THE DIARY OF COLONEL PETER HAWKER.*

COLONEL HAWKER, who was born in 1786, was the descendant of ancestors who had served in the British Army from the days of Elizabeth without a break, fie was educated at Eton, and was gazetted in 1801, obtaining his troop in 1804. Ho served with the greatest bravery and distinction under Wellington in the Peninsular War, and led his squadron with such gallantry as to win the word " Douro " for the colours of his regiment, the then 14th Light Dragoons. He had the misfortune to be severely wounded in the thigh at the battle of Talavera in 1809, and returned to England invalided. But his heart was with the army, and as soon as he thought he was able, he insisted on trying to rejoin his regiment, against all advice. On January 29th, 1811, we find him on board Nelson's old flag- ship, the Victory,' already so overcrowded with troops, that he could only find a berth "in the surgeon's medicine closet, off the cockpit, in total darkness, where the air was so foul that in several parts a candle could not be kept alight, and the extinguished snuff of it was literally a relief from the infernal stench of the place." He tells us that he slept on the very couch where Nelson breathed his last. His wound breaking out afresh, he was landed at Brixham. Ultimately * The Diary of Colonel Peter Hawker, Author of " Instructions to Young Sportsmen," 1802.1863. With an Introduction by Sir Ralph Payno-Gallwoy, Barb. 2 yob, London: Longman% Croon, and Co. 1893.

he reached Portugal, but only to be sent back as totally unfit for field duty, and he retired from active service in 1813.

We have read these volumes with great interest and pleasure, and have gained a strong respect and liking for their author. Colonel Hawker lived a very full and busy life, and threw himself with immense energy into all his undertakings, whether of business or pleasure. He discharged the duties of a resident landed proprietor, was Lieutenant-Colonel of the North Hampshire Militia, and afterwards Deputy-Lieu- tenant for his county, was a courtier, "the keenest and most hard-working sportsman ever known," says Sir R. Payne- Gallwey, a very accomplished musician and musical critic, and a successful inventor and author. He wrote his diary in the same vigorous way in which he did everything, and his pages are full of entertaining incident. Not a little of their charm lies in the force and originality of the Colonel's language. "An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told," says Shakespeare, and this unpretending record, in which failures as well as successes are duly noted down, bears evidence of being perfectly truthful throughout. Colonel Hawker is best known as the author of Instructions to Young Sportsmen, the first edition of which was published in 1814, and was succeeded by eight other editions during the author's life, the sixth being dedicated to King William IV., and the last to the Prince Consort. This book held the first place as a manual on gunning, especially on wild-fowl shooting, for over fifty years, and Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, in his excellent introduction, tells us that, with a few alterations dependent on the modern use of breechloaders, it is just as useful to-day as it was to the last two generations.

Colonel Hawker lived at Longparish House, in Hampshire, in the valley of the Test. In this stream, "one of the first trout-streams of the world," he had the excellent sport so often referred to in these pages. He was an extraordinary shot ; probably he has never been excelled at game, and at snipe he was unrivalled. We constantly find such entries as the following :—" Three partridges and twelve snipes. I killed the twelve snipes successively." "Seven snipes and five jacksnipes (all I shot at), making in these last few days twenty snipes without missing a shot." These, as every sportsman knows, are first-class performances, and it is to be remembered that many of them were accomplished with a flintlock gun. The following passage is a fair specimen

among many similar records of the Colonel's marvellous skill at game :—

" 1837. September lat. Longparish. A cold stormy day; no lay for the birds, which were as wild as hawks, and of which there proved but a sorry breed. But in all my life I never shot better nor saw my dogs behave better; in short, the performance was perfection, though the supply was poor. I bagged twenty-four partridges and two hares without one miss, and I made seven brilliant double shots. The dogs caught besides two birds and one leveret and Joe, who had the advantage of the inclosed country to himself, bagged twenty-six partridges, so that our spread on the table was, in all, fifty-two birds and three hares. One of our very worst days for number, but one of our very best for shooting.-2nd. Wonderful work again; a stormy day, with showers, but to-morrow being Sunday, I took the field, contrary to my custom, the second day, though did not begin till 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and was home to dinner soon after 6, I bagged twenty partridges and one lamdrail ; I never fired a shot without bagging, and made five glorious doublets of the greatest difficulty. Having once made a cannon' at two birds crossing, and consequently got three with rimy two barrels' I bagged twenty-one head of game in twenty shots. Joe shot like an angel also ; he discharged ten rounds and pocketed his ten birds in brilliant style. What care we for all Europe P-4th. Wonderful work again, considering the lamentable scarcity of birds. I bagged twenty partridges and one snipe. But I this day missed one shot, the first miss I have made this season, and up to which I had bagged sixty-five head, !including fourteen double shots without one miss. I was very lucky in making cannons' to-day, as I got two at a shot three times, and three at a shot once. This is the most consummate beauty and difficulty of the art, and always more than covers the aliases of any good shot."

Colonel Hawker was quite as enthusiastic about music as be was about sport. He tells us he was "shooting mad and music mad," and the two hobbies are often brought side by side in most Curious and amusing manner. Thus, in describing a view of Mswater, he concludes "In a word, the view creates s sort of sensation which we feel on hearing Mozart's music, seeing Shakespeare's tragedies, hearing Braham sing, or seeing ourselves surrounded by a good evening flight of wild- fowl." He enjoyed the friendship of some of the first musicians of the day, amongst others Moseheles, the Bertini

family, Kalkbrenner, and Cramer may be numbered. Thal- berg drove him "almost crazy with delight." Under date of September 29th, 1836, we find, "I read to-day with tears of the death of the unrivalled Malibran, and I also lost my beautiful Newfoundland dog of the distemper."

Colonel Hawker was even more eager to shoot wild-fowl than to shoot game. In order to pursue his favourite sport, be made careful trial and survey of the coast within reach of Longparish. He "saw thousands of wild-fowl, chiefly ducks and mallards, under the cliffs at Bourne Bottom," now the centre of the town of Bournemouth, but then, and for many years after, a wild, waste moorland. Finally, he fixed his headquarters at Keyhaven, a little creek between Lymington and Hurst Castle, and a favourite resort of wild- fowl. He was here within easy sail of "that paradise, Alum Bay," of the Needle Rocks, and of the gigantic cliffs of Freshwater. Here, in 1815, he built a house, and it was "at my healthiest of homes, Keyhaven," that he developed and perfected his many ingenious schemes for outwitting the flocks of brent-geese, widgeon, and other wild-fowl that frequented the coast in the winter season. He engaged the services of a Poole gunner, "the unrivalled James Read, the Mozart of all the wild-fowl men," and many pages are filled with curious accounts of Read's " mud- crawling " after widgeon, and of the Colