. — 
 This I have tried. 
 
 Within these two days I have observed 
 two worms come from my dog : provided 
 he voids more*, I shall give him about four 
 doses more ; the result of which you shall be 
 acquainted with, before I finish this book. 
 
 f It is full three months since this, and the finishing 
 of this book, and I have not found above four or five 
 come from him, — and I watch him constantly, for I 
 value the dog's health ; and never above one at a time : 
 however, I shall give him three or four doses more, 
 p the medicine never purged him in the least degreCo 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 77 
 
 I will now describe this worm: it is about 
 half an inch long, quite white, flat, and 
 about as broad as a narrow piece of tape. 
 I am thoroughly persuaded, though my dog 
 may breed them again and again, that I 
 can destroy them. 
 
 Respecting feeding dogs : all sportsmen Respecting the 
 know, that dogs must have flesh about half ^°ss- 
 boiled, the broth of which should be well 
 thickened, by boiling it with oatmeal, or 
 barley-meal : oatmeal is certainly the best, 
 but it is not (generally speaking) to be had, 
 in travelling about. I find, provided I can, 
 about twice a week, give my dogs a good 
 meal of horse-flesh, half boiled, that house- 
 hold bread*, with only skimmed milk, boiled, 
 will do very well for them on the other 
 daj'^s. 
 
 Respecting purging dogs : the common of pmging 
 
 ALGETIC HORSE-BALLS, SOLD BY MOST CHE- 
 MISTS, IS CERTAINLY THE BEST PHYSIC : foF 
 
 no animal is more bilious than a dog; and 
 uloetic physic, in that respect, is the best. 
 
 * What is more nourishing than bread? is it not 
 justly called the staff of life? 
 
78 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 Three drachms is a proper dose for a full- 
 grown pointer ; but, as a dog will sometimes 
 throw it up, instead of giving him three 
 drachms at one dose every other day, until 
 you have given three doses, I advise you to 
 give him only one drachm every day, for 
 nine days following: this will cleanse him 
 well. However, I generally have given 
 my dogs one drachm and a half of ju- 
 
 LAP, MIXED UP INTO A BALL WITH SYRUP OF 
 
 BUCKTHORN ; three doses, stopping one day 
 between each dose ; and I find this cleanses 
 them very well. 
 
 When a dog looks unkindly in his coat, 
 glass. though he has been physicked, give him 
 
 THREE DOSES OF POWDERED GLASS, as mUch 
 
 as will lie heaped up on a shilling to each 
 dose. This will make his coat very fine, 
 and he will look well in his skin ; besides, 
 it is a very great cleanser. The powdered 
 glass must not be made of the green glass 
 bottles, but from broken decanters and wine* 
 glasses, powdered and ground in an iron 
 mortar, then sifted through a fine muslin 
 sieve. 
 
 Of powdered 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, SCC. 79 
 
 We will now proceed to the destruction no-vtodestroy 
 
 * all Vermin. 
 
 of all vermin on a manor. T::ere is no 
 animal more easily caught than the large 
 forked-tail kite ; nor is there any animal ^^ ^""^ ^^'^^■ 
 more destructive to game, and especially to 
 partridges. Suppose that they only destroy 
 one partridge in a week^\"\\eve is a direct loss 
 of twenty-six pair of birds for the next breed- 
 ing season. 
 
 Vermin destroy more game in the year 
 than is ever shot on the manor. Recollect, 
 that there are numbers of their enemies 
 at work by night, as well as by day, and, 
 provided the vermin be not destroyed, a 
 manor cannot be well stocked with game. 
 It is full as necessary to employ a vermin- Necessity of 
 
 . . T rv^ 1 r» 1 employing a 
 
 catcher, (but it is very ditncuit to imd one vermin-catch- 
 who is skilful,) as it is to keep gamekeepers, 
 to preserve your game from poachers. The 
 following methods, receipts, and lures, I 
 assure you I have acquired the knowledge 
 of, at a very considerable expense, in a course 
 of above thirty years, from the most expe- 
 
 * But, suppose they destroy one every day, the 
 damage is incalculable. - 
 
80 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 rienced vermin-catchers; and, you may rely 
 on it, you will find them succeed to your 
 best wishes and satisfaction. 
 
 First, to the broad-tail kite : this bird 
 is easily caught. I must first observe, that 
 a vermin-catcher should be provided with 
 one dozen, or a dozen and half, of iron 
 traps: the common warren-rabbit trap is 
 the best; it should be about eight inches 
 square (not round), a square trap will catch 
 with much greater certainty than a round 
 Howtodestroy ouc. For thc kite, set the trap against a 
 Kftes. bush which extends a little, so that you may 
 
 place the end of it against the bush, and 
 that the trap may be somewhat flanked on 
 each side by the bush, that he must walk 
 on to it. Bury the trap well, and fasten a 
 piece of bullock's lights to the bridge of it; 
 then strew about two handfuls of feathers 
 round and over the trap : the feathers will 
 lure him down from a great height, he sup- 
 posing some bird lies killed there. All 
 hawks are to be caught in the same way. 
 
 Magpies and jays destroy many partridge 
 and phe^isant nests, by sucking the eggs. 
 The best method of destroying them, is to 
 
SPORTSMEN, FAKMERS, 8CC. ' 81 
 
 set a trap in the woods. You observe them, 
 frequently, before the leaves are on the 
 trees : lay a hen's egg on the bridge of the 
 trap. These are both very cunning birds, 
 therefore the trap must be well covered. 
 A magpie is a most destructive animal, for 
 he will kill young pheasants, partridges, and 
 all sorts of young poultry; and, I have 
 been informed, they will pick the eyes 
 out of lambs not long dropped, and kill 
 them. 
 
 Polecats, weazles, and stoats, are thus to 
 be destroyed : set a trap where you observe 
 them run; let it be well covered with earth; 
 take a small bird, sparrow, linnet, &c. Sec. 
 
 DIP THE TIPS OF THE BIRD'S WINGS IN TINC- 
 TURE OF MUSK; stick a pointed stick into 
 the bird's throat, and suspend him directly 
 over the bridge of the trap, about five or 
 six inches high. The tincture of musk will 
 lure all these vermin at a considerable 
 distance. 
 
 There is an animal which, in Norfolk 
 and Suffolk, is called a lobster ; I know not 
 whj^ for he certainly is of the same species 
 as the weazle and stoat, but much larger : 
 
^2 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 no vermin which run are so fatally destruc- 
 tive to all game as these animals ; they will 
 absolutely hunt a hare down which is above 
 half grown. A gamekeeper assured me, that> 
 about three years ago, he saw one which 
 was hunting a young hare, as regularly as 
 a hound would do. The animal got away 
 from him in a hedge. About two hours 
 after, returning that way, in the next field, 
 a turnip field, he observed a hare, above 
 half grown, cross the path, and this devil of 
 an animal following, and hunting it by the 
 foot, a very few yards behind. He had a 
 good dog for vermin with him, and killed it. 
 This most destructive animal may be de- 
 stroyed in the same manner as the polecat, 
 stoat, and weazle. 
 
 The surest method to destroy all vermin, 
 and with the least trouble and labour to 
 yourself, is to poison them. This may be 
 done without incurring the danger of poison- 
 ing dogs, or any other animal, excepting a 
 cat; and if every cat which strays into the 
 fields were destroyed, it would be a great be- 
 nefit to a manor. I shall speak of pussy 
 shortl y. There is not a more destructive devil 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. 8$ 
 
 to all sorts of game than a cat, which deserts 
 the farm-yard, and lives in the fields and 
 woods. There they breed, and produce a 
 race of real wild animals, in that case more 
 destructive than any other vermin. To 
 poison the above-named vermin, you need 
 only prepare small birds, as I have directed, 
 so as to draw the vermin to the bait from a 
 distance off. Cut the breast of the bird 
 open on both sides/ and rub in five grains, 
 not more, of arsenic*. Stick the bird about 
 six inches fi'om the ground, on a stick, in 
 the paths where you observe the vermin 
 run. Dogs wont eat the small bird, nor 
 indeed any bird, especially when it be 
 anointed with so strong a perfume. When 
 you observe a bird taken away, you may 
 be sure you have destroyed some one of 
 those animals so destructive to game. 
 
 * If you give any considerable quantity of arsenic, 
 it will make the animal sick, and he will! throw it up; 
 five grains, or as much as will lie on the point of a 
 sharp penknife, is enough ; that will stay with him, 
 and kill him. 
 
84 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 The large brown owl is a very destruc- 
 tive animal to game ; there are very few 
 of them, excepting in woody, mountainous 
 countries. The best method of destroying 
 them is to look for their nests in the spring, 
 and destroy both young and old. I am of 
 opinion, that the grey owl, which lives in 
 the barns, Uves chiefly on mice, and is not 
 destructive to game. 
 
 A cat which quits the stables and farm-yard 
 
 is a most destructive animal to game. There 
 
 is a large wood in Dorsetshire, of several 
 
 hundred acres, and not a village within three 
 
 miles of it, except one, about a quarter 
 cat^destvoy ^j' g^ j^^jj^ f^^^^ j^ . ^j-^^ i^j,^ ^f |.j^g mauor 
 
 lets the cottagers their houses scarcely at 
 any rent, with this stipulation, that they 
 do not keep a cat. The gamekeeper as- 
 sured me, that, in one year, he destroyed, 
 young and old, above three hundred, A cat 
 is very easily caught : bait the bridge of the 
 trap with a piece of red herring; strew a 
 little valerian powder on the trap : a cat, 
 when it smells the valerian, will lie down, 
 and roll on the trap. You may draw all the 
 cats in a street together with valerian pow- 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 85 
 
 der. A cat will travel miles. Cats, bred 
 wild in the woods, are most destructive ani- 
 mals to game. 
 
 Rats, which live in the fields, will destroy 
 game : I have known a whole brood of 
 young geese destroyed by rats ; and a wa- 
 terman up the river assured me, that the 
 rats destroyed five young swans, just hatch- 
 ed in the nest, by boring a hole, at the bot- 
 tom, into the nest. 
 
 Carrion-crows are very destructive to 
 game : you may kill them, by taking a leg 
 of horse-flesh, scoring it with a knife, and 
 rubbing arsenic into the flesh. It must 
 then be fastened on the top of a corn-rick, 
 which stands in the open fields, and not 
 near to any house. Kites and magpies will 
 also feed on the horse-flesh. 
 
 It is well known, that foxes destroy much 
 game; not when the game is grown up, 
 and can fly, but by catching hen-pheasants 
 and partridges when they sit on their eggs. 
 If you doubt this, dig out a litter of young 
 foxes, and you will find, in the hole, the 
 legs of many pheasants, . partridges, and 
 voung hares. I v/ould net, on any ac- 
 
86 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 count, destroy a fox where hounds are kept ; 
 / thi?ik it a dishonmrable and ungentlemanlike 
 act; but I would desire the master of the 
 hounds to draw my covers frequently in 
 the spring of the year, and I would dig in 
 all the earths, and if a fox draws the holes 
 open, which they will do, provided they are 
 fond of and attached to the spot, then you 
 should funk the earths with brimstone and 
 assa-foetida, or push a dead cat (stinking) 
 as far as you can into the hole, or any thing 
 else which is filthy ; for a fox is a clean 
 animal, and will go somewhere else to 
 breed. 
 
 The best method to preserve your game 
 from foxes, is to encourage a great quantity 
 of rabbits in your woods ; where they have 
 plenty of rabbits, they will not destroy 
 much game. 
 Jitch^r's's«. ^ovi shall now be informed how to catch 
 km^iTRars every rat on your premises, without using 
 
 without poison. . " 1 • 1 • .11 1 .. 
 
 poison, which is not only dangerous, but 
 has proved very expensive to many; for 
 when the rats eat the poison, they grow sick 
 and faint, and creep under the floors, and 
 behind the wainscots of the bouse ; there 
 
SPOKTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 811 
 
 they die, and stink the house, so that you 
 cannot live in it, until you have removed 
 the floors and wainscots. This, I trust, 
 will prevent every prudent person from at- 
 tempting to destroy rats by poison : you 
 shall be instructed how to destroy them all, 
 without incurring the risk of any expense 
 in your house. I mu^t inform you how I 
 acquired this valuable secret. 
 
 When I was aid-de-camp to my most 
 worthy patron, protector, and friend, Sir 
 Henry Chnton, then commander in chief 
 at New York, one day, at dinner, he told 
 Col. Phillips, that the rats were so nume- 
 rous in his quarters, that he had been forced 
 to have the bottom of the doors lined with 
 tin, for that they had very nearly eaten 
 through the door where he kept his papers ; 
 and he asked Col. Phillips, if he knew of 
 any person who could destroy them. Col. 
 Phillips, who was a loyal American in our 
 service, replied, that, some years before the 
 American war commenced, a rat-catcher, 
 who had been transported from England, 
 came and lived as gardener with him, at his 
 estate at Phillipsbourg, about twenty odd 
 G 2 
 
80 COLONEL HAJSGER TO 
 
 miles I'roiii New York, and a very good 
 gardener and servant he was. Col. Phillips> 
 was requested to inquire, whether this man 
 was to be found within our lines. In a few 
 days he was found, and sent to head-quar- 
 ters'*. I attended him, to see that he per- 
 formed his duty: seven wooden fall-traps 
 were made ; such traps as are used to 
 catch vermin alive. These traps are called 
 hutch-traps, fall-traps, and box-traps : they 
 (jfTheTraps! should bc madc two feet eight inches long, 
 and of a proportionate height and breadth, 
 with a door at each end, and a bridge in the 
 middle with a trigger to it, which, when the 
 trap is set for catching, holds both the doors 
 up, by keeping the handles of the doors 
 close down to the top, by a string, v/hich is 
 fastened to the opposite side, and which is 
 fixed, by a flat piece of wood, to a notch iu 
 the trigger, when the trap is set for catch- 
 ing. These traps are to be set in the main 
 runs, in which the rats constantly travel from 
 
 * 1 his rat-catcher's name was Maddison, which is 
 also the name of the present president of the United 
 States. 
 
SPO.RTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 89 
 
 (T/ue room, or out-house, to the others; first 
 preparing them after the following method: 
 Purchase half a pint of oil of anniseed. 
 
 Medicines and 
 
 AND HALF A PINT OF OIL OF CARRAWAY ; Food to be 
 
 used to catch 
 
 ■ THESE TWO ARE CHEAP MEDICINES; NOW ^^^'• 
 €0MES A THIRD, WHICH IS VERY DEAR, BUT 
 
 'THEN ONLY A SMALL QUANTITY IS NECES- 
 SARY, A BOTTLE AS LONG AS YOUR FINGER 
 BEING SUFFICIENT : IT IS OIL OF RHODIUM. 
 
 This will cost about ten shillings. Dab the 
 traps on each side withi7i well, with the oil 
 of carraway and oil of anniseed, and with 
 the tip of J our finger, dipped in the oil of 
 rhodium, in four or five places ; it is enough, 
 as the oil of rhodium has a powerful smell. 
 The food with which the traps are to be 
 baited must be thus prepared : Grate A very 
 
 DRY LOAF OF BREAD, SO FINE THAT THE 
 RATS CANNOT CARRY ANY OF IT AWAY WITH 
 THEM; AND TO EVERY DOUBLE HANDFUL 
 PUT ABOUT TEN OR TWELVE DROPS OF OIL 
 OF C ARRAWAYS, BY a FEW DROPS AT A TIME, 
 RUBBING THE BREAD BETWEEN YOUR HANDS 
 WELL, SO AS TO IMPREGNATE THE WHOLE, 
 
 You should taste the bread, and be guided 
 hj your taste, not to make the bread taste 
 
96 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 too strong of the oil of carraways. It is a 
 mistaken notion, patting oil of anniseed into 
 the food : it will make the food too strong, 
 and they will not feed freely. Oil of carra- 
 . ways, and oil of carraways only, must be 
 mixed in the food. The doors of the traps 
 must be fastened firmly up, so that they 
 cannot fall down; then, for the two or three 
 first days, lay a table-spoonful, spread 
 about, very near each door of the traps, 
 and, by degrees, put the food further into 
 the trap. After a few days, you must lay 
 a table-spoonful ON the bridge of the 
 TRAP ONLY. After this method you are 
 
 TO PROCEED, UNTIL YOU OBSERVE THAT THE 
 RATS, FREQUENTING THE TRAPS CONSTANT- 
 LY, RUN, AND FEED FREELY ; DABBING THE 
 TRAPS EVERY DAY WITH THE OILS. This 
 
 will take eight or ten days. When you are 
 sure that they run and feed freely, after the 
 
 When to be;?in i • • . i • . 
 
 catching the liousc IS quict, and every one is gone to 
 bed, you may tile the traps up, and begin 
 to catch, reserving one spare trap near you, 
 to put down in the place of any one you 
 may take up v/ith rats in it. You must 
 leave all the doors open, sit doAvn very 
 
 Rats. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 91 
 
 quietly, and listen. The doors of the traps, 
 when they fall down, make a considerable 
 noise, which you will distinctly hear. When 
 you hear one trap strike, you must be pre- 
 pared with a large canvas bag, with a large 
 mouth to it, so as to admit one end of a trap 
 into it : hold the bag vmder the trap, whilst 
 another person tilts the trap, with the lower 
 door open, perpendicularly, and shoots the 
 rats into the bag; shaking the trap well, 
 and striking the sides of it with your hand. 
 Open the upper door by degrees; look 
 well, with a light, into the trap, to see that 
 every rat be shaken into the bag; then ga- 
 ther vour hands round the mouth of the 
 bag, swing it, and strike it very hard against 
 the wall or the floor, so as effectually to 
 kill every rat in it. In this you must be 
 very particular, for in it lies the whole 
 strength of the art. If you let even so little 
 as one single rat, either out of a trap or the 
 bag, you will not catch one more rat 
 that night ; and you must fasten the traps 
 Ikmly up, and begin to feed them again, 
 which will take four or five days at least. 
 I forgot to* mention that, when you hear 
 
COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 the doors of one of the traps fall down, 
 when you take it up you must carry another 
 trap with you, and lay it down exactly in 
 the same place, putting a little of the food 
 on the bridge. The hrst night the man 
 and myself, for I sat up the whole night, 
 caught very near three hundred. On the 
 following nights he caught a great many 
 more, and continued until he had totally 
 freed the house of them, and, I make no 
 doubt, many of the adjoining houses also. 
 
 A few days before this man began to 
 prepare to catch, 1 said to him, " Mr. Mad- 
 DISON, if you will honestly impart to me this 
 secret, I will give you two guineas." I 
 judged it prudent at the same time to give 
 him a gentle hint, that, if he deceived me, 
 the strong hand of power was with me, and 
 I should recommend him to the care of the 
 provost marshal at the jail for one month. 
 The man very honestly replied, " Sir, take 
 these three bottles of oils, and I will tell you 
 also how to make the food. I will not, for 
 four or five days, come near the house ; you 
 shall anoint the traps yourself, and feed 
 them also." I did as he had instructed me. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 93 
 
 for five days : in the afternoon he called 
 and asked for me ; we examined the traps, 
 and he then determined to begin catching 
 that night, without his doing any thing pre- 
 viously himself to the traps. This con- 
 vinced me of his honesty, and that he had 
 imparted the real process to me.^ 
 
 * Col. Hanger has invented a trap, of an entirely 
 novel construction, which may be set perpetually, and 
 emptied only once a day, and the rats killed, as aireadj/ 
 dfrected. It will hold above fifty rats before it requires 
 to be emptied. Made on a larger construction, this 
 trap may be set in the woods, effectually to catch all 
 running vermin; but it must be baited in a different 
 manner than for rats, in the manner previously specified 
 in this book, with a stTfall bird hung directly over the 
 centre of the two falling bridges, with his wings dipped 
 in TINCTURE OF MUSK, and the sides of the trap 
 sprinkled with tincture of musk, to draw and allure all 
 running vermin, which tincture of musk will do at a 
 great distance. On applying to Mr. Stockdale, pub- 
 lisher of this book, information will be given where 
 this trap can be seen, and of the man who, under Col. 
 Hanger's direction, is permitted to make them. 
 
 I am informed that Government (how true I cannot 
 say) have given a person two thousand pounds, for a 
 method to catch rats on board of our ships of war. 
 Had they only waited until this book was published, 
 
94 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 In breeding pheasants to turn out, the 
 
 Kow to breed, 
 
 S^I'is'Slors of P^<^P^^' proportion is five hens to one cock ; 
 
 ^onngPhea- ^^^^ morc, if you expect the hens to lay well. 
 Provided you take the eggs av/ay as they 
 are laid, leaving only one or two in the 
 nest, each heuTpheasant, generally speak- 
 ing, will lay twenty-five eggs. Common 
 pease and small beans are excellent food to 
 make them lay, giving them novv^ and then 
 a handful of hemp-seed; and, if they are 
 not in an extensive place, in a menagerie, 
 with a grass yard to it, you must also give 
 them some sort of greens. When the young- 
 pheasants are hatched, the best food for 
 them is certainly the eggs of the large horse* 
 ant; but these are not easily to be ob- 
 tained ; for these large ants scarcely ever 
 breed but in very extensive woods. I will 
 inform you of a substitute, (known but to 
 very few) which is much better food and 
 more nourishing than ants' eggs : take dead 
 
 they might, for twelve shillings, have known how to 
 catch EVEUY RAT ill tJiC Tiavy. If this could be brought 
 to bear in the Briti.^h Senate, at the cost o\' only twelve 
 shillings, what reward might I not look for! ! 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 95 
 
 rabbits, cats, dogs, or any dead animals, and 
 stick them on sticks, near to the coops 
 where the young pheasants are kept, until 
 they are full of maggots. Shake the sticks 
 two or three times a day: this food will 
 make them thrive wonderfully. At first 
 they should be fed with oatmeal, and even, 
 for the first two or three daj^s, with barley- 
 meal ; but you may very soon give them 
 barley with the barley-meal. For the three 
 or four first days, you should chop up some 
 onions, both the white roots and green tops : 
 this will warm their stomachs. When you 
 observe young pheasants look unkindly and 
 not well, their feathers standing up and 
 ragged, toast some bread, and steep it in 
 stale chamberlie; feed them with it until 
 they look better ; at least twice a day : this 
 will cleanse them, and make their feathers 
 look well, and lie smooth. — When you turn 
 them, when nearly full grown, into the woods, 
 be sure you do it at night; never by day, for 
 they may fly away above half a mile. Keep 
 them also very hungry the evening before 
 you turn them out, that they may take to 
 feedins: Avell the next morning; after which 
 
gt> COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 they will lie quiet, and not be inclined to 
 ramble. 
 
 It is sorely as necessary to know how to 
 preserve them from all sorts of poachers, as 
 to breed them. I believe that desperate 
 gang of night-shooters, who several years 
 past so infested Norfolk, and absolutely, for 
 a time, defied even an armed force opposed 
 to them, is totally broken up. Several 
 of them, I am told, have been transported, 
 and some hanged; for when game grows 
 scarce, and, in the breeding time, when they 
 cannot sell the game, it not being fit to eat, 
 being idle fellows, and averse to labour, 
 they must then turn their abilities to some- 
 thing else, such as sheep and horse stealing; 
 and, from one thing to another, they im- 
 prove so much, as even often to take to 
 house-breaking. In this occupation they 
 are sure to be found out, as dispose of the 
 goods they must; this, to a certaint}^, either 
 hangs or transports them in due time. 
 <>t taking There is a very destructive method of 
 
 night'andby taking plicasauts by night, which is by 
 means of a brimstone rag, lighted, and held 
 .under the pheasants, when on the trees at 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, fec. 97 
 
 raost ; and this is done without making any 
 noise. To prevent this, nothing is so easy 
 as to keep a man on purpose, when the 
 leaves are off the trees, to go, just after 
 dark, into the woods and brush them off 
 the trees with a long pole. But there are 
 other methods of catching pheasants ; such 
 as fastening a horse-bean, or an acorn, of 
 which they are very fond, on a fish-hook 
 tied to a bush, in the paths at the extremity 
 of the woods where the pheasants run out 
 to feed : but this method may very easily 
 be found out, provided your gamekeepers 
 are diligent, for the pheasant cannot be 
 caught but by daylight. Small iron rat- 
 traps, with any corn, pease., or beans laid 
 on the bridge of the traps, will for certain 
 catch them : but this may also be observed ; 
 for they cajonot be caught but in daylight, 
 though the hooks and traps may be set at 
 night. 
 
 The best method of all, had I a manor, how inMiibiy 
 
 to preserve a 
 
 and my house lay close to my preserve cover at ni-ht. 
 cover, which I would adopt, is to plant a 
 six-pounder cannon on a platform at the 
 top of the house, thus loaded : Boy a 
 
98 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 bushel of marbles, such as the boys play 
 with at taw ; put a double handful into the 
 cannon ; and have clay balls, just the size 
 of the caliber of the gun, made and baked 
 at the brick-kilns, first boring three or four 
 holes with an iron, nearly as big as your 
 little finger, through and through them. 
 This ball, when fired from a cannon, will 
 make a most terrible whizzing noise, and, 
 together with the marbles buzzing about a 
 fellow's ears, would make him think that 
 the very devil was in the wood. I would 
 also build my gamekeeper a house on one 
 flank on the opposite side of the wood, with 
 no door nor window below. The lower 
 rooms might be easily lighted from above ; 
 and the door ten feet from the ground. 
 He might draw the ladder up at night. In 
 this castle he could stand a siege, for it 
 AYOuld be impossible to set fire to the house. 
 And a round tower of about thirty feet, like 
 the martello towers, only in miniature, with 
 a six-pounder mounted at the top of it, 
 with a door going out from the corner of 
 his bed-room up to the platform on which 
 the cannon is planted, shoidd be also built. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 99 
 
 Thus either the gamekeeper, or 1, should, 
 from our positions, always have a flanking 
 fire on the enemy. I am of opinion, if) 
 about two or three times a week, my game- 
 keeper and self were to fire about three or 
 four rounds each, into the wood, that the 
 very devil himself would not go into it, 
 when he once kneAv that such manoeuvres 
 therein were frequently practised ; that is 
 to say, after it was dark. I do not think, 
 if I may judge by my own feeling, that it 
 would either be pleasant or prudent. My 
 motive for firing the cannon with a baked 
 clay-ball, is, that an iron ball would damage 
 the timber ; so w^ould iron grape-shot ; but 
 marbles will not. 
 
 A most intimate and old friend of mine, 
 and an old soldier, had a wood fuU of 
 game, close to his house, wdthin, at least, 
 one hundred and fifty yards. He had a 
 large balcony up one pair of stairs, which 
 overlooked this wood. One night he heard 
 some shots fired in his wood. He and his 
 servant got directly up, and planted them- 
 selves out, on the balcony. He always 
 kept a soljjier's musquet for himself, and 
 
100 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 one for his man, with sixty rounds of ball- 
 cartridges to each, — they fired each of 
 them about twenty rounds at the very spots 
 where they heard the guns go off, he hol- 
 lowing out each time, after he had fired : 
 " For God's sake take care of my spring- 
 guns/' Those gentlemen night-sportsmen 
 never came into his wood again. 
 
 Partridges may very easily be preserved 
 from poachers taking them at night with 
 nets. It is a custom, generally speaking, 
 Avhen gentlemen take pains to preserve 
 their game, to lay thorn bushes in the 
 stubbles. I hold this custom to be of very 
 little utility ; for the two men who carry 
 the net, only halt a moment, when a third, 
 who follows the net, lifts it up, over ^ the 
 thorn bush, and then they "draw on ; and 
 they can always seethe bush, unless the night 
 be intensely dark ; and even then, if careful, 
 they can instantly feel that the net touches, 
 when they have but to halt and let the man 
 How ro pre- behind free it. There is a much better 
 
 vent Par- 
 
 Sai^'atlilht method ; which is, to stick stakes, about as 
 by drag-nets, j^-^^ ^^ ^^^^^^, thumb, thrcc fcct six inches 
 
 long, with one end well fastened, into the 
 
SPORTSMAN, iTAKMERS, &C. 101 
 
 ground. These stakes they cannot see, 
 unless of a moonhght night. But there is 
 another method, preferable to all the 
 rest, which I never as yet have heard to 
 have been practised, and it is infallible : — 
 Keep a boy mounted on a jack-ass ; let 
 him have two long-legged spring spaniels 
 (not the small cocking spaniel) under his 
 care, and feed them himself, that the dogs 
 may know him well, and follow kindly. 
 Let him go out, not before it is quite dark, 
 and hunt all the stubbles, and particularly 
 the standing clover, for the breadth of half 
 a mile all round your house. This will not 
 take him much above three hours ; he has 
 only to lie in bed two hours longer in the 
 morning. When a covey of birds is 
 sprung at night, they separate, and go 
 various ways, and by far the greater part 
 get to some hedge, if there be any, and the 
 country be not quite open ; for if it be ever 
 so dark, they can distinguish the hedge; 
 by the darkness of its appearance : besides, 
 as they fly very low, provided the hedge be 
 of any moderate height, they are sure to 
 see it. There they are perfectly safe ; and 
 
 n 
 
\{j2 colonel hanger to 
 
 also in the middle of a field, for no two 
 birds will light together. Follow this 
 method, and no netter, by night, can ever 
 catch a covey ; he may chance to catch a 
 single bird. Besides, when birds lie singly 
 by themselves, having been once disturbed, 
 they are constantly on the watch ; and, on 
 hearing a foot-step, but certainly on 
 hearing a horse's tread, they will run, for 
 certain, if not rise again. This being done, 
 your keepers may go to bed, by which 
 they will be more able to get up, and be 
 out before the day dawns, at which time 
 the greatest mischief is done. Had I a 
 manor of my own, I would go out with a 
 setting dog, one month before the season, 
 and catch all the birds at the extremity of 
 the manor, where, from its distance, the 
 keepers could not so well look after them, and 
 turn the young birds into the field next to 
 my residence. Be sure to leave the old 
 cock and hen on the spot where you caught 
 them, for they will entice the young ones to 
 ramble. Thus vou will have bv far the 
 greater number of birds directly under your 
 eve, close to home. I also vrould never 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 103 
 
 shoot till the fifteenth of September ; for I 
 am certain that more birds are destroyed 
 in the first fifteen days, than in the whole 
 season besides. 
 
 It is absurd to permit any farmer to set 
 rabbit-traps to destroy them. If it be ne- 
 cessary to destroy them, dig all the earths 
 in, excepting one large main spout. After 
 dark, when the rabbits are out feeding, go 
 quietly to the spout, and stuff a piece of an 
 old sack or carpet into the spout, about 
 three feet within it ; then go drive them 
 with a dog, and you will catch six or seven 
 in every main spout. Thus, by digging 
 them in, you will soon destroy them. 
 
 A rabbit-trap will catch a hare ; and no J^J^^^^^p'^^^f^r 
 man shall tell me, that, when a man Soy^Haretr' 
 
 Pheasant?, and 
 
 observes a hare-rack, he will not set Partridges. 
 the trap in it. Besides, partridges and 
 pheasants are constantly caught, running 
 along these paths, in the traps. Look only 
 to the warreners, what a number of hares 
 they destroy in their rabbit-traps ! 
 
 You cannot have any plenty of hares, AWarrenon 
 
 •^ ^ *^ your Manor 
 
 provided there be a warren close to your Game.''^''^ ^^ 
 
 H 2 
 
104 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 manor. They catch, also, a great number 
 of partridges and pheasants. A gamekeeper, 
 this season, assured me, that, one day, he 
 shot four brace of partridges, and two brace 
 of pheasants : three of the partridges had 
 but one leg, and one brace of the pheasants 
 only one leg. On manors, where gentle- 
 men wish to preserve the game, all the 
 warrens should be ploughed up, and farm- 
 houses built on them. This method will 
 bring in more rent, unless the soil be more 
 sterile than it generally is. Do I not re- 
 member the time when all the way from 
 Newmarket to Swaffham, was one con- 
 tinued rabbit-warren ? Where now is finer 
 land to be found ? 
 fhS^e"^ I am astonished that sportsmen do not 
 
 uedsey^''^ order furze seed to be sown in every hedge 
 on their manor. There is no greater pre- 
 servative, in respect of cover, for all sorts of 
 game ; and surely it would considerablj- 
 strengthen the farmer*s fence, and assist in 
 keeping the cold winds for his cattle. 
 There is no cover so good as a furze cover, 
 for all game, particularly pheasants ; for 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 105 
 
 night shooters, or those who stifle them 
 at roost with brimstone, cannot, by such 
 means, destroy them in a furze cover. 
 
 Wood-pidffeons are very easily cauo^ht how to catch 
 
 ^ ^ J J o Wood-Pigeons, 
 
 in hard weather, particularly when snow 
 is on the ground. You have but to sweep 
 the snow on one side, for about a dozen 
 yards long, and about three feet broad. 
 Lay about twenty small eel-hooks, fastened 
 by a peg into the ground, with a small 
 bean on each : be sure you put the point 
 of the hook only, through the top of the 
 bean, and the barb standing quite out, on 
 the side ; otherwise, if the hook be totally 
 buried in the bean, when the bird struggles, 
 he will pull the hook out of his throat. 
 
 I think, as good a way as any, is to 
 punc h two or three holes in horse-beans, 
 with an iron bodkin, and then boil them in 
 some common ^in : many will be so drunk 
 that they cannot fly up ; others will perch 
 on the adjacent trees ; watch _ them, and 
 you will see them tumble down> 
 
 If you have a large pond, or lake, fre- ^^iVfowf^^ 
 quented by wild-fowl ; in the shallow wa- 
 ter, about one foot deep, where you observe 
 
• 
 
 106 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 them feed, lay a few rabbit-traps, with a 
 few beans on the bridge of the trap, under 
 the water. This is a sure method of catch- 
 ing them. Where the water is about two 
 feet deep, put a stick in, about one foot 
 above the water ; cut a sht at the top of 
 the stick ; tie a strong piece of packthread 
 round a brick-bat, or to a large stone ; let 
 the string, after having tied it round the 
 stone, be about a foot longer ; to the other 
 end fasten a small eel-hook, baited with a 
 piece of bullock's lights, sheep's paunch, or 
 a horse-bean ; then, about three or four 
 inches from the brick-bat; fasten a stick, 
 nearly as big as your little finger, and about 
 four inches long, tying the stnng, with a 
 single knot, exactly to. the centre of the 
 stick ; then place that part of the string, 
 which is between the brick-bat and the 
 short stick, into the notch at the top of the 
 long stick, which is stuck into the bottom 
 of the pond. The short stick will prevent the 
 weight of the brick-bat from drawing the 
 string through the notch, and the hook will 
 hang a few inches from the water, and the 
 brick-bat hang fast by the notch in the top 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMTES, Sec. lOT 
 
 of. the stick. When the water-fowl takes 
 the baited hook, he pulls the stiek and 
 brick-bat down, and the brick-bat pulls him 
 Hnder water and drowns him. 
 
 I will now, for the benefit of sportsmen j^roIchtheRed 
 in the Highlands of Scotland, instruct them Sfgiiandsof 
 
 . Scotland, with- 
 
 how to approach the red deer within thirty in so or 40 
 
 -* ^ ^ yards. 
 
 yards. The red deer are so very wild and 
 shy, that, I am told, it is m.ost difficult to 
 get within shot of them. This difficulty I 
 will completely do away. My plan is no- 
 thing, more or less, than what, in both 
 North and South Carolina, is so well known, 
 and called fire-hunting ry night. I feel by m^sS!^'''° 
 a very considerable degree of pleasure in 
 reflecting, that I shall be the means of pro- 
 curing much diversion and satisfaction to * 
 Highland sportsmen, by teaching them, 
 whenever they choose it, how to approach, 
 v/ithin a short distance, the wildest and 
 shyest red deer. I v/ill describe the Avhole 
 particulars. I was an eye-witness to this 
 amusement, when I first went about thirtv 
 nriiles up the country, just after the siege of 
 Charlestown, with my old, intimate, and 
 
108 COLONEL MANGER TO 
 
 worthy friend. Colonel Simcoe, then com- 
 manding the Queen's Rangers, afterwards 
 General Simcoe, now dead and lost to his 
 country — I say, lost to his country, for he 
 undoubtedly was one of the very best offi- 
 cers in our service. 
 
 Two American Back-woodsmen went 
 with me ; all three of us on horseback : 
 they go on horseback, for fear, lest, creep- 
 ing along by the edge of the swamps, they 
 might tread on a rattle-snake, of which 
 there are plenty near to the swamps. The 
 rattle-snake, when he hears the stamp of a 
 horse's foot, flies away ; for divine nature 
 has so ordained it, that this deadly animal 
 avoids you as much as you wish to avoid it; 
 and no person is bitten by a rattle-snake, 
 excepting he come on it when it lies, 
 coiled up, asleep, and basking in the sun. 
 
 The Back-woodsman takes a large fry- 
 ing-pan, with a very long iron handle to it; 
 puts about half a dozen middling-sized 
 pieces into it, of the pine-tree, (the knots of 
 the pine,) which are full of turpentine: 
 these, when lighted in the frying-pan, give 
 £^ very strong and great light. The pine- 
 
SPORTSMEN, fARMERS, &C. 109 
 
 treeknots were stuck into an iron stanchion, 
 on their tables, in their houses, to light the 
 house by night ; for they had at that time 
 no candles, and they give a very great 
 light. He, after lighting this wood in the 
 frying-pan, puts the pan over his left shoul- 
 der, and carries the light behind his head : 
 he then mounts his horse; first putting 
 strong, thick sacks over the rump of the 
 horse, to prevent any fire falling down and 
 burning the animal ; and takes a soldier's 
 musket, loaded with buck-shot, in his right 
 hand. The other man follows, about se- 
 venty or one hundred yards behind, with a 
 bag of turpentine knots, to replenish the 
 fire in the frying-pan when necessary. I 
 went on horseback, close behind the man 
 with the gun. In following, you must be 
 very particular. The frying-pan must be 
 held directly straight over your left shoul- 
 der, never turning the handle one inch, 
 even to the right or left. When you look 
 before you, you must not move your head, 
 but turn your whole body on the saddle to 
 the right and left, holding the frying-pan 
 
110 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 firm mid straight, by fixing your elbow 
 firm to your body. 
 
 So far off even as two hundred yards, 
 you will see the deers' eyes appearing just 
 like two balls of fire. Remember, for cer- 
 tain, that you go directly up the wind, else 
 the deer will smell you, and you never will 
 get near to one. The deer, astonished and 
 surprised at so strange a sight, stands stock- 
 still, terrified, and gazing at this very bright 
 light, and permits you to approach liim very 
 near. We had not been long out, walking 
 our horses very gently, by the side of a 
 swamp, where the deer at night feed ; but 
 we found one. Before we came within one 
 hundred j^ards of him, he ran away. To 
 the best of my recollection, one of our 
 horses snorted. We had not gone a quar- 
 ter of a mile further, ere we found another: 
 the Back-woodsman did not go directly up 
 to him, but took his way about thirty yards 
 on one side of the deer. The animal, I am 
 certain, let him come within less than forty 
 yards of him : he then pulled up his horse, 
 which was going only at a very slow walk. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. lit 
 
 laid his arm over the handle of the frying- 
 pan, supported his musket with his left 
 hand, fired, and shot the deer. The deer 
 was standing rather sideways to him, with 
 his head turned round to the light; so that 
 he shot him in the fore-quarters, just behind 
 the fore-elbow. The animal did not run 
 five yards. We threw him over his horse, 
 and returned home. 
 
 There was, when I was in the Carolinas, 
 a positive act of the assembly, imposing a 
 fine on any person who should fire-hunt by 
 night ; for some persons, not approaching 
 near enough to distinguish plainly that it 
 was a deer, and no other animal, have shot 
 young colts, oxen, and heifers ; for the eyes 
 of these young animals, at night, by this 
 light, will appear just the same as the eyes 
 of the deer : therefore you must be careful, 
 and see distinctly what animal it is, or you 
 may shoot young cattle. 
 
 As no pine barren knots are to be pro- 
 cured in this country, I will find you a sub- 
 stitute, and a much better thing, than the 
 frying-pan and wood fire ; for the wood 
 fire can only be used in a very still night, 
 
112 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 when there is no wind. This is, one of 
 uses of the thoselaFffe lanterns, which hansf over the 
 
 Lantern, with o ' o 
 
 hind^thtlamp' front doors of some hotels, and over the 
 doors of gentlemen's halls, which cast so 
 strong and bright a light quite over the 
 street, on the opposite side. The glass 
 lamp which holds the oil must have three 
 tubes to it, with a wick of cotton in each 
 tube. These three cotton wicks, lighte.d, 
 will give a very great light. At the back 
 of the lantern, and behind the lamp, a con- 
 cave piece of very high polished tin or steel, 
 full ten inches in diameter, and quite round, 
 must be fixed. This will collect the rays 
 of light, and reflect them to a very great 
 distance, powerfully. I think those reflect- 
 ing mirrors, at the back of these lanterns, 
 are better, which are made with small pieces 
 of broken looking-glass, as they are more 
 easily kept clean. Before the lamp, in the 
 front, a large magnifying glass, eight or ten 
 inches in diameter, should be fixed, instead 
 of a common piece of glass : this will throw 
 the light much stronger, and at a greater 
 distance. At the bottom of the lantern a 
 gTooye must be made, to receive a stick, 
 
SPORTSMEN. FARMERS, &.C. US 
 
 quite flat, and about iive or six inches 
 square, so that the lantern may rest flat on 
 it, and be fastened with a screw. The 
 handle of the stick must be five feet long, 
 about three inches broad, and quite flat, so 
 that it may lie easily on the shoulder. 
 — Now I have completely equipped you, 
 you have only to enter on your sport. 
 
 I will point out to vou another method Howto shoot 
 
 ^ '^ Wild-Fowl and 
 
 how you may amuse yourself with this Ian- le'Pherrby^'"^ 
 tern: hang the lantern, by abroad leathern "'^^^' 
 belt, over a man s neck, and strap it round 
 his body, to keep it steady. Let the man 
 carry a very large, deep-sounding bell, such 
 as is hung round the necks of cows, in 
 each hand, and keep incessantly ringing 
 them : this will prevent the noise of your feet 
 disturbing the animals you are searching 
 after. Proceed to the springs, and other 
 places which are not frozen up in hard wea- 
 ther: there, at night, i/ou ivill be sure to find 
 both ivild-foivl aud snipes. Walk behind 
 the man carrying^ the lantern, with a double oftheBeii 
 
 'J ^ and Buffet, a 
 
 gun ; one barrel loaded with duck-shot, the ^^'^gf^ent. 
 other with snipe-shot. This amusement 
 was called, one hundred vears ago, the 
 
114 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 bell and buffet; and my father told me, 
 when he was a young man, it was much 
 practised. 
 
 I have been informed that rabbits, at 
 night, will not run out from this bright 
 light; and that, with a couple of dogs, you 
 may catch several ; but I never tried it. 
 
 I have no reason to doubt, that a hare, 
 by this light, will let you approach him : 
 when a deer will, I see no reason that a 
 hare will not. But j^ou must be sure to 
 go up the wind ; and I am of opinion that, 
 to approach a hare at feed, by night, you 
 should not use the bells. 
 
 Of shooHnc: • -i i 
 
 Pewits,piovers rrovidcd 7/ou mark down a lars^e flock of 
 
 and Bustards, ^ o ^ ^ 
 
 by night. pewits, plovers, or wild geese, just at dark, going 
 to roost, or golden plover, I should imagine, 
 by these means, you may get within shot of 
 them. And why may not this method be 
 TRIED ON BUSTARDS when you see theni. 
 settling for the night, to roost ? If a wild 
 deer, w^hich is one of the shyest and most 
 
 generauy!™^^' timid of auimals, will let you approach him 
 by night, w^ill not every other animal let 
 you approach him ? I judge this to be a 
 very fair question, and I presume that it is 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 115 
 
 founded on reason. I have also every 
 reason to expect that, in hard frost, when 
 the great rivers and lakes are frozen up, 
 and no waters but the small, sharp, run- 
 ning brooks are open, provided you walk 
 by the side, throwing this bright, strong 
 light on the w^iev, that all sorts of wild-fowl 
 will let you come xvithin gun-shot of them. 
 
 The small rivulets, which are not frozen 
 up, are full of wild-fowl by night : they 
 have no other place to feed in. In soft 
 spongy places, where springs are, near to 
 woods, where you know woodcocks feed at , , 
 
 ^ Woodcocks. 
 
 night, what reason have you to imagine 
 that, by means of this bright light, you may 
 not approach them ? The light, to a cer- 
 tainty, will shew them to you ; for, at that 
 time, feeding, they will be walking about. 
 In short, I am firmly of opinion, that, by 
 this method, you may shoot every species 
 of animals by night. Surely, the roebuck, 
 in Scotland, may, by this method, be ap- 
 proached ;— but be sure ever to observe 
 the wind. 
 
116 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 bar?e'irstocks Now, with Tcspect to fowling - pieces, 
 lu^!^^"^^' rifles, muskets, &c. &c. — Several gun-ma- 
 kers in this town have arrived at such per- 
 fection in making fowling-pieces, that it 
 is necessary only to make this one obser- 
 vation on barrels. He who can bore a 
 a barrel nearest to a perfect cylinder, pro- 
 vided the iron be soft, mild, and expansive, 
 will make a perfect barrel, which will 
 shoot strong and w^ell. Respecting the 
 breech-plugs, several of which bear the 
 pfu^J^'Tna of po^^^P^^*^^ name of patent plugs, I believe 
 other Plugs, j^riany of them are very good; but I can 
 assure the reader, that a plug, made in the 
 following simple method, will make a gun 
 shoot as strong as any one of those pom- 
 pous patent plugs, which you are assured 
 will work wonders, but will not do more 
 than the simple plug. I shall here describe 
 it, and this plug any blacksmith can make : 
 take a cherry, the size of the caliber of 
 the barrel, work it round into the breech- 
 pin, until you have formed a cup, about 
 the size of the cup of an oak acorn, rather, 
 if any thing, deeper, say one eighth of an 
 inch deeper ; then bore a hole directly in the 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 117 
 
 centre of it, behind, not deep,, and not bigget 
 than a middle-sized straw. This hole must 
 communicate with the touch-hole, which 
 must be countersunk on the inside. The 
 breech-plilgs, to every gun I have, are thus 
 made, excepting one, and that bears the 
 name of Joseph Mantons patent ; but it is 
 not one whit the better for that t it is a 
 very excellent gun, for certain ; and I am 
 as certain that my old friend Joseph can 
 make as good a gun, as any man existing ; 
 and certain I am, that there are others who 
 can make as good a gun as he : I do not 
 mean to say there are many. 
 
 When I speak respecting the shooting of 
 barrels, I desire it may be distinctly under- 
 stood, that I speak of such as are exactly of 
 the same weight; for if one barrel weighs 
 only tlij^ee pounds and a half] and another 
 four pounds and a half, the latter will carry 
 a larger charge, shoot stronger, and, having 
 more resistance from its superior weight, 
 will not strike the shoulder more than the 
 lighter barrel with a smaller charge. Now 
 gun-makers will do me a very great favour, 
 and I shall be infinitely obliged to them, 
 
 I 
 
118 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 if they wifl not give me a direct, barefaced 
 and impudent assertion ; but give me a 
 positive proof, accompanying their assertion, 
 to the following question, which I shall 
 put to them. I think, for certain, I may 
 be in no fear, when I say I will give my- 
 self up to be crucified, with my head 
 downwards (poor fellow) as St. Peter was, 
 provided they give me a positive proof in 
 solving my question. The question :— An 
 experienced gun-maker shall bore twenty 
 barrels, all of the same weight, length, and 
 caliber, and the iron exactly the same qua- 
 lity, paying equal attention to each barrel ; 
 why shall one barrel, amongst the tioeniy, 
 when they come to be shot at a mark, be 
 found to carry the shot much closer than 
 all the others ? This does not often hap- 
 pen ; indeed, hardly ever. One instance 
 of this I saw in a gun of Joseph Manton's, 
 which gun he sold to Lord Camelford : 
 this gun carried the shot so uncommonly 
 close, to what all others did, that it really 
 astonished me. Now, pray, Messrs. Gun- 
 makers, solve me this question ? I believe 
 this will give you as much trouble as it has 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 119 
 
 given the mathematicians to square the 
 circle. 
 
 Respecting locks. Every year some Respectin| 
 new trick is held out to induce us to be- 
 lieve that they make the guns shoot quicker. 
 A simple, plain lock, well made, with main- 
 spring and hammer-spring, acting with a 
 due and proper resistance to each other, 
 will go off quick enough for my use. I 
 have none of their new tricks and vagaries 
 to my locks, and I find them act quick and 
 well. One gun-maker bores a hole in the 
 lock here, another there, in another part : 
 both assure you that, from this, the gun 
 will be fired quicker, and that it is a won- 
 derful improvement ; for which they charge 
 you from three to five guineas extra. The 
 only wonderful improvement I know, that 
 they possess, is improving the price. 
 
 I can affirm, that as good a double gun 
 can be made in London for about thirty- 
 four or thirty-six guineas, as a sportsman 
 can wish to shoot with : notv/ithstanding 
 this, many gentlemen give fifty to sixty-five 
 guineas for a double gun, v/hich will not 
 shoot better, nor kill one inch further than 
 
 I 2 
 
. 1-20 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 the one which cost only thirty-four guineas, 
 I am equally certain, that several gentle- 
 men give a preference to the one gun Avhich 
 cost sixty-five, because it cost sixty-five 
 guineas, when they absolutely have another 
 which shoots full as well and as strong, 
 which cost them full tAventy-five guineas 
 less money. 
 K^f^^""^^'""' Now to the elevation-ribs, so much in 
 fashion : they undoubtedly elevate the gun, 
 by which you throw the centre of the shot 
 to a greater distance : but if a sportsman 
 will have his gun stocked very straight, 
 when first made, this will have the same 
 effect as the elevation-rib, and he will save 
 three or four guineas expense. 
 S'Jt":ciuith My old friend, Mr. Brand, gave me a 
 *odred7''°^^'^ most excellent double gun, made by Joseph 
 Manton. It was so very crooked stocked, 
 that 1 constantl)?- shot under the birds ; 
 broke their legs often, and feathered them 
 under the belly ; so much so, that I was 
 forced to lay it by.* I took it to Joseph 
 
 * 1 do positively assert, and without fear oF contra- 
 dictioii; tliat 110 man can shoot well with a gun which 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 121 
 
 Manton, and directed him to glue on a very 
 thick piece of leather, at the extremity of 
 the stock, whereon the barrels rested. I 
 also had a wooden check let into the but, 
 to prevent my getting my eye down in a 
 line with the barrels. When it Avas done, 
 looking at it, he said : '' This gun is so 
 m.uch elevated, sir, that you surely, at short 
 distances, must shoot over the birds,'' He 
 did not recollect that, elevated as it was, 
 the lower part of the circle of the shot 
 would take the bird, and, at sliort dista?ices, 
 shoot strong enough to kill. When his 
 elevation-sights first were produced, he was 
 candid enough then to own to me, that my 
 method of stocking my gun had just the 
 same effect as his elevation-sight, (or rib, I 
 believe it is called.) 
 
 is crooked stocked ; he must shoot under the birds. I 
 knew a person once, indeed, who shot extremely weU 
 with a gun stocked so crooked, that I could not shoot 
 with it ; but then he held his head up as directly straight 
 as a soldier under arms on the parade: the very position 
 he held his head in, gave the rnnzzle of the gun aa 
 ekvation. 
 
122 
 
 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 and Rifle 
 Shooting 
 
 I have now finished respecting fowKng- 
 pieces, and will treat concerning rifles, and 
 ofRme-Guns particularly rifle shooting. I never in my 
 life saw better rifles (or men who shot bet- 
 ter) than those made in America : they are 
 chiefly made in Lancaster, and two or 
 three neighbouring towns in that vicinity, 
 in Pensylvania. The barrels weigh about six 
 pounds two or three ounces, and carry a ball 
 no larger than thirty-six to the pound ; at 
 least I never saw one of a larger caliber, 
 and I have seen many hundreds and hun- 
 dreds. I am not going to relate any thing 
 respecting the American war ; but to men- 
 tion one instance, as a proof of most excel- 
 lent skill of an American rifleman. If any 
 man shew me an instance of better shoot- 
 ing, I will stand corrected. 
 
 Colonel, now General Tarleton, and my- 
 self, were standing a kw yards out of a 
 wood, observing the situation of a part of 
 the enemy which we intended to attack. 
 There wa$ a rivulet in the enemy's front, 
 and a mill on it, to which we stood directly 
 with our horses' heads fronting, observing 
 their motioxis. It was an absolute plain 
 
 Of an Ame- 
 rican Rifle- 
 man's shoot- 
 ing:. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 125 
 
 field between us and the mill ; not so much 
 as a single bush on it. Our orderly-bugle 
 stood behind us, about three yards, but with 
 his horse's side to our horses' tails. A rifle- 
 man passed over the mill-dam, evidently 
 observing two officers, and laid himself 
 down on his belly ; for, in such positions, 
 they always lie, to take a good shot at a 
 long distance. He took a deliberate and 
 cool shot at my friend, at me, and the 
 bugle-horn man.* Now, observe how w ell 
 this fellow shot. It was in the month of 
 August, and not a breath of wind was 
 stirring. Colonel Tarleton's hoyse and mine, 
 I am certain, were not anything like two feet 
 apart ; for we were in close consultation, 
 how we should attack with our troops, 
 which laid '300 yards in the wood, and 
 could not be perceived by the enemy. A 
 rifle-ball passed between him and me : 
 looking directly to the mill, I evidently 
 
 * I have passed several times over this ground, and 
 ever observed it with the greatest attention ; and I can 
 positively assert that the distance he fired from, at us^ 
 was full four hundred yards. 
 
134 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 observed the flash of the poAvder. I directly 
 said to my friend, ^^ I think we had better 
 move, or we shall have two or three of 
 these gentlemen, shortly, amusing them- 
 selves at our expence.'* The words were 
 hardly out of my mouth, when the bugle- 
 horn man, behind us, and directly central, 
 jumped off his horse, and said, " Sir, my horse 
 is shot." The horse staggered, fell down, 
 and died. He was shot directly behind the 
 fore-leg, near to the heart, at least where 
 the great blood-vessels lie, which lead to 
 the heart. He took the saddle and bridle 
 off, werit into the wood, and got another 
 horse. We had a number of spare horses, 
 led by negro lads. 
 
 Now, speaking of this rifleman's shooting, 
 nothing could be better ; but, from the 
 climate, he had much in his favour. First, 
 at that time of the year, there was not one 
 breath of wind : secondly, the atmosphere 
 is so much clearer than ours, that he can 
 ^pfwli'er^the^ takc a more perfect aim. I will next tell 
 Riflemen^use you liow thcy judgc what quautity of pow- 
 der is necessary for their rifles, on active 
 service : for shooting deer, &c. in peacabje 
 
 on active ser- 
 vice. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. 125 
 
 times, they ne^er put in more powder than 
 is contained in a woman's thimble. They 
 take the horn of a deer, make several trials 
 with a ball, always on the powder, and 
 when, by each time increasing the quantity 
 of powder, they find the rifle rather throws 
 back, that is to say, has a recoiling 
 motion, they draw off a small quantity of 
 the powder, cut the horn off, and use it for 
 actual service before an enemy. From 
 the weight of the barrels of their rifles being 
 somewhat more, by a few ounces, than si.v 
 pounds, and the balls so small as thirty-six to 
 the pound, they w^ill carry more than Jialf 
 the weight of the ball in pow^der. 
 
 I had a most excellent American rifle, 
 which carried full one half of the weight of 
 the ball of our best powder, without 
 recoiling in the least. I must inform you tll'sftheir^ 
 
 , , 1 • • n 1 • 1 Barrels have, 
 
 also that their ritles are made with one f^dofwhat 
 
 length the 
 
 whole spiral turn in the barrels, which are, ^^'^'^^^^ ^"^^^ 
 as I mentioned before, three feet three 
 inches long. To strengthen and prove my 
 opinion, that it is necessary, on active service, 
 to use a much greater quantity of pow^der 
 
1-26 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 than is used at present, I wili state to you 
 tvhat I have tried some hundreds of times. 
 Practice is every thijig : I detest theory ; it 
 has led hundreds into errors. 
 Howmanv After repeated trials with various rifle 
 
 pounds a Kiile l 
 
 4'i^hland"^'^ barrels of different weight, and different 
 balls to the caliber, / have fixed on one, the barrel of 
 
 pound, for 
 
 active service, -^yhicli weiglis six pouuds four or five ounces, 
 and it carries thirty balls to the pound. This 
 I have repeatedly fired, at long distances, 
 with one lialf of the weight of the ball in poiv- 
 der, and it recoils not in the least; the 
 length of it is two feet seven inches, and 
 the txvist ^)o\it \hvQQ quarters of a turn. I 
 would rather * it were three feet three 
 inches long, and that the barrel weighed a 
 very few ounces more than six pounds, — 
 three or four ounces is enough, — and that it 
 carried thirty balls to the pound ; as the 
 one I already have spoken of does ; and 
 the very fh'st time I can afford it, I will 
 
 *. My reason for wishing it were three feet three 
 inches long, is, that the greater the distance is between 
 the sights, the more accurate your aim will be. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 127 
 
 have such an one made, and the twist of 
 the rifle shall be exactly one whole turn. 
 
 Now, gentlemen rifle-shooters, I will ^tmctfvf me- 
 
 . I 7 77 7 7 • thod of loading- 
 
 teach you a most aeadly ana destructive me- iiifle-guns,m* 
 
 ^ ^ ^ service. 
 
 thod of using the rifle, in face of an enemy. 
 It is my own idea; at least, I never heard 
 that any one has ever practised it, and I 
 have know^n it and practised it several 
 years ago. A rifleman on service should 
 have a small leathern bag fixed to his belt, 
 with about thirty balls, tied up in greased 
 patches. When he comes within one hun- 
 dred and fifty yards of an enemy, in bat- 
 talion, which at times they may approach 
 so near to the foe, when posted in a wood, 
 and flanked, both on their right and left, 
 by strong battalions; then they should load 
 two balls more on the one already in the 
 rifle : but then the rifle-guns must be made 
 as heavy in the barrel as my gun above spoken 
 of; for the present guns are so much lighter^ 
 that, provided you put sufficient powder to 
 carry three balls to a certain distance, to do 
 execution, what, with the increase of pow- 
 der, and the resistance of the three balls, 
 it w ould nearly knock a man down. 
 
12S COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 I wish that some of you gentlemen rifle- 
 men, who can well afford it, would have a 
 few rifles made according as I h^ve di- 
 rected ; and then fasten up a coarse piece 
 of canvas, six feet high and twelve j^ards 
 long. Place then twelve of your best shots 
 facing the canvas, at one hundred and fifty 
 yards, firing three balls every shot ; then in- 
 spect the cloth, and judge by it, provided 
 j^ou had been placed against a solid batta- 
 lion of the enemy, what havock you must 
 have made amongst them. 
 %\Tiatdestruc- J j^y\\\ relate to you a real fact, which 
 
 tion Riflemen *' 
 
 aren'emy's" took placc in thc scvcu years* war, the very 
 beginning of it, near to Minden ; that Min- 
 den which lies between Gottingen and 
 Hesse Cassel, not the Minden where the 
 celebrated battle was gained by the allies, 
 under Duke Ferdinand: General Oberg 
 commanded the Germans; I forget the 
 name of the French general. 
 
 General Oberg's position was taken just 
 after ascending the hill from Minden, on 
 the road to Hesse Cassel. The Hessian and 
 Hanoverian jagers were placed in a very 
 thick wood, full of large timber trees, in the 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 129 
 
 centre of the right wing. The French 
 were obhged to form one regiment, in their 
 line, directly facing this wood, where the 
 jagers were stationed. The jagers made 
 such havoc amongst this French regiment, 
 that the colours were at last forced to be 
 held by Serjeants, and even by corporals. 
 There were but very few of their officers 
 who were not killed or wounded. The ja- 
 gers were not above two hundred yards 
 from them, and w ere flanked, both on their 
 right and left, by strong battalions of the 
 line. The French were at last compelled 
 to bring up six pieces of cannon, loaded with 
 grape, to clear the wood of the jagers. I 
 had a man in my company, in the Hessian 
 jagers, in America, w4io was the son of a 
 jager, supposed to be one of the very best 
 shots amongst those engaged at Mioden. 
 His comrades had such an opinion of his 
 shooting, that six or seven men handed their 
 rifles to him, as he stood behind a large 
 tree, continually keeping them loaded for 
 him to fire, so that he could fire several 
 shots in one minute. When the cannon 
 were brought up, his comrades desired him 
 to come awav; but he said he would stay, 
 
130 COLONEL HANCER TO 
 
 and have one shot more: a grape-shot 
 struck him, and killed him. 
 
 The French were so incensed that day, 
 against the jagers, that a few of them 
 which they took, wounded, in the retreat, 
 for the German forces were beaten, they 
 buried up to theh* chins in the ground, and 
 left them to die. 
 
 In the French armies, in those days, the 
 bugle-horn was called " la rmisique funeste \' 
 for they, in those days, had no riflemen in 
 their armies ; but they have had plenty, of 
 latter days. They have now a great num- 
 ber of tirailleurs, but not many riflemen, for 
 jagers are very scarce to be got; and to 
 make a common soldier an expert rifleman, 
 it requires much time. 
 
 Having related how severely this French 
 regiment suffered, opposed to the German 
 jagers, 1 am of opinion, that if every jager 
 there had had a rifle, the barrel of which 
 weighed somewhat above six pounds, and 
 carried not above thirty bails to the pound, 
 that, at the distance they were from them, 
 they would have done double execution, by 
 firing three balls every shot. But say only 
 that they had put in ttoo balls; two balls, at 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMEKS, SCC. 131 
 
 two hundred yards, will act with tolerable 
 precision. Make a trial of it. 
 
 I shall now pass over rifle-shooting ; but B^^if'^aiSd* 
 not without some remarks on a most ifige- If^^'conltdSl 
 7iious hook, lately published, entitled Scloppe- Nature and 
 tar la; or. Consider atioJis on the Nature and ^"°^- 
 Use of Rijlcd'barrel Guns : by a Corporal 
 of Riflemen, The perusal of this book has 
 given me much pleasure, and great satis- 
 faction, where the author states practical 
 facts ; for it proves to me to what perfec- 
 tion the art of making rifled guns is arrived, 
 and w ith what unerring skill a skilful marks- 
 man shoots. I meun by this to refer to 
 the copper-plates ; first, at page 86, where 
 there is very good shooting proved; but 
 when I advance to page 119, I am asto- 
 nished at the excellence of the workman 
 who made the gun, and at the superior 
 skill of the rifleman. In the lower target, 
 page 119, I fmd, at the distance of two 
 hundred and fifty yards, that eight shots in 
 twelve are concentrated in the small space 
 often inches; to which I beg leave to add 
 two more, for they absolutely touch the 
 edsfe of the ten-inch circle. This is shoot- 
 
132 COLONEL HANGER TO. ^ 
 
 ing with such a degree of precision as I 
 never saw, and I believe will be found very 
 difficult to exceed. 
 
 It is not my intention to examine this 
 ingenious book, page by page, which does 
 the author so much credit; for there are 
 many passages in it which plainly evince 
 great ability, learning, and study : but, when 
 he boldly, theoretically, and theoreticallt/ only, 
 without giving any practial proof, overturns 
 (as he imagines) at once the principle and 
 means by which a rifle has so great a supe- 
 riority over a smooth, bored gun ; namely, 
 from vv^hat principle a ball, fired from a rifle- 
 gun, receives a rotatory or whirling motion, 
 round its own axis; and gives us an asser- 
 tion of his own, theoretically founded, and not 
 practically ; it becomes me, as a duty, to give 
 a practical proof, to confute his theoretical asse?^- 
 tion, I will quote the author*s own words, 
 page 63. '' Thus, then, it will seem cer- 
 tain, that so long as the ball has any pro- 
 gressive motion at all, it cannot fail to com- 
 press the air before it, and the air so com- 
 pressed tviU act constantly as a power, to turn 
 the ball round and round. Wc think, there- 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 133 
 
 fore, we may safely say, that so long as the 
 ball has progressive, it cannot fail to have 
 lateral motion also ; and that the latter will 
 ever be dependent on the former, because 
 the ratios are of necessity equal. We then 
 consider the spiral grooves of the barrel as of no 
 further utility, xvith rrspect to the generating of 
 the rotatory 7notion, than as an easy and expe- 
 ditious way of giving the ball the requisite inden- 
 tationSf in order that the impulse of the powder, 
 and the re-action of the elastic medium, air, 
 Tnay together produce and continue, through 
 the means of those grooves, the zvhirling motion." 
 Now let us see whether the author's 
 theoretical proposition^ will stand the test of a 
 practical proof This any gentleman m^ay ^^p^^^^^^^^ 
 be convinced of, by trying the following 
 experiment with his rifle : load the rifle, as 
 customary, with powder first; then put a 
 ball on the mouth of the rifle with a greased 
 patch, so that the ball may go down tole- 
 rably tight, and fit well in the grooves, as a 
 ball should do in a rifle~gun. Do not push 
 the ball in above one inch ; and, instead of 
 holding the gun fast, either with one hand 
 and ramming down the ball with the other, 
 
 K 
 
134 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 or holding your rifle fast between your leg^ 
 and thighs, place the wpper part of the heel- 
 plate on the butt, on a polished, smooth 
 board, quite at the extremity of the butt, 
 where it is somewh'ftt round ; then raise the 
 lower part of the butt about half an inch 
 from the board; then place both your hands 
 to the ramrod, ram the ball down, and, as 
 your gun is rifled either a quarter-turn, half 
 a turn, three-quarters turn, or a whole turn, 
 you will observe your gun turn round on 
 the upper end of the butt, placed on the 
 smooth board. If this is n6t received as a 
 convincing practical proof, that the ball, 
 w^hen it is shot out, does receive a rotatory, 
 or whirling motion, round its own axis, by 
 means of the spiral grooves in the rifle, I 
 shall be greatly surprised ; for it appears to 
 me as evident, as that the sun shines at 
 noon-day. Yet the author of the Scloppe- 
 taria asserts, that the spiral grooves of the bar- 
 rel are of no utility y tcitli respect to generating 
 the rotatory motion of the ball. Now, pro- 
 vided the ingenious author (for he certainly 
 shews much ingenuity in his theoretical ar- 
 guments) w\\\ have a ball cast, and such a 
 
SPORTSMEN, yABMERS, &C. 135 
 
 bullet-mold can be made, so that six or 
 seven excrescences, or ribs, project from 
 the sides of the ball ; then put this ball, 
 with a greasy patch, into a smooth-bored 
 gun, of a perfect caliber; the author will 
 be entitled to shoot as true, with this smooth- 
 bored gun, as he can with a rifle-gun, pro- 
 vided, as the author asserts, that the ball 
 takes a spiral rotatory motion round its 
 axis, by the action of the air on the excrescences 
 of the ball, and not from the grooves in the 
 rijle. 
 
 One observation more. It is respecting 
 balls cast for rifle-guns. The author says, 
 you should always put that part of the ball, 
 where is the neck, which is formed by the 
 mold and cut off, uppermost, I widely dif- 
 fer with him: the reverse, or smoothest 
 part of the ball, should be placed upper- 
 most ; for, when no inequality in the ball is 
 opposed to the air, in the flight of the ball 
 through the air, the ball is less liable to de- 
 viate from its direction. 
 
 I shall now have done with rifle-shooting, 
 and with any further observations on this 
 gentleman's work; candidly acknowledg- 
 
 K 2 
 
 How to place 
 the Ball, 
 
1S6 COLONEL HANGER TO' 
 
 ing, that it is a most ingenious production : 
 at the same time declaring that, in those 
 parts where he works up your expectation, 
 expecting that you \viil be acquainted with 
 some very great improvement, his whole 
 propositions and assertions are founded on 
 nothing but theoretical argumerits, 
 ^InchS'^^' There are gun-makers in London, who 
 makers. tell you, that they have a rifle-bench^ in 
 which they rifle their guns, w hich has cost 
 them above two hundred pounds. More 
 fools they ! for I will procure them as many 
 as they choose to have, from Germany, for 
 a few pounds. This wonderful machine 
 they will, on no consideration, shew^ yc>u. I 
 cannot help laughing in their faces, after 
 having seen so many guns rifled in Ger- 
 many : and I wdll tell tliem something 
 more. Several years ago, when I was last in 
 Germany (I imagine every thing must 
 now be much dearer) I could purchase a 
 capital, good rifle for three guineas; and 
 have reason to think, that, at this time, they 
 would not charge above five guineas : and 
 this rifle shall shoot, in every respect, both 
 at long and short distances, as well as one 
 
SPOHTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. ISl 
 
 which these most ingenious artists, with 
 their ivonder-worldng, two-hundred-guinea 
 rifle-bench, will charge you thirty guineas for, 
 I will also assure them, that, a few years 
 ago, I had a shot-gun, w^hich was made for 
 a German jager, v/ hich cost only three guineas ; 
 and I never, in my life, shot out of a better 
 gun. To be sure, I must allow that the 
 lock w^as very indifferent, and the stock not 
 elegantly finished; but the lock never, 
 missed fire, and the barrel shot very well 
 indeed ; and, what is more strange, the bar- 
 rel was what is vulgarly called strait 
 rifled, which requires additional labour and 
 workmanship. 
 
 I have already observed, what folly it is Foiiy to g:ive 
 
 ^ ^ ^ suchhigh 
 
 to give from fifty to sixty-five guineas for ^l^^l ^°^j^^^ 
 
 a gun, when Baker of Whitechapel, and b^gtven'!"^'^ 
 
 Fisher, of Greek Street, Soho, will make 
 
 you as good a double gun as can be shot 
 
 out of, for about thirty-six guineas. It is 
 
 no more than due justice to relate a truth : 
 
 Fisher, of Greek Street, a very few years 
 
 ago, put a single barrel into an old German 
 
 stock, with a German lock already to it. 
 
 The barrel weighs three or four ounces 
 
1S8 fcoLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 above four pounds. He only charged me 
 six guineas for the barrel. I lent it about 
 three seasons past to a man, who, I think, 
 was one of the best shots which ever took 
 a gun to his shoulder. I seldom have 
 shot with this gun myself, for I ever shoot 
 with a double gun. He killed several 
 gaiar Jong birds at wonderfully lona^ distances ; but he 
 
 phot at a Hare. '^ ^ _ ^ 
 
 made one of the most surprising long shots 
 at a hare that ever I saw, I am certain I 
 could not be mistaken in the distance, for 
 the hare was running along a foot-path 
 close to the hedge, in which path I was 
 walking at a distance behind ; and, less than 
 one yard after he shot at her, she turned 
 into a gap in the hedge : she did not run 
 much above a hundred yards before the 
 dogs caught her. I went up to the spot 
 where he shot at her, and measured it, to 
 the place where he stood, and he measured 
 it from the spot he had fired from, and we 
 made it about tivo yards above fourscore. 
 Now this hare was not strufck with one 
 chance shot in the brain or heart, but she 
 had three or four shot in the fore-part of 
 her body, just behind the fore-leg. It 
 
SPORTSMEN, TARMERS, &C. 139 
 
 must be remarked that he shot with very 
 large shot. No. 2, patent. I always shoot 
 with No. 2, from the first day to the last of 
 the season. 
 
 Before I have quite done with guns, I 
 do most earnestly intreat such persons, into 
 whose hands, perchance, this production on 
 guns may fall, — if they have any influence 
 with the persons in public employ, — to 
 use their utmost influence with them, posi- 
 tively to command that no rifle, in future, 
 shall be made for our troops, the barrel of 
 which does not weigh full six younds, and 
 no ball larger than thirty to the pound. I 
 will suffer death if I deceive them. I 
 will explain further: the barrels of the Jl^^^^^^f^'g^^f 
 rifle-guns,, used by our regiments on ser- RiL^s'^^orser- 
 
 . ^ 1 r 11 vice, and what 
 
 Vice, weigh only tour pounds, and carry ^^^Y^^^wkh^ 
 a ball twenty to the pound. If you put half S^the'ku!*^ 
 the weight of the ball in powder, which 
 weighs twenty in the pound, into a barrel 
 weighing only four pounds, it will very 
 near knock the man down who fires the 
 rifle. And to make a rifle which carries 
 twenty balls to the pound, — to give the 
 barrel an additional weight, so as to give it 
 
140 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 a proper resistance when it is fired with 
 half the weight of the ball in powder, so 
 that it may not, in the slightest degree, 
 affect the shoulder of the man who fires it ; 
 that gun will be too heavy for a man to 
 carry on a long day's march. My rifle-gun 
 barrel, above six pounds, ball thirty to the pound, 
 complete for a ynan to carry on service, tveighs 
 only ten pounds Jive ounces. This is nothing 
 like so heavy as a soldier's musket. 
 
 It may be said that, for service, a ball 
 weighing twenty to the pound, is better 
 than one of thirty to the pound. It may 
 be so : I will not argue that point. But 
 this I presume to say; whether you be 
 wounded by a rifle shot, either two, three, 
 four, or five hundred yards distant, the ball 
 weighing twenty, or thirty, to the pound, 
 it is immaterial ; either of them will kill 
 you, or send you to the hospital, and that 
 is sufficient ; for you are either totally put 
 hors de combat, or for a time only.* 
 
 * It is but due justice to Mr. Baker, gun-maker, 
 Whitechapel, who made the rifles for the 95th regi- 
 ment, to state thrtt he worked to order, being directed 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 141 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I speak to you who 
 belong to the different rifle corps in this 
 metropolis. You will, I believe, acknow- otPowderuGw 
 
 * ^ used, 
 
 ledge, that some of you load your rifles 
 with one fourth of the weight of the ball in 
 
 to make those rifles to carry balls which weighed tzoenty 
 to the pound. It was his wish lo make the barrels 
 heavier ; but, had he made the barrels proportionably 
 heavy to the size of the ball of twenty to the pound, 
 the gun would have been too heav}^ for the man to 
 carry : for, to load that gun, carrying twenty balls to 
 the pound, with half the weight of the ball in powder, 
 the barrel should weigh nine pounds at least, if not nine 
 pounds and a half, so that, when fired, it should not 
 affect the man's shoulder. The gun then would have 
 weighed, together, about fourteen pounds, — an immense 
 heavy weight ; — whereas the barrel of my gun, weighing 
 six pounds three ounces, and the whole gun, complete 
 for service, weighs only ten pounds five ounces, carries 
 a ball of thirty to the pound, and half the weight of 
 that ball in powder, and goes off without any recoil 
 whatever. Now the barrel of the gun used by the 95 th 
 regiment, weighs only four pounds, and carries a ball 
 twenty to the pound, and not more than 07ie third of 
 the weight of that ball in powder, (I doubt, if so much. ) 
 The difficulty of making a common soldier judge at 
 what distance an enemy is, on service, is amply ex- 
 plained in the treatise entitled a plan, published at the 
 end of this book, to which the reader is particularly/ 
 referred. 
 
142 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 powder, and some with one third of the 
 weight; seldom, if I be not erroneously- 
 informed, do you load wdth more powder 
 than one third. Now, gentlemen, I will 
 ask 3^ou a plain, candid, and simple ques- 
 tion, not founded on theory, but on practice ; 
 for theory I abhor ; it has led thousands into 
 ofthe force of error *. — Will not my hfle, loaded with one 
 
 Powder ou a 
 
 Kifle Ball. \,^^\f j-}-^^ wcight of the ball in powder, throw 
 a ball to a much greater distance, before 
 the force ofthe powder shall begin to lose, 
 in the smallest degree, its impulse on the 
 ball, than your rifle will, loaded with only- 
 one third of the weight of the ball in pow- 
 der? — I trust this point will not be disputed. 
 Now it will be said that the largest ball, 
 of twenty to the pound, being one third 
 heavier and considerably larger, will, by 
 its superior weight and size, operate more- 
 forcibly on the air, in its passage through 
 it, (so Robins tells us,) — pardon me, gen- 
 tlemen, if I do not speak technical!)^, — than 
 a smaller ball will. To which I reply, that 
 w^hat the smaller ball loses by its want of 
 weight, is most astonishingly compensated 
 for, by the triple velocity given to it, from 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 14S 
 
 the great increase of the powder. Now we 
 will suppose, gentlemen, that your rifle 
 barrel shall weigh only four pounds, and 
 shall carry a ball twenty to the pound : 
 put you half the weight of the ball in 
 powder, in your rifle, and your rifle, when 
 fired, shall knock you backwards, — where- 
 as, w^hen my rifle is loaded with half the 
 weight of the ball in powder, and fired^ my 
 rifle shall go off, as all rifles should, plea- 
 santly and without the smallest recoil. — 
 Gentlemen, I can assure you, on my word, ^can^RiSt 
 that the American riflemen have but one Riflemen.'' 
 siglu behind to their guns : I mean, by this, 
 that they have no rising-sight, by which to 
 give their guns a greater degree of eleva- 
 tion ; and that one sight is not above two 
 sixteenths of an inch in height above the 
 barrel. I do believe, that, if he shot at a 
 man standing still, at four hundred yards^ 
 by only aiming at the man's head, that he 
 would drop the ball into his breast, not lower^ 
 or go so near to him as to alarm him devil- 
 ishly. — Pray, what does this precision in 
 shooting at so great a distance, without 
 using a more elevated sight, proceed from ? 
 
144 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 Why, undoubtedly from the great force of 
 powder, operating on the ball, to a very 
 considerably greater distance before it loses 
 its operative force on the ball, than guns 
 loaded with much less powder will operate. 
 
 SafKrflema'i> I havc oftcu Rskcd American riflemen, 
 what was the most they thought they could 
 do with their rifle ? They have replied, 
 that they thought they were generally sure 
 of splitting a man's head at two hundred 
 yards, for so they termed their hitting the 
 head. I have also asked several whether 
 they could hit a man at four hundred 
 yards, — they have replied certainly, or 
 ishoot very near him, by only aiming at 
 the top of his head, — Remember, gentle- 
 men, they have but one sight, and I have 
 told you the height of that sight from the 
 
 The necessity barrel. Now, o^eiitlemen, does not this 
 
 of increasing- <-' 
 
 TheRifll^bar- prove to you how absolutely necessary it is 
 for you to increase the weight of j^our 
 rifled barrels, so that you may very consi- 
 derably increase the powder, for long dis- 
 tances : for what is rifle shooting, at short 
 distances ? Nothing, llijle shooting begins 
 to excel at the distance where tH musket 
 
 eel 
 
SPOHTSMEN, FATtlMERS, &C. 145 
 
 leaves off, and shoots with no certainty what- 
 ever. I would not give one farthing for a 
 rifle, which would not throw a ball, to a 
 certainty, into the space of about three or 
 four file of men, at four hundred yards, 
 provided the wind was not strong ; and then 
 riflemen know how to regulate their aim. 
 
 I have told you the proportionate weight 
 of the barrel and the ball : I assure you, 
 you w^ill find it just as I have stated ; and 
 I have the greatest expectation that some 
 of you will adopt the principle. I would 
 not lead you into error and expense, by 
 theoretical ideas : w hat I have stated, / have 
 tried, hundreds and hundreds of times, I al- 
 wavs try my rifle-guns directly down the How to \rv 
 
 . " * " Rifle-Guns. 
 
 Wind : bat this cannot be done near Lon- 
 don ; it must be done on the sea-coast, on 
 the sands : there you have scope, and an 
 advantage on the sands, I mean when the 
 tide is going out, w^here the sands are wet. 
 At whatever distances you fire, if you will 
 fix the low er side of your target on the moist 
 sands, you must see whether you shoot on one 
 side or not ; and, at long distances, whe- 
 ther your ball falls short of the target, and 
 
145 COLONEL HANQRB TO 
 
 how far short ; for the ball must make a 
 very visible mark on the moist sands. I al- 
 ways lay two thick horse-cloths down, and lie 
 down on my belly on them to shoot, placing 
 a log of wood before me to lay my gun 
 over. This method is a great assistance to 
 you, for you evidently must see the direc- 
 tions the balls have taken, which have 
 missed the target : on any other ground 
 you cannot have this accurate advantage : 
 lying flat down is also the surest position 
 vou can fire from. 
 Of strait I should bc extremclv happy if it were 
 
 Gunpowder, *^ i i J 
 
 Ihots!^ ^*^ in my power to instruct the Bunhill-Row 
 and Spital-Fields Cockney-sportsmen, and 
 other bad shots, how to improve in their 
 shooting ; but, after much reflection and 
 study, I find it totally out of my power. 
 However, I am labouring for their advan- 
 tage, and with no small doubt of making 
 my fortune also, should I succeed : it is by 
 the invention of strait powder. But, 
 hitherto, I have failed of finding an effec- 
 tual composition to mix with gunpowder, 
 to make it shoot strait; and have been 
 equally as unsuccessful as the chemists have 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 147 
 
 been in their endeavours, to find out the 
 philosopher s stone, who hav^e wanted no- 
 thing to complete their long-wished-for ob- 
 ject but a perfect powder of projection. 
 However, Uke them, I do not despair ; but 
 shall labour on with assiduity, to find out 
 some composition, for the benefit of all bad 
 shots, which will make powder sJioot strait. 
 
 The breed of doofs which I prefer, be- of the best 
 
 ^ . ^ breed of Dogs 
 
 yond all others, are those which are bred Glme^"^^'"^ 
 between a setter and a pointer; but not 
 bred from those setters which have no na- 
 tural point in them ; for I have no idea of 
 shooting to a dog which does not stop at 
 birds the very first day he is taken into the 
 field. I have not had a setter, which was 
 broke by force, for above twenty years ; nor 
 ever will have one. Leave them at home 
 only one week ; for the next two days you 
 must turn to dog-breaking, and not to 
 shooting. I prefer those between a poin- 
 ter and a setter, which take after the setter ; 
 for, generally speaking, they have better 
 
148 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 feet, which is a great point in a dog : for 
 certain, they have more hair on their feet, 
 which is a great preservative to the foot, if 
 it be kept clean. I never kept a cocking 
 spaniel in my life : I always shoot to poin- 
 ters, even in the strongest covers, with bells 
 round their necks. I know, for certain, you 
 will not find so much game ; but then what 
 you find, you are sure to shoot at. Here is 
 the great benefit of shooting to pointers : 
 you may shoot every day, in a wood, and 
 not drive the rame away. But if you turn 
 
 Questing Spa- o J J 
 
 cocking spaniels into a wood, \^hich quest, 
 when they come on the foot of a pheasant, 
 in a very few days you will drive every 
 The utility of pheasaiit out of the wood. A Newfound- 
 
 a Newfound- 
 land Dog. lajid dog^ tutored to keep behind you in the 
 
 fields, and not to go above a dozen or 
 twenty yards from you in a wood, is of 
 wonderful utility, in retrieving and bring- 
 ing wounded game. I have had several 
 that were uncommonly useful. 
 
 iiiefs drive all 
 the Game 
 away. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 149 
 
 I hope it will be satisfactory to you to fj^^Xfe-' 
 
 1 ' n ^ 1 , n arms m per- 
 
 be intormed, how to preserve your iire-arms feet order, for 
 
 two or three 
 
 ybr two or tJiree years loaded, and that they years. 
 shall go off more lively, and with less dan- 
 ger of hanging fire, than when fresh loaded. 
 The method is very simple ; of course, so 
 much the better. About once every month, 
 or five weeks, lay your pistols — and, parti- 
 cularly, ever on the morning before you 
 travel — on the brass stand, on which toast 
 and muffins are placed before the fire, with 
 the butts and locks towards the fire, until 
 they are quite Jiot through ; so hot, that you 
 cannot hold your finger on the butt of the 
 barrels and pans; then prick the touch-hole 
 well, quite into the body of the powder. 
 Thus the powder will be dried as perfectly 
 as when it first was taken warm out of the 
 drying- room, at the powder-mills; and will 
 go off more sure, than powder which has 
 lain in your horn for some time. 
 
 There is no better defence for a house, 
 than a double-gun, nor against robbers on 
 the road; but be sure never to load it with 
 a ball, but with Nos. 2 or 3, patent shot. If 
 
 L 
 
^0 
 
 COLONEL HA^'GER TO 
 
 Never load a 
 Gun, for the 
 defence of 
 your house, 
 with Ball. 
 
 a thief be forcing even your bed-room door^ 
 shot will shoot through any common bed- 
 room door, which is not made of three-inch 
 oak, or mahogany. If you hear them in 
 the house, throw up the Avindow, and cry 
 out, Fire ! every body then will come to 
 your assistance; but if you cry out. Thieves ! 
 the devil of one will move, and, for certain, 
 no watchman. 
 
 I am told, by the officers in Bow- street, 
 that the very first thing a thief does, when 
 he breaks into a house, is to open both the 
 front and back doors, so that, in case he be 
 chsturbed, he may have a fair start. If you 
 see him, from your window, brushing out, 
 and your gun be loaded with a ball, j^ou 
 most likely will miss him when you fire ; 
 but, with shot, you are sure to stick as 
 many into him, as v/ill employ a surgeon, 
 for two. hours, to pick them out of his body. 
 I always keep a duck-gun, loaded wdth two 
 ounces and a half of No. 2, patent shot, by 
 my bedside : this will pepper any one, even 
 at one hundred yards distance. 
 
 A gun may be kept in perfect order, by 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. 151 
 
 heating the barrels quite through, the same 
 as I have directed for pistols*. Be sure 
 your fire-arms are perfectly clean, when 
 you load them ; for I have known arms to 
 come home with much filth in the touch- 
 holes, after having been cleaned at the 
 gun-makers ; so much so, as to dirty three 
 or four feathers passed into them. 
 
 After the various remedies I have given> 
 for the cure of disorders in the brute crea- 
 tion, when I possess a receipt how to com- 
 pose a most valuable tonic tincture, so bene- J^'^^'^ Tincturt 
 
 A ' for weak, deli- 
 
 ficial to the health and comfort of the most ^-t^wome«. 
 lovely part of the creation, I should be 
 justly condemned, in my neglect of the 
 fair sex, were I not to make it known to 
 them. To all delicate women, subject to 
 fainting-fits, hysterics, lowness of spirits, 
 and all nervous disorders whatever, the fol- 
 
 * At this moment of time, I have a large musket, 
 loaded with No. 2, standing by my bedside, which ha» 
 been loaded considerably abote two i/ears, 
 
 l2 
 
X52 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 lowing tonic tincture, taken as prescribed, 
 will be found a most valuable and effica- 
 cious remedy; and a great comforter to 
 all women far advanced in the decline of 
 life :— 
 
 BE COCHLICUS JUNIPERI, 
 Fiat thictura ance. quantum suff. 
 Libram ter die surnat, 
 Pmts and pounds are the same in che- 
 mistry. The bottle to be put by the bed- 
 side, at night, and to be taken whenever 
 the cough is troublesome. 
 
 You need not send to the apothecary's 
 for this valuable tonic tincture : the doctor 
 at the BOOZING ken can supply j^ou with it 
 more genuine. There is still a better me- 
 dicine, made of the same ingredients, for 
 those who can afford it ; for it is conside- 
 rably dearer : — 
 
 DE COCHLICUS JUNIPERI, 
 
 Fiat tinctura Collegii Londincjisis, 
 
 Appellatus Sen EX Thomas. 
 
 This medicine, being infinitely more 
 
 powerful than the foregoing prescription* 
 
 only half the quantity, as above prescribed,. 
 
 must be taken. To save ladies the trouble 
 
SPOHTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 15S 
 
 of applying, either to their man-midwife, 
 or their bodi/ parso?2, or priest, to interpret 
 the above Latin prescription, as it stands 
 sanctioned by the London College of Physi- 
 cians, in the Pharmacopia Collegii Londi- 
 jzaisis — 
 
 Send to the slum cove at the boozing-ken, 
 to give you a sufficient quantity of OLD 
 TOM. I have frequently witnessed its sur- 
 prising effects on women of all ages, from 
 fifteen to fourscore, and upwards : it should 
 always be taken instead of tea, both morn- 
 ing and evening ; for tea, to delicate, hys- 
 terical, and nervous women, is hurtful. 
 Those who are unacquainted with the won- 
 derful, salubrious effect of this tonic medi- 
 cine, when they have once tried it, will 
 ever after bless and praise my kindness, 
 for having imparted this valuable recipe to 
 them. 
 
 Oentlemen sportsmen ! I have led you 
 into the field, and now I will regale you in 
 it: let some one come to you, at a particu- 
 
154 Colonel hanger to 
 
 lar appointed place, about two o'clock at 
 noon, with a few bottles of mild ale, bread, 
 and sufficient of the following meat, for 
 yourself and friend. It is thus prepared: 
 A Field Regale j'ake d fiut Touiid of bccf, four ounces of salt- 
 
 for Sportsmen. •-' j j ^ j j 
 
 petre, three-quarters of an ounce of all-spice ; 
 rub it well on the beef, and let it stand tiventy- 
 four hours; the?! rub in as much common salt 
 as will salt it. Lay it by twelve days, turnmg 
 it every day; then put it into a pan, such as 
 large pies are baked in, with three or four 
 pounds of beef-suet, some under, some over. 
 Cover it with a thick crust, and bake it for six 
 hours. It will keep for two months, — It is 
 called sportsmen's beef; and most excel- 
 lent it is. 
 
 I shall now make you acquainted with 
 a few receipts, useful for every family to be 
 ' acquainted with; and begin with one which 
 J"/jhJs^^^^^J^ I never knew fail: I have given it to 
 many : it is a remedy for the scurvy. 1 will 
 inform j^ou how I first was acquainted with 
 its efficacy: About eighteen years ago I 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 155 
 
 was going to dine with an old acquaintance, 
 a hearty and hospitable Norfolk farmer, 
 with another farmer in company, who was 
 shooting with me. The farmer complained 
 that he was much troubled with the scurv}^ 
 The old farmer said, *'I will cure you to a 
 certainty,'' and thus proceeded. 
 
 " A few years ago, I was so terribly 
 afflicted with scurvy, that my whole body 
 nearly was one eruption. I had tried the 
 Lynn, Norwich, and Bury physicians, and 
 had even gone to London for advice, but 
 they none of them could cure me. Sitting 
 at my door, an old gipsey woman, hearing 
 me complain, told me she would cure me ; 
 for that she had cured hundreds. I told 
 her, I would try her medicine, if she would 
 tell me of what it was made, and that I 
 would feed her, and give her a warm birth 
 and clean straw in my stable, and five gui- 
 neas, provided she performed a cure. The 
 bargain was made, I took her medicine, 
 and in about three weeks every scale I had 
 on my body fell off. I was perfectly 
 cured, and never have had it again to any 
 extent ; for, when I see the smallest erup- 
 
156 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 tion on my skin, I take the medicine, for 
 five or six days." — It is thus composed : 
 Take two parts of flower of brim- 
 stone, AND ONE PART CREAM OF TARTAR ; 
 MIX THEM WELL TOGETHER : TAKE FOUR 
 LARGE TEA-SPOONS-FULL, IN MILK, EVERY 
 
 MORNING, the first thing you do, when you 
 get up, before your breakfast: — milk is only 
 the vehicle to take it in ; you may take it 
 in any thing else. The farmer with me 
 took it ; he had scales on his arms^ breast, 
 and thighs ; he was cured in three weeks, 
 In the course of eighteen years, I have 
 given it to many, and never knew it fail. 
 It is not above three months ago, when, 
 sitting in a public-house, a gentleman came 
 in, and said, *' Colonel Hanger, I am infi- 
 nitely obliged to you, fpr having cured me 
 completely of the scurvy." 
 
 warmMiik A ladv of uw acQuaiutance was so ex-- 
 
 from the Cow, c/ j i 
 
 consei -e of trcmelv unwcll, that I was of opinion she 
 
 Roses, ^r. Rum 
 
 fy''nu?4'iout ^^'^ gc>ing into a decline. She took the 
 
 & an excellent /»n • /» . , -. -, iii 
 
 thing to beta- loiloT* lup^ tor SIX wccks, and her health was 
 
 ken by anyone ^ 
 
 Sriniot perfectly re-established : — Half a pint of 
 
 '^"'^'"''' MILK, WARM FROM THE COW, MADE LUS- 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. 157 
 
 CIOUSLY SWEET, WITH OLD CONSERVE OF 
 ROSES, AND TWO TABLE-SPOONS-FULL OF THE 
 
 VERY BEST RUM. Take it the first thing in 
 the morning. There are many old persons 
 whose appetites are quite gone, who, to my 
 knowledge, are kept alive for a time, by 
 drinking half a pint of milk, with a small 
 quantity of rum in it, three or four times 
 a day ; but not with any conserve of roses. 
 Remember that old persons, who wish to 
 try this, must first boil the milk, and let it 
 get tolerably cool; for all milk, when it 
 has once got cold, if not boiled, will 
 purge. 
 
 The following gargle for sore throats, I dficST^ 
 have seen often tried with surprising effect : sore'^Throat. 
 Take a large handful of red sage, (not 
 the common garden sage,) boil it in one 
 
 QUART OF the BEST WHITE-WINE VINEGAR, 
 TO NEAR A PINT, THEN SWEETEN IT WELL 
 
 WITH HONEY. You maj^, if you please, add 
 two small wine-glasses of port wine. A 
 person of my acquaintance, had a fever and 
 most violent sore throat, so bad that he 
 could scarcely swallow spoon-meat : the 
 
158 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 apothecary had prescribed a gargle for four 
 days, which had done no good : — he used 
 the above, and in twelve hours, was cured, 
 I have tried this often, 
 
 pS'o'f™sa^fnJ I will instruct you how to make one 
 ejght-pence. pint of salinc draughts, for about six or eight 
 pence, which quantity, from the apothe- 
 cary*&, will cost nine shillings ; six draughts, 
 at eighteen-pence each. — Take two scru- 
 ples OF SALT OF WORMW GOD, PUT THEM IN 
 A TEA BASIN ; SQUEEZE THE JUICE OF ONE 
 LEMON ON THE WORMWOOD : IF THE ACID 
 IS NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE IT BOIL AND 
 ' BUBBLE UP IN THE BASIN, YO'U MUST SQUEEZE 
 THE JUICE OF ANOTHER LEMON ON IT : ADD 
 THREE OR FOUR LUMPS OF FINE SUGAR, 
 THEN PUT IT INTO A PINT-POT AND FILL IT 
 
 UP w^iTH BOILING w^ATER : — take a small 
 wine-glass at a time. 
 
 wonaerfui^ef- About cight ycars ago, I was as violently 
 
 Sren^^hening ^fflicted as any person ever was, who reco- 
 
 an*d Bowels, vcrcd. My stomach, after it, for some time, 
 
 was so weak, that I could not keep the 
 
 victuals on it, long enough to nourish me. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 159 
 
 i 
 
 without taking half a grain of opiunfi, be- 
 fore breakfast, and one grain before dinner. 
 I asked two physicians, whether it would ^ 
 
 be detrimental to me, to continue taking the 
 opium ; they both said, that, in time, my 
 stomach would be stronger, and that I should 
 leave off taking the opium by degrees. 
 A few days after, my old friend Captain John 
 WilHam Lloyd called on me, and told me 
 that he would put my stomach to rights ; — 
 that numbers of people, in the same wa\^ as 
 me, had been cured. It was, to take one 
 
 LARGE TEA-SPOONFUL OF FRL\RS* BALSAM, 
 IN FOUR TEA-SPOONS-FULL OF WATER, EVERY 
 MORNING, AND AT NIGHT, GOING TO BED. 
 
 I had not taken it above three weeks be- 
 fore my stomach was perfectly well. When- 
 ever I find my stomach the least lax, I 
 always take it for a few days, and it has an 
 astonishing effect on me. 
 
 I have already mentioned that the lotion . 
 for bruises, blows, sprains, and all outward InmesfB^iows, 
 injuries, received by horses, is as beneficial outward inju- 
 
 •^ ^ *^ vies to the Hu- 
 
 to the human race, as it is tof the brute ^^^^^ S'S'the 
 creation, I repeat it again, for I have 
 
 Brute Creation 
 
IGO COLONEL HANG£R TO 
 
 experienced its powerful effects, a great" 
 number of times, and I recommend every 
 family, in case of accidents, to keep a bottle 
 of it in their house; it is by far the most 
 sovereign medicine I ever used. 
 
 THINGS LEFT OUT IN THEIR PROPER PLACES, 
 FROM ERROR, NOW INSERTED, 
 
 The great be- I HAVE knowH horscs, in trifling lame- 
 
 «efit of loose . i i c* i c i * 
 
 stabies. nesses, receive much beneiit irom bemg 
 
 turned into a loose stable ; and all valuable 
 horses should be kept in loose stables. I 
 
 Of cracking am ccrtaltt, if you crack the oats for horses, 
 
 OatsforHorses . , . i r j\ i J.^ i. 
 
 m a machme made tor taat purpose, that 
 three feeds will do a horse nearly as much good as 
 four,^ 
 
 * In Qiedical books we read, that, from experiments 
 tried, the gastric juices do not operate on any sort of 
 grain, when swallowed whole into the stomach, so as to 
 procure the digestion of the grain : but only when it 
 be chewed or broken : so that all grain swallowed whole 
 passes through the animal undigested, and of course 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, SCC. iGl 
 
 A horse has a very sweet tooth, — when Brown sugar, 
 
 . mixed in Wa- 
 
 he be unwell and wont drink, 7nix molasses ter, win make 
 
 a sick Horse 
 
 or coarse brozvn sugar in the water : he will ^""^ ^^^^^y- 
 then drink freely. 
 
 The best stopping I know to make horses' pi^n\\o'supp?e 
 
 hard Feet, and 
 
 feet grow, or to supple hard leet, which ^ake them 
 are subject to crack, is linseed boiled, and, 
 when moderately cool, applied to the feet. 
 
 I have been informed by an agriculturist oSHStt!' 
 who has written on agriculture, and the 
 feeding of cattle, that the following cheap 
 food will do for all horses, which work in 
 the stages, and draft-horses; — not for mail- 
 coach horses, nor post-chaise horses ; they 
 must be full fed with oats. — Half a peck 
 
 does him no benefit. This plainly proves how great an 
 advantage you gain by cracking the oats: — how 
 wonderful it is, also, that the gastric juices operate 
 only on dead flesh, both in the human body, and in the 
 body of carnivorous animals. If it operated on living 
 flesh, it would destroy the intestines. Jn various 
 works of divine nature, how evidently do we see the 
 hand-workmanship, and wisdom of an omnipotent, all 
 wise, incomprehensible Deity! — 
 
 ** Whatever is^ is right" ^ 
 
16-2 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 OF SPLIT BEANS PER DAY ; OATS IN THE 
 STRAW, ONE THIRD ; TWO THIRDS BARLEY 
 OR WHEAT STRAW; THE OATS IN THE 
 STRAW ; AND STRAW TO BE CUT, IN A 
 CUTTING MACHINE, AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE, 
 NOT ABOVE A QUARTER OF AN INCH LONG. 
 Particularly NO HAY WHATEVER WITH THIS 
 IS NECESSARY. 
 
 WhatFarmers* 
 Daughters 
 
 rheyno"wrie?^ Ill my youtliful days, farmers' daughters 
 put their re|,d cloaks on, and the milking- 
 pails on their shoulders, went out before 
 dawn of day into the field, to milk the 
 COWS, and before they had gone a hundred 
 yards, generally split a cow - turd with 
 their feet, — but now, if one of them look 
 even out at the door, the servant cries out, 
 *' Miss, pray do not go out, you will wet 
 your feet, and catch cold." Formerly, 
 when the lasses came home from milking, 
 they had a rasher of bacon, broiled on the 
 coals, for breakfast, and a pint of mild ale, — • 
 washed their face at the pump, and rubbed 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. )63 
 
 it well, to make the blood circulate, with a 
 coarse towel ; — now, viiss must wash her 
 face, or rather not wash it at all, with cream, 
 or some other cursed nastiness; and breakfast 
 on the finest tea and sugar, and a delicate, 
 small, thin piece of buttered toast ; and not 
 eat heartily, for fear of growing too gross, 
 and spoiling her complection. Formerly 
 the lasses, in fine weather, used to dance on 
 the green, with the lads ; but now miss is 
 taught to dance, and to sing, and play on 
 the piano-forte : then she must attend all 
 the county balls : — the captain gets ac- 
 quainted with her; mamma remarks, what 
 an attentive, polite, and elegant man, the 
 
 captain is. The captain dances with miss, she dances 
 
 with the Cap- 
 frequently, and at last, when the regiment t^^uni^ bIus 
 
 marches, the captain dances off with her, 
 
 and she is never heard of in the county 
 
 again. 
 
 In former days, farmers' daughters went 
 
 in a cart to market, to sell butter, eggs, 
 
 poultry, young pigs, &c. : now they are 
 
 driving all over the county in elegant taxed- 
 
 carts; visiting, romping, and rioting all 
 
164 
 
 COLONEL HAl^fGER tO 
 
 Custom IS 
 every thing. 
 
 Difference in 
 the bringing 
 up of Little 
 Miss & Little 
 Master. 
 
 over the land.* You mav^ as well, now-a- 
 days, ask a farmer s daughter to milk the 
 bull, as to milk a cow. Then, to imitate 
 women of fashion, at the balls, they dress 
 half naked ; neck and arms quite bare> and 
 the gown cut down so low in the back, 
 that you absolutely may see their rumps. 
 I remember, many years ago, if a person 
 had walked down St. James's Street, with 
 an umbrella, and strings in his shoes, it 
 would have occasioned much censure ; but 
 now all the priests and footmen wear and 
 carry both. 
 
 Custom is prevalent, and custom estab- 
 lishes every thinir ; for the same nurse who 
 looks after little miss, and little master, 
 tells little miss, provided she shews only 
 one inch of her ancle — *' O fie, miss, for 
 shame, you shew your ancle ; that is very 
 indelicate ;" and, with the next breath, she 
 
 * In all these rom pings and riotings, provided they 
 -do not get hove, or sprung, as cattle do which swell in 
 the bod}^ from eating clover, it is all very well ; that 
 is a very troublesome disorder, and is seldom got rid 
 of under nine months. 
 
SPOHtSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 165 
 
 tells little master to take up his coats and 
 piss like a man. — So it is, custom governs 
 and sanctions every thing ; or how could 
 the most delicate and decent women per- 
 mit a man-midwife, six feet high and two 
 feet broad, over the loins, to attend them 
 during their pregnancy ; taking liberties, 
 onl]^ professionally, to know whether the 
 child lies right. Sec, and, after that, to de- 
 liver them ? 
 
 I have often thought that we men have thegvest loss 
 
 ^ Mankind sus- 
 
 lost a very great benefit and pleasure from bdn^'^'i^^^le- 
 women not having studied physic, so as to dLl^^^^'" 
 \.?i^^ owt \h.€\x diplomas as physicians; for, 
 when I was a young man, I must confess 
 that it v/ould have been extremely satisfac- 
 tory to me, when the complaint was so 
 desperate, as to render it necessary to call 
 in two female physicians, in order that they 
 might attend diligently to my disorder, to 
 request them both to pass the night with 
 me, and partake of my bed ; and then, in 
 the morning, for their kind attention to my 
 disorder, dismiss them with a liberal fee *. 
 
 '"^ To be sure; there are some dkorders in man which 
 
 M 
 
166 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 I think it would not be a bad speculation, 
 to plant a great many acres with fig-trees ; 
 for, if the Avomen go on progressively, as 
 they have for many years, the good old 
 custom of our grandmother Eve will be 
 adopted, and nothing but a fig-leaf be 
 worn. 
 
 Try No. 2, pa- Gcntlemcn-sportsmen, I can have no 
 
 teat Shot, in- * ^ 
 
 stead of No. 5 persoual nor self-interested view, in request- 
 ing you, for two .or three days, to slioot 
 with No. 2, patent, — you, who at present 
 shoot with No. 5, and 6 : don't begin to 
 try it till October, when the birds are 
 strong, and rise at a much greater distance. 
 I give you my word, from convincing prac- 
 tice, that two shots of No. 2 will kill a 
 bird at above seventy yards ; when seven 
 
 might put a lady to the blush to examine, at first; but 
 if they would but consider what great liberties the fair 
 sex allow men-midvvives to take with them, without 
 ever blushing, I am of opinion that, with a little time 
 and practice, they might handle any part of a man 
 with the same indifference as they would handle a 
 cucumber or a carrot. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. l67 
 
 of No. 5 or 6 will only maim the bird, but 
 wound him so, that, although he will fly 
 away, and you never get him, he undoubt- 
 edly may die. At least, gentlemen, I think 
 it is fairly worthy of giving it a trial : but 
 let me ask you a question ! Do you ever 
 expect to kill an old hare with No, 5 or 0, 
 at seventy yards ? Upon my word, she 
 will canter on and laugh at you. I assure 
 you, on my word, / have killed some dozens 
 above seventy yards ivith No, 2. Now pray 
 observe of what infinite advantage it will 
 be to your manor, provided you order your 
 gamekeeper, after the first month of Sep- 
 tember, ever to shoot with No. 2 ; morning 
 and evening, late and early, when vermin 
 ever rove, if he falls in with a kite, hawk, 
 carrion-crow, magpie, or any four-legged 
 vermin, he is ever prepared to destroy 
 them *. 
 
 * I beg leave to call your attention to two facts 
 which are stated in the foregoing pages : the first is, 
 my having killed a partridge above seventy yards^ put 
 three shots into him, two of which went in behind, 
 passed through his body, and went out at his breast. 
 The second is, a man, shooting with me, having killed 
 
 M 2 
 
l68 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 I shall end with giving you a certain 
 ointment, with which j^ou may rub a pair of 
 boots, and walk four or five hours in water^ 
 snipe-shooting, and never be wet. Take 
 
 BOILED LINSEED-OIL, ONE PINT; BEE'S WAX, 
 ONE OUNCE; BURGUNDY PITCH, HALF AN 
 OUNCE ; SPIRIT OF TURPENTINE TWO OUNCES : 
 
 melt the three first in an earthen-pot, and 
 then add the turpentine. Lay it on when 
 the leather is dry, and warmed before the 
 fire. This ointment must be well rubbed in 
 before the fire y and when the leather is tole- 
 rably dry. 
 
 a hare, putting three or four shot into her at above 
 tightly yards. Can you do the same with No. 5, or 
 No. 6 ? I answer, No ; you cannot ; it is not possible. 
 Upon my word, I should not imagine that I should be 
 in any degree of danger of receiving material injury, 
 were I to allow any person to fire at my hinder parts, 
 at four-score 3'ards, with No. 6, provided I had a good 
 pair of buckskin breeches, and particularly had I a 
 great-coat on, — not of any peculiar thick cloth, but 
 superfine only. I do not believe that any shot would 
 penetrate that coat strong enough, even to give me 
 pain. So firm is my preference of No. 2, to No. 5 or 
 6, that I think the point cannot be contested. — Look 
 to pheasant-shooting ; the bird has a small body, 
 but the plumage is very thick. 
 
SPOKTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. I69 
 
 Manv years ao'o, I used to be satisfied 
 provided my gun, at forty measured yards, 
 with equal measure of powder and shot, 
 would shoot through a quire of foolscap 
 writing-paper. Recollect that there are 
 four-and-twenty sheets in the quire; but, 
 as it is always sold doubled, so it must be 
 fired at, and will present to you forty- 
 «ight half-sheets : and, in these days, even 
 though I have guns, which will shoot 
 stronger, yet a man may be satisfied with 
 one which will perform as I have stated, 
 for it must be deemed a good gun. Re- 
 member the shot must be No, 3, patent, — 
 neither larger nor smaller. 
 
 Provided any gentleman, whom I am 
 acquainted with, when he meets me, will 
 ask me, I will instruct him how he can 
 entice hares, which pass over his grounds, 
 to stop aiid remain on them ; and how to 
 entice them, by food in winter, and espe- 
 cially how to make them frequent any 
 one pailicular wood or plantation on his 
 grounds. But any gentleman who may 
 
170 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 live near to where I may have a sporting 
 cottage, cannot in reason expect me to im- 
 part this valuable method to him. 
 
 old. 
 
 Howtoicnow I have omitted informinsr you of what 
 
 the age or a o J 
 
 ^e^fix^'yeirs^ wiU bc vcry useful, and is not so generally 
 known as it ought to be, for I have known 
 several gamekeepers and huntsmen not the 
 least acquainted wdth it : it' is to know the 
 age of a dog until he be sLv years old ; after 
 which period you cannot ascertain his age, 
 A dog has a ver}^ Adsible mark in his teeth, 
 as well as a horse, which mark does not 
 disappear totally until he be very near, or 
 full, six years old Look to the four front 
 teeth, both in the upper and lower jaw, but 
 particularly to the teeth in the upper jaw; 
 for, in those four front teeth, the mark re- 
 mains longest : at twelve months old, you 
 will observe every one of the four front 
 teeth, both in the upper and under jaw, 
 jagged and uneven, nearly in the form of 
 a flower de luce, but not quite so pointed, at 
 the edges of the jags, as a flower de luce is. 
 As the dog advances in age, these marks 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 171 
 
 will wear away, gradually decrease, and 
 grow smoother and less jagged every year. 
 Between three and four years old, th^se 
 marks will be full half worn down ; and 
 when you observe all the four front teeth, 
 both in the upper and lower jaw, quite worn 
 smooth and even, and not in the least 
 jagged, then you may conclude that the 
 dog is nearly, if not full six years old. When 
 those marks are quite worn flat and even, 
 and those teeth quite level and even, you 
 can no longer judge the age of a dog. I 
 have seen many huntsmen and game- 
 keepers ignorantly look at the side and eye 
 teeth of a dog ; they might as well look 
 under his tail ; for I have seen many dogs, 
 not two years old, which have had the can- 
 ker in the mouth, with hardly one sound 
 tooth in their heads. 
 
173 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 REMARKS ON THAT UNJUSTIFIABLE AND 
 UNGENTLEMANLIKE. ACT OF LAYING 
 POISON IN PLANTATIONS, NEAR THE 
 HIGH ROADS, TO POISON TRAVELLING 
 sportsmen's DOGS. 
 
 I cannot Gonclude this publication 
 without expressing my abhorrence of a most 
 cruel, unjustifiable, and ungentlemanhke 
 practice, which I have too often observed 
 in travelling the king's high roads in 
 Suffolk and Norfolk ; — • namely, thus 
 written up on boards : Poison for dogs 
 IS laid in this PLANTATION. Before I 
 proceed further on this subject, I recom- 
 mend to those persons who call th^nlselves 
 gentlemen, v/ho sanction such an outra- 
 geous and unjustifiable act, to consult their 
 own personal feelings, and study that golden 
 rule, which tl^e good Roman Emperor 
 Alexander, the son of Mammia, had 
 engraved on the avenues leading to his 
 palace, and in all the public courts of jus- 
 tice : Alteri ne feceris ouid tibi 
 fieri non vis ; and that divine, moral. 
 
 i 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 173 
 
 and ethical command tons in Scripture : Do 
 
 AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY. NoW, if a 
 
 person be possessed of a park, free warren, 
 or plantation, paled in, I believe the law 
 of the land gives him great power and 
 command, more than it can do, or does in 
 other places ; but, sanctioned as he may be 
 by law, I will ask him hy the law of honor, 
 whether he be justified in doing an injury 
 to a neighbour, who has no intent of design 
 to molest him, or interfere with his private 
 concerns ? 
 
 For instance, 1 will first state the case in 
 the strongest light, then in a most unjustifi- 
 able one : — A qualified man has a manor 
 of his own, or has permission, from the 
 owner of the land, to sport on his lands, 
 which is equally as good. These lands run 
 up close to the park, free w^arren, or planta- 
 tion, of another person : a hare gets up ; a 
 valuable pointer follows that hare, jumps 
 the paling, and, in half an hour after his 
 return, lies down and dies, poisoned, at his 
 master^s feet. Now I will state the case in 
 quite a different point of view: — A quahfied 
 man, in the evening, is returning to the 
 
}74 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 place whence he came, after having sported 
 on a manor, on which he has leave from 
 the landholder to sport, 'and on the king's 
 public highway he is travelling, on each 
 side of which runs a plantation, bounded 
 but by a very slight hedge, and frequently 
 not by any hedge at all. A hare, disturbed, 
 perchance, crosses the road ; a valuable 
 dog runs into the plantation, after the 
 hare, and, in less than half an hour, lies 
 down and dies, poisoned, at his master's feet. 
 I ask, in honor, can any law sanction so 
 base an outrage, committed on an unoffen- 
 ding man, who is not sporting, nor has 
 even attempted to hunt a dog the whole 
 daj^ on that man's land ; but is travelling 
 home, on the king's high pubhc road? 
 Remember this shall happen in open day- 
 light, I trust in my God I never shall fmd 
 myself in so disagreeable a predicament, — 
 but, should I unfortunately be so situated, / 
 solemnly declare^ I would resent it in the 
 same manner as I w^ould a personal injury 
 done to me, or the gross insult of a man 
 spitting in my face. There is some reason 
 to be given for laying poison by night in 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C* 175 
 
 woods, to destroy poachers' dogs, who 
 come, by night, to drive with their dogs 
 to their nets and snares ; but then, I am 
 firmly of opinion, that the man w^ho lays it, 
 and does not take it up at dawn of day, 
 long before sun-rise, richly deserves to have 
 the portion forced down his own throat. 
 However, so far I am resolved as to make 
 myself thoroughly acquainted wnth the 
 legality or illegality of this outrageous 
 practice, by consulting an eminent law^yer, 
 w^ho has written on, and made the game- 
 laws his particular study : then I shall find 
 myself more at home on this subject ; then 
 I shall know how to proceed against such 
 outrages, sanctioned by persons callirig 
 themselves gentlemen. 
 
 In respect of laying poison in a planta- 
 tion, or wood, close to, and bordering on, the 
 king's highway, either hy day or nighty I am 
 firmly of opinion, that every liberal-minded 
 man wall agree with me, that it is an unjust- 
 ifiable act. By night, even, it cannot, in 
 justice and honour, be sanctioned : suppose, 
 for instance, a gentleman be travelling after 
 .dark, on a high public road, as many do, 
 
170 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 and which I myself have often done, to 
 shoot, the next da}^ on a manor Avhere he 
 has leave ; and his dog be poisoned ; can any 
 man, in honour , justify the act? It is unwar- 
 rantable to lay poison, either by day or 
 ijight, in a wood or plantation, close to the 
 high public road. If poison be laid at ail, 
 surely it should never be laid but in woods, 
 remote from high public roads. In such 
 places, no dogs, but those belonging to 
 night poachers, can suffer; but, close to a 
 pubhc highw^ay, the dog of an unoffending, 
 travelling sportsman, may suffer. Such an 
 act, I avow publicly as my opinion, is un- 
 just, illiberal, and an outrage on the com- 
 munity, which cannot, in honour, he sanc- 
 tioned. Such haughty tyrants, I know, 
 were it not for our salutary laws which pro- 
 tect us, would ride, rough-shod, over that 
 part of the creation, who, unfortunately, 
 were so situated, as to be at their mercy. 
 However, let such men, possessed of every 
 thing in life to make it valuable to them, 
 recollect, that many have lost their lives 
 by a far less injury done to a fellow- 
 creature. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 377 
 
 Now, allowing the great difference iu 
 value, between the life of a human being 
 and the life of a dog, I will draw a parallel : 
 A man lives near to a country school ; he 
 has his garden robbed of fruit : boys, not re- 
 flecting thatthereis a very severe punishment 
 for such an offence, will take fruit. Should 
 the owner of a garden, when the fruit is 
 ripe, gather the greatest part of his fruit, 
 and leave only a kw on the walls, inserting 
 into every peach or nectarine, poison ; the 
 boys come and take this fruit, and are poi- 
 soned ; would he not be deemed, by all 
 the civilized part of mankind, a monster of 
 inhumanity; and would he not be hanged? 
 The school-boys have done him an injury, 
 and have occasioned him a loss ; but the in- 
 offensive dog has not. By my God, I am 
 of opinion, that the man who would do the 
 one act, would commit the other crime to 
 any one, to whom he bore a dislike and 
 hatred ; did he not know, that for such a 
 deed he would be hanged. In both the 
 above cases, baseness, criminality, and in- 
 humanity, are evident. It is true that, in 
 one case, the law takes greater cognizance 
 
178 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 of the crime, than in the other ; but the 
 severer punishment, in the one case, does 
 not do away the turpitude in the other : 
 yet such persons call themselves gentle- 
 men. I am ignorant in what school of li- 
 berality, and honour, such principles and 
 actions are inculcated. For myself, I 
 frankly avow, that I abhor such monsters 
 of oppression and injustice, who dare to 
 infringe on the social orders of society. 
 
 I am informed, and will make myself 
 better acquainted wdth this practice, that, 
 by the law of the land, no person whatever 
 can lay poison on any ground whatever 
 which is not walled in, aye, and that wall 
 must be of a certain height also. When I 
 have made myself acquainted with the 
 statutes on that subject, the public may 
 rest assured that I will make them publicly 
 known in the newspapers ; and will also 
 cause printed bills, inserting the very words 
 in the statutes, against such practice, with 
 the penalties inflicted by the law, on such 
 offenders ; and will cause such printed bills 
 to be pasted up in the public markets of 
 the great towns in Norfo^ and Suffolk. 
 
SPOHTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 179 
 
 Then sportsmen will be able to punish 
 such oftenders, by indicting them, NOT at 
 
 THE aUARTER SESSIONS OF THE COUNTY, 
 but, by giving them notice to appear 
 BEFORE OUR SOVEREIGN LORD, THE KING, 
 
 AT WESTMINSTER: there you will have 
 ample justice done you. I am of opinion 
 these poisoning gentlemen will be soon tired 
 of this practice : they will not only suffer 
 in their purses, but will be held up, by the 
 publishing of such trials in the newspapers, 
 to the contempt and abhorrence of all 
 mankind. 
 
 A few words more before I quit this 
 subject. I address myself to that respect- 
 able body of farmers, whose liberality, hos- 
 pitality, and kindness, I have so frequently 
 experienced. I have frequently been in- 
 vited by them (by the bye, who have had 
 long leases of their farms,) to come and 
 sport on their grounds, saying : *' Go you 
 and shoot on my farm, and on my neigh- 
 bour's farm, who dines with us to-day; 
 and if any one asks you what right you 
 have to shoot there, tell them you have 
 
180 COLONEL HANGER TO 
 
 leave from Farmer A. and Farmer B. to 
 shoot on their farms/' 
 
 I have heard that sportsmen have had 
 their dogs shot. There is a very heavy 
 penalty for shooting a qualified man*s dog*. 
 But I swear, by heaven, that, hovrever 
 heavy the penalty may be, that would not 
 satisfy me ; for that, I would instantly 
 shoot his horse, and stand prepared with 
 the other barrel to defend my own person ; 
 and I always go prepared with a few bul- 
 lets sewed up in greased linen : a ball is 
 quickly rammed down ; and a patched, 
 greased ball will shoot pretty near as true 
 as a rifle, to the distance of seventy or 
 eighty yards, if not to one hundred. 
 
 But to return to my friends the farmers. 
 A farmer has a valuable mastiff dog, which 
 protects his premises by night, and is a safe- 
 guard to his person by day: he walks 
 
 * And there is a more heavy action against the 
 master of that keeper, provided he sanctions that un- 
 warrantable act : this action is called The Statute of 
 Powder and Ball at about twelve paces! 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 181 
 
 across his fields to see a friend ; the dog 
 with him : this dog cannot hunt, nor even 
 disturb game ; but a hare, disturbed by 
 some other person, runs past him ; — the 
 dog will naturally follow the hare to the 
 wood : he returns poisoned ! This farmer 
 shall have two valuable sheep-dogs, which 
 are absolutely necessary to him in his line 
 of business ; the same may happen to those 
 sheep-dogs. Now, what a time it will take 
 to breed up and tutor two such dogs; and 
 what a time it must take before this injury 
 can be repaired. Is not the mastiff of infi- 
 nite value and use, also, to his master? — I 
 am sick of writing so much respecting such 
 inhuman persecutors and annoy ers of the 
 happiness of society : away with such 
 wretches ; no more concerning them. 
 
 I shall now proceed in respect to war- 
 reners. To these fellows I will shew no 
 indulgence, for they deserve none. War- 
 reners are the most notorious poachers and 
 destroyers of game ; and, from their line 
 of business, they have such advantages, and 
 are so situated, that it is scarcely possible 
 to fmd them out. How^ many hares, par- 
 
 N 
 
:j8« colonel hanger to 
 
 tridges, and pheasants, have I, in my Hfe- 
 time, shot near to warrens, which had lost 
 one foot *. 
 
 A warren is a most destructive thing to 
 a manor. A gamekeeper, last season, told 
 me, having an order to send a basket of 
 game to London, he shot four brace of 
 partridges, and two brace of pheasants; 
 two of the pheasants and three of the par- 
 tridges had but one foot. A warrener, who 
 follows his business correctly, sets his traps 
 at the mouth of the rabbit-holes ; but, 
 when they set traps in the paths across the 
 warrens, which is called trapping high, it 
 can be done for no other purpose than to 
 catch hares, going across in those paths. 
 I am surprised that gentlemen do not have 
 all the rabbit - vans and higlers' carts 
 searched ; they carry quantities of game to 
 London. The lord-mayor, a very few 
 years ago, searched all the poulterers' shops 
 in Leadenhall-market, and found cart-loads 
 of game. It is true some game comes by 
 
 * I have frequently found hares lying near to war- 
 rens, which have had only three legs. 
 
SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, 8CC. lUl 
 
 the coaches, but by far the greater part 
 not. 
 
 I am informed that warreners are pro^^ 
 hibited setting traps between sun-rise and 
 sun-set : I shall make myself well ac- 
 quainted with this law, and, if there be 
 such an one, I will make the first offender 
 appear before our sovereign lord the King-, 
 at Westminster, to answer for his non-ob- 
 servance of such law. When I have leave 
 to shoot on a manor, I have a right to 
 shoot on the warren also. Is it not scan- 
 dalous that I should run the risk of having 
 a valuable pointer lamed for ever, by being- 
 caught in one of those infernal warrener's 
 traps ? 
 
 I have twice in my life found pieces of 
 flesh hung upon sticks in warrens : I sus- 
 pect the flesh was poisoned : I threw the 
 flesh into the first v>^ater I came to : but 
 the next I find I will take to a chemist and 
 have it analysed ; when I will severely punish 
 such infamous offenders. What! am I, a 
 qualifled man, having leave to sport on a 
 manor, to be subjected to the risk of having 
 my dogs poisoned, vv^hen I drive game 
 
 N 2 
 
1184 COLONEL HANGERS 
 
 on that warren and follow it? If there be 
 furze or fern on a warren, birds are sure to 
 fly there. 
 
 I now recommend to all sportsmen, who 
 shoot near warrens, to carry a box of pills 
 with them, each pill containing twenty 
 GRAINS OF WHITE VITRIOL : this is the most 
 powerful emetic which can be given, and 
 will operate in nearly one minute after it be 
 taken. Go as fast as you can to the first 
 house, should your dog swallow any flesh 
 laid on warrens ; give him one of these pills, 
 and, if it does not make him sick in three 
 minutes, give him another : the moment he 
 begins to vomit, drench him well with warm 
 water ; by this method you will for certain 
 save your dog. 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 
 
 A Plan for the formation of a Corps, which 
 never has been raised as y^t in any Army in 
 Europe : in which Corps singly shall be 
 comprised all the strength, activity, energy, 
 and skill of four Corps, namely, a regular 
 Battalion, a Corps of Light-Infantry, a 
 Corps of Sharp-shooters, and a Corps of 
 Rifle - Marksmen. 
 
 X HE proposed corps must, at the very 
 lowest, consist of 2000 men; on account 
 of the enemy's regiments and corps being 
 so strong in numbers. 
 
 This corps, as it will be proved in the 
 sequel, shall, in itself, comprise all the 
 solidity, activity and skill, of three dis- 
 tinct corps ; namely, the strength, solidity 
 and force of fire, of a regular battalion in 
 close order ; the activity, energy and 
 rapidity in charge, of British light-infantry, 
 
acting either at open order or double open 
 order, as particular cases and situations may 
 require ; together with the destructive skill 
 of a rifleman acting a la debandade ; nay, 
 more, they shall act at such loose order, as 
 to imitate the subtle art of the Indian, who 
 endeavours always to steal away the life of 
 an enemy, without exposing himself to 
 danger. 
 
 Thus the perfection and distinct powers 
 of three corps may be united in one, 
 
 I am bold enough to assert that no such 
 corps has ever been produced in Europe, and 
 trust, that, with truth I may say, I am the 
 first officer, who has laid down a method, 
 by which a single coi^ps shall perform every 
 duty which three species of troops can perform, 
 namely, that of regular battalfon soldiers, 
 light-infantry, and irregular rifle marks- 
 men. 
 
 Before I proceed to relate particulars, it 
 is absolutely necessary to remark, that 
 what I have above stated, cannot be per- 
 formed, unless a gun can be produced, 
 which can be loaded, by any battalion 
 soldier in the line, with cartridges and be 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 1^ 
 
 fired as many times in one minute, as he 
 can discharge his common musket ; which 
 very same gun can also shoot with the same 
 precision as the best rifle-gun at any dis- 
 tance. , 
 
 Such a gun I pledge myself to produce ; 
 which gun and bayonet together, shall be 
 EQUAL in LENGTH to every soldier*s musket 
 and bayonet ; shall be loaded and fired 
 
 AS MANY TIMES IN ONE MINUTE AS A 
 SOLDIER'S MUSKET; shall weigh lighter* 
 than a musket; shall fire, when loaded 
 with cartridges, with sufficient precision at 
 100 yards to hit the figure of a man, and 
 shall fire at three hundred yards with the 
 same precision that any rifle will ; and with 
 precision at greater distances. 
 
 * This gun will be nearly the same weight as a sol- 
 dier's musket. The rifle-guns made for our rifle corps 
 are all too light in the barrel. If a sufficient charge 
 of powder were put in, so as to throw a ball with any 
 certainty five hundred yards into a body of men, they 
 would knock the man down who fires them ; and a 
 rifleman who cannot throw a ball into a column, at 
 that distance, is badly armed to harass an enemy on 
 their line of march. 
 
1S8 
 
 This corps shall perform all General 
 Dundas's eighteen manoeuvres, in solid 
 battalion,* shall be trained to every light 
 infantry manoeuvre, and, after a certain 
 time given to practise them, shall be 
 tolerably good marksmen, when used as 
 riflemen ; I say, tolerably good riflemen, 
 for it is not possible even for anj^ officer, 
 w^ho has served in a German jager corps ; 
 who has made it his study to enquire into 
 and to make himself acquainted, during a 
 war of seven years, with the skill and 
 
 * I am of opinion, provided this corps was constantly 
 practised to march in line, in close order, both to slow 
 and quick time, to form columns, and from columns to 
 form the line, that it would be sufficient ; those 
 manoeuvres being the most essential to a regular bat- 
 talion in the day of battle : at all other times they 
 should be drawn up as light infantry, and should 
 never be placed in the line of battle in close order, 
 excepting when real necessity requires it, from a want 
 of a sufficient number of regular battalions; on the 
 contrary, they should ever be employed on the flanks of 
 the army. The officer commanding such a corps, pro- 
 vided he had seen much active service, before the 
 enemy, should have great latitude given him, to act 
 according to his own judgment, as circumstances might 
 point out to hiai in the day of battle. 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 189 
 
 judgment of a German jager, and the 
 unerring arid surprising skill of the American 
 back-woodsman, as I have done; and who, 
 from the age of sixteen, has made the use, 
 perfection, and construction of the rifle, 
 and all other species of arms, both his study 
 and pleasure, — to train a common British 
 soldier to shoot with the same degree of 
 precision as a German jager will do, or an 
 American back- woodsman, although he 
 may be made a very formidable marksman 
 before an enemy. The reason why they 
 can never arrive at so high a degree of per- 
 fection, I will state ; and, as I shall bring 
 forward reasons, founded only in common 
 sense, to prove my assertions, I trust they 
 must be judged intelligible and Avill be 
 plainly understood. 
 
 The following are my reasons : 
 A British soldier can 7iever be taught to be 
 2i perfect judge of different distances. Place 
 an object, in the shape and size of a man, 
 at 150 5^ards distant, ask him how far that 
 object is from him, one will say 100 j^ards, 
 another will say 200 yards. Place the 
 same object at 200 yards from him, he, 
 
190 COLONEL HANGERS 
 
 most likeh^ will display more ignorance 
 respecting v/hat distance the object is from 
 him. Place the same object at 300 j^ards, 
 you may as well not ask him the distance 
 at ail, for that distance is totally beyond his 
 scale of judgment. 
 
 Now the German jager, brought up in 
 the forests to shoot at every thing, for the 
 sake of practice, which presents itself, with 
 the rifle, from the age of fifteen, is taught 
 all distances by the practice of years; for 
 he can never offer himself to serve any 
 gentleman as a jager, unless he can produce 
 certificates from the masters of the forests, 
 that he has served an apprenticeship of 
 seven years, and is a perfect shot. Jagers, 
 from their natural servitude and great prac- 
 tice, are in no want of being taught dis- 
 tances ; the knowledge and precision of 
 judging different distances comes to them 
 naturally from practice, from their early 
 youth. 
 
 The American back-woodsman has a 
 much greater field to exercise his talents by 
 practice, from living in a country cultivated 
 only around his own log-wood hut, for a 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 191 
 
 very short extent ; has woods extensive 
 and swamps impenetrable to every soul but 
 to those, who, by daily practice, are well 
 acquainted with its dreary and swampy 
 obstacles, which contain various animals, 
 such as the wild pig, the wolf, the bear, the 
 panther (which the Americans call painter), 
 the deer, the fox, both grey and brown, the 
 beaver, the racoon and the opossum. 
 
 Not only their own cattle are shot with 
 the rifle, but, when they go to the hunting 
 grounds to kill the wild cattle for their 
 tallow and skins, they use no other gun. 
 The wild turkey is shot with a rifle ; nay, 
 even birds and squirrels, from the very top 
 of the loftiest trees in the woods. No small- 
 shot gun, during my residence of seven 
 years of the war in America, was ever kept 
 in the house of a back- woodsman. You 
 will often see a boy, not above ten years of 
 age, driving the cattle home, but not 
 without a rifle on his shoulder: they never 
 stir, out, on any business, nor on a journey, 
 without their rifle ; practice, from their 
 infancy, teaches them all distances. 
 
 Provided I am able to make any soldier. 
 
IQQ COLONEL HANGERS 
 
 who cannot discriminate between differenl dis- 
 taiicesy shoot as well, at all distances, as a 
 man who is a perfect judge of distances, I trust 
 that I may claim some credit amongst military 
 vien, 
 
 Ijudge it necessary to give a description 
 how all rifle-guns are sighted. Rifles, to 
 shoot at long distances, have always two 
 sights, and generally three ; the first to 
 shoot about 120 yards, the second at 200 
 yards, and the third at 300, sometimes m.ore 
 and sometimes less, according to the dis- 
 tances to which the gun, with the different 
 sights, was shot in and regulated. It must 
 be acknowledged, that it is of but little use 
 to give a rifle-gun, with three sights to it, 
 to a common soldier, who cannot discrimi- 
 nate distances, for he will not know how to 
 use them properly, and will generally use 
 the wrong sight ; but I pledge myself to 
 produce a gun so Gx\uged, and with but one 
 sight to it, which, if the man does but aim 
 straight, shall, with this single siglit only, 
 constantly hit the figure of a man at every 
 differ pit distance from 100 to 300 yards, I 
 beg I may be understood. I do by no 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. l\)^. 
 
 means pretend to say that I can make any 
 soldier lire, with the same precision at 300 
 yards as he can at 100, for that 1 know 
 the most expert jager or American woods^ 
 man cannot do ; but I will prove that the 
 gun can perform what I have stated. Pro- 
 vided I prove this, which I bind myself to 
 do, it must be allowed that I obviate the 
 greatest difficulty and obstacle in teaching 
 British soldiers to be marksmen at all dis- 
 tances ; for at once I can obviate their want 
 of discrimination of distances and totally do 
 awa}^ the grand obstacle in teaching British 
 soldiers to be formidable marksmen. 
 
 Another very great advantage will, by 
 my medod, be gained. It will take only 
 one fifth part of the time to make thie soldier 
 a good marksman ; for, when he is taught 
 to fire well at one hundred yards only, he 
 can shoot well at every other distance from 
 100 yards as far as 300 ; for it is the gun, 
 from its construction and regulation, iviiich 
 performs the duty, not the man. 
 
 I judge it necessary to mention minutely 
 and explicitly what this gun of mine can 
 do. Let the figure of a man, about tv/o 
 
194 COLONEL hanger's 
 
 feet broad, and five feet ten inches in 
 height, be placed before a MOST perfect 
 marksman, and direct him to aim at all 
 distances from 100 to 300 yards, EauALLY 
 ALIKE, ever at the center or bull's eye, 
 painted on the figure of the man ; never to 
 hold higher nor lower; I engage that this gun 
 is capable of striking the figure of a man, 
 from the execution and peculiar construc- 
 tion of it. When the soldier comes on 
 actual service, with my gun, it is a matter 
 of total indifference whether the enemy he 
 fires at be 100 or 300 yards distant: not 
 that I mean to say that even the most 
 EXPERT marksman can fire with that exact, 
 nice precision at 300 as he can at 100 
 yards ; for the human eye, though ever so 
 perfect, cannot extend its vision to 300 
 yards, with that exact precision which it can 
 at 100 yards; but this gun will effectually da 
 axvay the ivant of judgment the soldier la- 
 bours under, in respect to what distance 
 the enemy is from him in action. 
 
 With the rifles at present in use,, you 
 must first teach a man to fire at 100 j^ards, 
 then at 150, then at 200, then at 250, then 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 193 
 
 at 300 yards, which will take up five times 
 more time in training the man than *my 
 gun and method will, and, after ail, when 
 you have taught him to fire tolerably well 
 at targets, at all the above distances, your 
 labour and time is all lost ; for, though he 
 will know which sight of the three he 
 should use, at all the above diiferent dis- 
 tances, when firing at a target, yet, take 
 him into the field, before an enem}^ he will 
 be as ignorant as ever respecting what pre- 
 cise distance the enemy is from him ; which 
 is the grand object to obtain, and most 
 particularly in broken ground, or firing 
 from one height at an enemy on another 
 height, or from a height down to an enemy 
 on the plain. With my gun he can fire 
 without ever troubling his head what parti- 
 cular distance the enemy is from him. The 
 reader will pardon my reminding him 
 again, for I wish strongly to impress it on 
 his mind, that this gun, whenever it shall 
 be found necessary for the corps to stand 
 in the line, as a solid, regular, well-disci- 
 plined battalion in close order, or to act as 
 lio'ht-infantrv, can be loaded and fired v/ith 
 
ig6 COLONEL HANGEll's 
 
 cartridges as many times in one minute as 
 a common musket, and shall shoot, with 
 precision sufficient, to hit a target the size 
 of a man, every time, at 100 yards. Thus, 
 from the perfection and universal use of 
 my gun, it must, in candour, be allowed, 
 that it is equally adapted to regular batta- 
 lion soldiers, to light-infantry men, and to 
 the rifle marksmen ; in short it is an univer- 
 sal gu7i, equally to be applied and used by 
 every man who carries arms in war, from 
 the grenadier to the Indian savage. 
 
 One grand preliminary in the formation 
 of such corps, is, that it be absolutely and 
 indispensably necessary, that one company 
 of 150 men be enlisted solely from artifi- 
 cers and workmen, namely, carpenters, saw- 
 yers, men who earn their daily bread by 
 felling trees, clearing and hewing down 
 coppices, together with some excellent 
 country spadesmen, who are well accus- 
 tomed and expert in throwing up ditches 
 and mounds, and wattling staked hedges. 
 Such a corps as I have above described, 
 cannot perform what ought to be, and will 
 be in justice required of them, without a 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 197 
 
 company of 150 pioneers ; besides, the army 
 also may be much benefited at particular 
 times by them : yet I propose that this com- 
 pany of pioneers shall carry arms as well as 
 the other part of the corps ; on this account, — 
 that they shall be able to stand sentry and 
 do all other duty, except when in the day 
 of real action before the enemy, they shall 
 onli/ be used as pioneers, I cannot refrain 
 from observing how useful such a company 
 would be in winter quarters, with working 
 parties from the corps ordered every day to 
 assist them ; winter cantonments might 
 readily be completed without any appli- 
 cation to the barrack department, and much 
 money be saved to the state. 
 
 To this gun I engage to produce a trig- 
 ger, which shall have four times the pur- 
 chase and power which triggers now in use 
 have, by which a lock, standing very firm 
 at full cock, may be pulled off with a slight 
 touch, which will be of infmite benefit to a 
 marksman. 
 
 The above corps may be raised in about 
 one month, and should ever be ready to 
 
 o 
 
198 COLONEL hanger's 
 
 move at one hour's notice and to go upon 
 every expedition and on the most active 
 service. 
 
 I know full well that there are many 
 much more ins'enious in mechanism than 
 myself; and, v» hen this plan is made known 
 publicly, by trying various experiments, it 
 is possible, that they may construct a gun 
 to perform equal to my gun ; but, I trust, 
 as I am the very first projector of such a 
 corps, for certain it is that no such corps 
 has ever been formed or even thought of, it 
 would be uncandid not to give me credit for 
 the projection; and surely it must be allowed, 
 that, by permitting any other to put it in 
 execution, it would discourage every officer 
 from bringing forward any thing beneficial 
 and useful to the service. Yet, I confess, I 
 am of opinion, that it would puzzle the 
 most ingenious artist to construct a gun, 
 with one sight ^only, which shall fire with 
 precision at all distances, namely, from 100 
 yards to 300, which every rifle now in use 
 can do ; which gun also, when loaded with 
 cartridges, shall strike the figure of a man 
 
PLAN OP A NEW CORPS. . 199 
 
 every time at 100 yards, and is capable of 
 being fired as many times in one minute as 
 a common musket. 
 
 ReJlectio7is on the utility, universality, superi- 
 ority, and skill of this Corps, 
 
 Such a corps, most undoubtedly, would 
 be always employed at the out-posts before 
 an army, in scouring the country before the 
 position of the army, as all light troops do. 
 Supposing, with this corps, I should fall in 
 with some corps belonging to the enemy ; 
 such corps must either be a regular regi- 
 ment of infantry, or a corps of light troops, 
 what is called in Germany or France a fry 
 corps, or a corps of riflemen. I will speak 
 first respecting meeting a corps of riflemen, 
 namely, riflemen only, I would treat them 
 the same as my friend Colonel Abercromby, 
 afterwards General Sir Robert Abercromby, 
 when in America, treated Morgan's rifle- 
 men. When Morgan'^ riflemen came 
 
 o 2 
 
200 . COLO NEE HANGER 3 
 
 down into Pensylvania from Canada, flushed 
 with success gained over Burgoyne's army, 
 they marched to attack our hght infantry, 
 under Colonel Abercromby ; the moment 
 they appeared before him, he ordered his 
 troops to charge them with the bayonet ; 
 not one man of them, out of four, had time 
 to fire, and those who did, had no time 
 given them to load again : they did not 
 stand three minutes ; the light infantry not 
 only dispersed them instantly, but drove 
 them for miles over the country. They 
 never attacked, or even looked at, our light 
 infantry again, without a regular force to 
 support them. — Secondly, supposing this 
 corps shall fall in with a light corps of 
 the enem)^ a jry corps, are not my men 
 light infantry, and moreover are they not 
 marksmen ? Surely a corps of British in- 
 fantry and good marksmen besides, need by 
 no means be alarmed at the attack of a 
 fry corps. — Thirdly and lastly, provided 
 they fall in with a regular regiment, some 
 considerable distance from their camp, I 
 am of opinion, that a regular regiment in 
 such a situation, being so unfortunate as to 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 201 
 
 fall in with such a corps, as the one I pro- 
 pose, who possess the powers of three distinct 
 corps, namely, that of regular battalion sol- 
 dierSy of light infantry, and of rifle marksmen, 
 can do nothing better for their safetj^ than 
 make the best of their way to their army : 
 even then, should they adopt this prudent 
 measure, I can attack them on their retreat, 
 not only in their rear, but on both flanks of 
 their line of march ; and, it must be ^ 
 allowed, that my loss must be very incon- 
 siderable, if any, and that they must suffer 
 materially ; for, marching regularly as they 
 must do in column, let it be even an open 
 column, along a main road, they must 
 present numbers in a body to my marks- 
 men, dispersed in all directions, and acting 
 a la debandade, on both their flanks and on 
 their rear. My men being marksmei^, and 
 ever instructed to aim wJtere they perceive the 
 enemy to stand the thickest in numbers, it is 
 most certain that a great number of their 
 shots must tell. Provided the country be 
 inclosed or broken, so that a charge from a 
 large body of cavalry need not be dreaded, 
 I will be bound to drive a regular regiment 
 
204 COLONEL hanger's 
 
 of the enemy within the pickets of their 
 army, after having destroyed numbers of 
 them ; na)^ even after having harassed 
 them for a couple of hours and consi- 
 derably diminished their numbers. Should 
 I find the least irregularity or confusion 
 amongst them, I may consolidate my corps 
 by a single sound of the bugle-horn, charge 
 them ajid either destroy, or take prisoners, 
 by far the greater part of them. 
 
 Should they draw up to fight me in 
 regular line, instead of making the best of 
 their way to their army, which I imagine 
 every officer who knew his dutj^ would do, 
 his regiment must ultimately perish. 
 
 I only state the following by way of 
 argument, to shew what a great superiority 
 my corps must have, from the various and 
 distinct powers it possesses over any corps 
 whatever they may fall in with. We will 
 suppose that this regular regiment shall be 
 so imprudent, as to draw up to fight me. 
 Before I come within shot of them I divide 
 my ten companies, of two hundred each, 
 into three distinct bodies ; I leave four in 
 the centre to skirmish and amuse the 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 203 
 
 enemy., and detach six companies, three to 
 the right, and three to the left. In less 
 than ten minutes the three companies on 
 each side detached, shall not only envelope 
 the enemy's right and left flank, but several 
 of my men sJiall absolutely be in their rear. 
 If the enemy remain in this situation they 
 must be irrevocably lost. Provided they 
 charge my four companies, drav^^n up as 
 light infantry, to oppose them in front, my 
 troops retreat, constantly keeping at least 
 at 150 yards distant, and firing with good 
 aim. 
 
 The further they charge my centre, the 
 further they will be from safety, namely, their 
 own camp ; and, by such a manoeuvre, they 
 inevitably must bring my six companies on 
 their flanks, absolutely in their rear, harassing 
 them in proportion as they advance, till ulti- 
 mately they will be enveloped on all parts 
 around them. But, instead of thus acting, 
 should they detach three companies to 
 their, right, and three companies to their 
 left, to oppose those I have detached to act 
 on their flanks ; after having amused them 
 for a considerable time by skirmishing and 
 
204 
 
 destroying many of them ; (for it must be 
 allowed that my men, as marksmen, must 
 have a wonderful advantage over them in 
 skirmishing, armed as they are with a very 
 imperfect and indifferent soldier's musket and 
 my men armed with a perfect gun, which not 
 only at short distances, but at long distances 
 shall shoot with precision ;) my corps, 
 being trained^ constantly to the following 
 practice, atone soundof the bugle-horn can 
 at an active run be consolidated on their centrcy 
 and charge the remaining four centre com- 
 panies of the enemy with the bayonet. It 
 cannot be denied but that they must be 
 beaten, and forced to fly. I will now not 
 briefly explain, but only ask any officer 
 what must become of their three companies 
 detached to their right, and three to their 
 left ? I imagine it will be allowed that 
 they must fly also. In short, should a 
 regular regiment attempt to engage such a 
 corps as I have proposed to form, and not 
 retreat as speedily as they possibly could do 
 to their camp, they must be ruined. 
 
 I shall now content myself by making a 
 few observations on the different and dis- 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 205 
 
 tinct qualities, and superior pre-eminence 
 which my gun must have over a common 
 soldier's musket, and then conclude. 
 
 A soldier's musket, if not exceedingly ill 
 bored and very crooked, as many are, will 
 strike the figure of a man at 80 yards ; it 
 may even at a hundred ; but a soldier 7nust 
 be very unfortunate indeed who shall be 
 wounded by a common musket at 150 yards, 
 PROVIDED HIS ANTAGONIST AIMS AT HIM ; 
 
 and, as to firing at a man at 200 yards with 
 a common musket, you may just as well 
 fire at the moon and have the same hopes 
 of hitting your object. I do maintain, and 
 I will prove, whenever called on, that NO 
 
 MAN WAS EVER KILLED, AT TWO HUNDRED 
 
 YARDS, by a common soldier's musket, by 
 
 THE PERSON WHO AIMED AT HIM. Any 
 
 officer who will give himself the trouble to 
 read Robins's Treatise on Gunnery, will 
 readily understand the truth of my assertion. 
 I could easily explain this point to the 
 satisfaction of the reader ; but, in so short 
 a treatise as this, the intent of which is 
 only to treat of the utility, skill, and per- 
 fection of the corps I propose, and not to 
 
206 COLONEL hanger's 
 
 treat on the general system of projectiles, 
 or the deficiency of muskets in present use, 
 it would be too prohx and extraneous to my 
 present object and views, respecting this 
 proposed corps and my universal gun, for so 
 Icall it, and such on proof it will be found 
 to he.^ 
 
 * At three hundred yards the gun I speak of was 
 tried in the following manner. The target was a 
 board, two feet broad, and only three feet high. The 
 bull's eye in the ceiure. 1 shot dozion zoindy on the 
 sands of the sea, at low water, lying down on a liorse- 
 cloth on my belly. I had a lump of wood before me, 
 on which was placed uiy hat, to rest the gun on. I 
 imogine the whole heiglu, to the crown of the hat, 
 was about two feet from the ground. This, of course, 
 gave to the muzzle of the gun, three or four inches 
 depressioJi y so that my gun, at some distance beyond 
 the target, must have pointed into the sands. How- 
 ever, notwithstanding this, I found that the ball, when 
 it passed on one side of the target, never struck the 
 bands, under full sixty yards beyond the target. Now, 
 provided my gun had been laid in a direct horizontal 
 level, to the centre of the bull's eye, or had had the 
 ii"!uzzle of it two or three inches elevated, instead of 
 being depressed, (I speak to experienced riflemen,) 
 would my gun not have been entitled to throw the 
 ball CO mider ably further before it struck the sands ? — 
 Now, supposing I had shot at a target, at three bun- 
 
PLAN OF A NEW C0HP3. 207 
 
 I have many times asked Hie American 
 back-woodsmen what was the most their 
 
 rfred yards distant, which had been the heiglit of m 
 man, say five feet ten inches high, and, instead of 
 aiming at the bull's eye, I had aimed at the top of the 
 target, the same as at the top of the head of the figure of 
 a man, am T not entitled to sa}', that my ball would either 
 have struck the breast of that figure, or have passed by 
 on one side of the target, and full as high as the 
 breast of a man; and that it would not have struck the 
 sands, which lay on a direct level with the bottom of 
 the target, until it had reached a distance considerably 
 above four hundred yards ? I detest theory, but, 
 speaking to experienced riflemen, I do assert, that this 
 is not theory, but that it is plain demonstration, founded 
 on the truest principles of the knowledge and system 
 of projectiles. 
 
 I desire it may be understood, that the gun, the 
 various merits of which I have described in tliis short 
 treatise, entitled " A Plan for the Jormation of a 
 " Corps which never has been raised as yet in any 
 *' amiyin Europe^ 3)C. S)C, SscT is not the oommon rifle 
 I speak of, which should be used with effect at long 
 distances, before an enemy; but a gun, very far supe- 
 rior, from its distinct and various qualities as it is 
 described to possess. The barrel of that gun, I sawed 
 inhalf, and threw the one half over Westminster bridge, 
 on one side, and the othsrhalf on the otner. rn^rv-e, 
 and in my breast, the construction of ^ucli a gun j^es. 
 
 One word more before parting : n v/e have r.jt a 
 rifle on active service, which will shoot with precision 
 
^08 COLONEL hanger's 
 
 best marksmen could do ; they have con- 
 stantly told mc that an expert riflemen. 
 
 knd do great execution, at by far a greater distance 
 than where the musket leaves off, what is the use of it? 
 In my humble opinion very little. The rifle-guns used 
 on service, by the 95th regiment, are well made, 
 and will shoot as well as any rifle, the barrel of 
 which weighs onl^ four poundsy and carries a 
 hall, w^eighing tzs)C7ify to the pound; but, I do assert, 
 that they are not properly constructed to be used at 
 long distances, on service, with certain effect, and pos- 
 sess not that great advantage, namely, of beginning to 
 do execution to a certainty, at that distance where the 
 musket ceases to have any certain direction or effect. 
 By saying that they are not properly constructed to be 
 used on act ice service, i mean, that the barrels are too 
 light ; they weighing only four pounds, and carry too 
 large a ball, (namely, a ball tzcenty to the pound,) in 
 proportion to the weight of the barrel. If this be 
 doubted, let one of them be produced, and I will pro- 
 duce a rifle I have, the barrel of which weighs six 
 pounds fozir or five ounces, and carries a. ball weighing 
 only thirty to the pound, loaded with one half of the 
 weight of the hall in powder ; and this gun shall go ofl' 
 pleasantly and without the least recoil. But then I 
 will not begin to shoot under 350 yards, and from that 
 distance we will extend our practice to 600 yards. 
 
 Reader, do not be surprised at my speaking of QOO 
 yards practice, — for I do not mean to say, that I can 
 hit a horse or an elephant at that distance ; but I will 
 prove to you, that I can throw a ball into a piece of 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. S09 
 
 provided he can draw good and true sight, 
 (they mean, by this expression, when they 
 can distinctly see the object aimed at in a 
 direct hne with the two sights on the rifle,) 
 can hit the head of a man at 200 yards. I 
 
 canvas six feet high by fifteen feet hug; and tliis will 
 prove that a ball may be thrown, at that distance, into 
 a column oF troops, on their line of march. It is not 
 the make, construction, or workmanship of the rifie- 
 guns of the 9-5th regiment which I condemn ; it is the 
 want of weight in the barrel, and the size of the ball, 
 being too large in proportion to the weight of the bar- 
 rel, I materially object to. I trust I have given ample 
 reason to convince ever}^ experienced rifleman that my 
 observations are founded, not on theory, but absolute 
 practice ; for what is the use of a rifle which will not 
 do execution to a certainty^on a body of men marching 
 in column at a very great distance ? 
 
 I once saw about twenty country-men (not more) on 
 one side of a small river, unfordable, so pelt a regi- 
 ment with their rifles, that it was forced to break out 
 of its line of march on a road, and march on its left at 
 a much greater distance from the river. 
 
 Speaking of my rifle-gun, I do not presume to say 
 that there is any thing wonderful and very superior in 
 its construction, for I assure the reader that there are 
 several gunmakers in London, who can make one full 
 as executive as mine, provided they will only make the 
 barrel as heavu and the h^^} of the same sii:e. 
 
210 COLONEL HANGERS 
 
 am certain, that, provided an American 
 rifleman were to get a perfect aim at 300 
 yards at me, standing still, he most 
 imdoubtedly would hit me, unless it was a 
 very windy da}^ so as to occasion the ball 
 to deflect considerably. Now, there are 
 many persons, in various volunteer rifle 
 companies in London, who can hit a target 
 the size of a man much oftener at 200 
 yards than they miss it ; and I think it 
 very hard if a soldier, with good practice, 
 cannot be trained to hit the space of a man 
 at 200 yards, much oftener than he misses 
 it; and Vvhen he does miss his enemy at that 
 distance, the ball shall go so near to him as 
 to intimidate him, and for safety-sake make 
 him shift his position, well knowing the 
 danger he was exposed to ; for a man, shot 
 at, and finding how narrowly he escaped, 
 is but little inclined to take a second trial. 
 I shall conclude with stating, that, ifever^f 
 soldier in the British armj^, the grenadier, 
 the battalion man, the light-infantry man, 
 the rifleman and sharp-shooter, were armed 
 with a gun which can shoot as well as the 
 gun I can produce, and possessmg such 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. Qll 
 
 universal qualities as I have described, 
 namely, being capable of being loaded and 
 fired as many times in one minute, when 
 loaded with cartridges, as a soldier*s musket 
 can ; and may be fired with precision at 
 100 yards; v/hich gun also, at every dis- 
 tance, fi'om 100 to 300 yards, when used 
 by marksmen, shall fire with the same precl- 
 sion as the best rifle which can be made, — 
 I maintain that every soldier in his Majesty's 
 service would be infinitelj^ more formidable 
 before an enemv.* 
 
 * Although I have said that everi/ soldier would be 
 benefited and more formidable before the enemy, if 
 armed with my gun, which I have described to possess 
 such eminent and universal qualities, yet I trust every 
 officer who peruses these few pages will do me more 
 justice than to suspect thai it ever entered into mj 
 mind, even for one instant of time, to lay aside the 
 musket and to arm the whole British army with 
 my gun : yet I must steadily persist in observing, that 
 all arms, which hereafter shall be ordered to be made 
 for the express and sole use of Ught-infantry or sharp- 
 shooters, should be constructed on the principles of my 
 gun; for it must appear evident to intelligent minds, 
 that, armed with such a gun, the soldier would possess 
 a very superior advantage over the enemy to what he 
 now does, armed as heii with a comiaou Tower musket, 
 
€12 COLONEL hanger's 
 
 I shall now leave it to the candour of 
 every experienced officer to judge how 
 much siipcrio?'^^ the corps I have proposed 
 must be, on active service, to any corpSy xvhich 
 has as yet been raised. Certainly, hitherto, 
 no such corps has ever been produced, nor even 
 thought of. 
 
 I shall now make one observation, on 
 which I respectfully intreat every officer 
 candidly and impartially to reflect. Those 
 officers who have served in the American 
 war, who have seen the infinite service our 
 light troops performed in that country, the 
 features of which were so peculiarly adap- 
 ted to light troops, are wild after light 
 troops, and perhaps do not pay that respect 
 to des gros battalions which I do, and may 
 wish for too great an increase of light 
 troops in our army. There they certainly 
 lie under an error; but those officers who 
 
 which is so very imperfect an arm (imperfect I mean 
 from its bad construction), as not to put it in the 
 power of the best-trained light-infantry man or sharp- 
 shooter to fire with the smallest hopes of hitting the 
 man he aims at, at a greater distance than 80 or 100 
 yards. 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 213 
 
 did not serve in the American war, lie under 
 a much greater error in their judgment ; 
 for their system extends nearly to the total 
 extirpation of light troops in our army. 
 The French have much increased the number 
 of their light troops, and we ought to increase 
 ours ; but that increase of Hght troops should 
 not be sharp-shooters and riflemen only ; 
 no, they should be trained to be marksmen, 
 but should also be as well disciplined 
 as any regular battalion of the line ; 
 then they may be used in any and every 
 vy ay the commanding general shall judge 
 proper. Such properties the corps 1 pro- 
 pose, can be possessed of Let every 
 officer who served in the American vrar 
 and all those who never were in America, 
 join hand in hand to recommend and 
 patronize the formation of a corps which 
 
 CAN PERFORM EVERY DUTY REQUIRED OF 
 BRITISH SOLDIERS, FROM THE GRENADIER 
 TO THE IRREGULAR MARKSMAN. Speaking 
 
 relatively to the defence of this country, in 
 case of invasion, I with confidence assert, that 
 such corps are wanting ; the nature and 
 
 P 
 
214 COLONEL HANGER S 
 
 features of our country evidently point out 
 their utility and eiRcacy. Look only, for 
 instance, to the counties of Essex, Kent 
 and Sussex. 
 
 I know full well the powers and superior 
 efficacy of des gros battalions ; no man res- 
 pects them more than I do, for I am posi- 
 tively persuaded no signal victory can be 
 gained without them. But let me ask a ques- 
 tion candidly : Cannot such a corps, 
 constituted, disciplined, and trained accor- 
 ding to those rules which I have prescribed, 
 be formed at all thnes INTO A GROS BATTA- 
 LION and PERFORM EVERY DUTY REQUIRED 
 OF A SOLID BATTALION in CLOSE ORDER, 
 
 on the day of battle in the line ? I trust it 
 will be allowed that they certainly can. To 
 this I will presume to add an opinion. 
 Trained as marksmen, and armed with a 
 gun which possesses such superior and uni- 
 versal qualities, it is but just to suppose that 
 tliey are entitled to do more execution, as regu- 
 lars, in tlie day of battle, than any battalion 
 of the line in his Majesty's service, armed 
 as they are at present with a common mus- 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. ^15 
 
 ket, most miserably and badly bored, and the 
 barrel, generally speaking, crooked both 
 inside and out. 
 
 Riflemen, as riflemen only, are a very 
 feeble foe and not to be trusted alone any 
 distance from camp ; at the out-posts they 
 must ever be supported by regulars, or they 
 w^ill be constantly beaten in and compelled 
 to retire on the main army : but such a 
 corps as the one I have, in the foregoing 
 pages, described, can go every where alone, 
 and are able to meet every species of 
 infantry; equal to all, and very superior to 
 viany. Nay, even provided they are 
 attacked by cavalry, they can defend 
 themselves as well as any regiment of the 
 line. I have served in a German jdger 
 corps, and confess, that, in a dark rainy 
 night, we have been very disagreeably 
 and, in my opinion, very dangerously situ- 
 ated ; nothing but the most vigilant alertness 
 preserved us. 
 
 Even when a serjeant from the out- 
 pickets reported that the dogs in the 
 neighbouring houses barked, every man 
 w^as obliged to fall in and form, and lie 
 
 p2 
 
Qi6 COtONEL HANGER'S 
 
 down in the ranks, with his rifle under \\k 
 arm ; nay, oftentimes have we been forced 
 to be'nnder arms whole nights, permitting 
 the men only to sit down in the ranks. 
 Riflemen can feel no confidence in them- 
 selves on a dark, and more particularly on a 
 stormy and rainy night ; nor can they enjoy 
 any confidence in their own strength, when 
 any distance from camp unsupportfd. 
 
 I shall never forget the night before the 
 battle of Monmouth Court-House. It was 
 uncommonly dark, with frequent thunder- 
 storms and rain. It fell to my lot, that 
 night, to have the outermost picket. 
 Never could man pass a more anxious time; 
 the fires all put out, the enemy *s patroles 
 feeling us and firing every half hour and 
 oftener at the advanced sentries ; our men 
 on sentry firing sometimes at the enemy's 
 patroles and sometimes at cattle in the 
 woods, as soldiers will do when they hear 
 a noise in the bushes, challange, and gain 
 no reply ; the night so dark (taking it by 
 turns every half hour, with two lieutenants, 
 to visit the sentries) as not to be able to 
 perceive our own men until we came close 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS, 217 
 
 upon them and in danger of being fired at 
 by our own men. Such a night of anxiety 
 and danger 1 never vsince passed, and blessed 
 my God when the day began to dawn. 
 
 As some of you, gentlemen, to whom I 
 send these few pages may have done me the 
 honour of reading a pamphlet, published 
 for me by Mr. Stockdale, Bookseller, 
 Piccadilly, opposite to Burlington House, 
 in the beginning of .the year 1804, entitled 
 Reflections on ilie menaced Invasion, and the 
 Means of protecting the Capital, 8(c, 8(c, 8(c., 
 in the latter part of which I make mention 
 of hght troops and of a gun which light 
 troops should be armed with ; I beg y>ou 
 will observe, 'that the gun I therein spoke of 
 was only a superior sort of musket to the 
 commxon musket now in use and is totally dif^ 
 f event and distinct in qucditi/, infinitely inferior 
 in excellence and not to be compared to 
 the gun I now speak of; for I expressly 
 stated that the former gun I made mention 
 of would not do any execution further than 
 150 or 200 yards at most, and then not 
 shoot Vv ith any perfect degree of precision. 
 It was only represented as a better sort of 
 
218 COLONEL HANGERS 
 
 musket for light troops than the common 
 Tower musket in use. 
 
 This Plan has been highly approved by 
 several distinguished officers, and particu- 
 larly by one general officer, to whose dis- 
 tinguished services the country is much 
 indebted. Although he has given me 
 leave, in the most public manner, to use 
 his name, yet from delicacy, respect, and 
 friendship, I refrain from taking so great a 
 liberty ; trusting that those who may read 
 the Plan, will believe my assertion. When 
 I asked him his opinion of the Plan, he 
 replied, that a corps so disciplined, so trained, 
 so manxuvred, and so armed, must have a 
 very superior advantage over any other 
 corps, not exceeding it in numbers. 
 
 Any gentleman curious in arms, by calling on 
 Messrs. Tatham and Egg, Gunmakers, near the Admi- 
 ralty, may see a double-barrelled rifle pistol, making for 
 Colonel Hanger, on a perfectly jiezo construction. No 
 pistol, hitherto, has been made with a lock communi- 
 cating with the under barrel, to operate with such 
 certain effect. 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. SlQ 
 
 In conclusion, I address the following 
 to officers who have served in a rifle corps, 
 on active service ; particularly to that dis- 
 tinguished corps, the Ninety-fifth Regiment, 
 and other rifle regiments, as also the com- 
 panies of rifle marksmen in London, whose 
 precision and execution, at the target, I 
 have witnessed with great satisfaction and 
 pleasure. 
 
 I have already observed that the rifled 
 guns, used on service, are not heavy enough 
 in the barrel, and carry a ball too large, in 
 proportion to the weight of the barrel ; so 
 that thej^ cannot be loaded with a sufficient 
 quantity of powder to do that execution, at 
 great distances, which all rifles, used on 
 service, should be able to perform. The 
 barrels weigh only four pounds ; the balls 
 are twenty to the pound ; and they cannot 
 be charged with more powder than one 
 third of the weight of the ball, without 
 recoiling so much as to make them shoot 
 at random and with no precision. 
 
 In the sporting part of this book, I have 
 
220 
 
 spoken very explicitly on rifle-guns and 
 rifle shooting ; so I shall only make men- 
 tion concerning the rifle I now have by 
 me. The barrel of it weighs six pounds 
 five ounces ; it carries a ball thirty to the 
 pound, and is loaded exactly with one half 
 the weight of the ball in powder, without 
 the least recoil. What an advantage this 
 gun must have, compared to one weighing 
 onli/ four pounds in the barrel, and which 
 cannot be loaded with more than one third 
 the weight of the ball in powder. I can- 
 not refrain from mentioning how much \ 
 lament that such a set of gallant soldiers 
 are not armed with a weapon more effica- 
 cious, and which can do much greater exe- 
 cution at very great distances. 
 
 I have, in the former part of this book, 
 informed you how the American riflemen 
 load their rifles for active service ; they 
 must shoot considerablv more than half the 
 weight of the ball in powder, as their bar- 
 rels weigh full six pounds, and shoot a ball 
 weighing 7io more than thirty-siv to the 
 pound. Now, gentlemen, rifle marksmen, 
 and oflicers serving in rifle corps, I inform 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. «gl 
 
 you, that it is my intent to order a rifle 
 immediately to be made, the barrel of 
 which shall weigh fidl jiine pounds, and shall 
 carry a ball no larger than thirty to the pound. 
 It is impossible for me to state what weight 
 in powder, in proportion to the ball, such a 
 gun will take without recoiling, as the gun 
 is not yet made ; but, at a random guess, 
 let us suppose it will take three fourths of 
 the weight of the ball in powder. Now 
 observe what an immense advantage must 
 be gained by this great increase of the 
 quantity of powder : in short, every thing 
 is gained by it; for the ball shot out of 
 this gun must be forced to a very consi- 
 derable distance further, before the pow- 
 der, in any degree, loses its operative force 
 on the ball ; and the ball will not incline 
 to the centre of gravity, until it has arrived 
 at a very considerable distance further than 
 a ball, weighing twenty to the pound, fired 
 out of a barrel weighing only four pounds, 
 and loaded only with one third of the weight 
 of the ball in powder. This surely is self-evi- 
 dent, and requires no further observation : 
 and this gun, weighing nine pounds in the 
 
^22 COLONEL IIA?\GER'S 
 
 barrel, will not be heavier than a soldier's 
 musket and bayonet ; and why a rifleman 
 should not carry arms as heavy as a battalion 
 soldier, I can see no reason, when he shall 
 reap so great an advantage by so doing. 
 
 I can speak with no certainty, for the 
 experiment remains to be tried ; but I am 
 strongly inclined to believe, that this rifle, 
 weighing nine pounds in the barrel, will 
 shoot with more precision and execution, 
 at six hundird yards, than the rifles used at 
 present before the enemy, will shoot at 
 four hundred. Should the experiment turn 
 out equal to my expectations, w^hat an ad- 
 vantage will not a corps of riflemen, so 
 armed, obtain before an enemy that they 
 do not at present possess ! Anyhow, it is 
 lamentable to reflect how badly such a 
 gallant set of fine fellows are at present 
 armed, — for the addition of two pounds, to 
 make the barrels six pounds in weight, or 
 of five pounds of iron to make the barrels 
 weigh nine pounds, is too paltry an expense 
 to be considered by any government, con- 
 sidering the immense advantage which will 
 be acquired, by adding more weight to the 
 
PLAN OF A NEW CORPS. 223 
 
 barrels, so that they may be loaded with a 
 much greater quantity of powder, and con- 
 sequently do execution at a much greater 
 distance. Excepting for the additional 
 pounds of iron in the barrels, there will not 
 be one farthing more expense in the gun. 
 
 / boldli/ assert that the barrels of the rifles 
 (used at present) on service, are ineffective, 
 and a stigma on any government to put 
 such useless arms (I speak comparatively ) into 
 the hands of such gallant soldiers. The 
 rifles, I know, are well made ; I have seen 
 and examined them, and I have no doubt 
 but that they shoot very well, according to 
 their powers ; but the construction of them 
 is physically false, and therefore but of little 
 use or effect, compared to those rifles which 
 I have pointed out, and described, and 
 which can be made by every gimmaker 
 who understands well his business, just as 
 readily and as easily as those rifles which 
 have been already made ; therefore it will 
 be a gross neglect if such gallant fellows 
 are not armed with a more effective instru- 
 ment, when there is no mystery, conjura- 
 tion, nor any art required, more than is 
 
224 • COLONEL HANGEUS 
 
 already known, to arm them with a perfect 
 rijle. 
 
 I conclude this by repeating, that it is 
 a disgrace to the country, and an injustice 
 to such gallant soldiers, to arm them with 
 so useless a rifle, as they are at present armed 
 with ; and that, were I honored with the 
 command of a large corps of riflemen, I 
 would prefer arming them with a common 
 musket, and use them as light infantry, being 
 certain that I could do more with them, 
 (so badly armed for riflemen, as they now 
 are,) both to my own credit, to the' satis- 
 faction of the soldier, and to the advantage 
 of my country. The barrel of the rifle I 
 use at present, weighs six pounds four or 
 five ounces, the whole gun only ten pounds 
 five ounces. If it shall be thought, that a 
 barrel, weighing nine pounds, will make the 
 gun too heavy, then let the baiTcl weigh 
 only eight pounds, the addition of two 
 pounds, will be an immense advantage : the 
 whole gun then will not weigh so much ^s 
 a soldier's musket. But I repeat again, 
 that I see no reason why a rifleman should 
 not carry arms as heavy as a battalion sol-r 
 
PiAN OF A NEW COUPS- 225 
 
 dier ; and, provided the barrel of the rifle 
 shall weigh nine pounds, the Avhole gun will 
 not be heavier than a musket. I carrj=^ a 
 double gun, all day, when shooting, which 
 weighs very near nine pounds, and I find 
 no inconvenience fi'om the weight of it. 
 
 I again request those gentlemen, be- 
 longing to the rifle companies in London, 
 who may have rifles, the barrels of which 
 have sufficient substance to withstand the 
 weight of the balls without recoiling, to fire 
 three. balls at one hundred yards, and two 
 balls at tw^o hundred yards, each ball sepa- 
 rately rammed down with a greased patch, 
 at a large piece of canvas, that they may 
 be convinced what wonderful destruction 
 two, and three balls, will make in the ranks 
 of an enemy. Thus every rifleman should 
 act, (at particular times,) before the enemy, 
 and especially when the enemy is beaten, 
 and retreating, in large solid bodies, without 
 order or regularity.* 
 
 * The readei' is requested to observe, that the gun, 
 which I describe in the plan, to arii? a corps of sol- 
 diers with, is a distinct, particular, and (as I call li) an 
 
225 COLONEL hanger's PLAN. 
 
 universal gun, as I have described it to be, and it is to 
 be considered totally and distinct by itself. The 
 reader will be pleased also to observe, that when I 
 speak on rifle-guns and rifle-shooting, the rifles I 
 there make mention of, jare no more than a common 
 rifle, which every skilful gunmaker can make, and that 
 I find no objection to those guns, used now on active 
 service, but to their want of weight in the barrels; they 
 not having resistance enough in weight, to take a suffi- 
 cient quantity of powder, in proportion to the weight 
 of the ball, so as to do proper execution at very great 
 distances. Be pleased also to observe, that the rifle 1 
 intend to have made, the barrel of which is to weigh 
 nine pounds, will be loaded with as much powder, as it 
 can take, without recoiling, by which I expect to gain 
 a very great advantage when shooting at very great 
 distances, such as at five, arid six hundred yards ; and 
 the ball is not to be larger than thirty to the pound. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 VJgurs, Printer, 14, York Street, Covent Garden, London. 
 
#^- 
 
Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine 
 Cumnnlngs School of Veterinary Medicine at 
 Tnftf^ iifiivfirsitv . ,.»,«^ 
 
*v^m 
 
 t.-m 
 
 %S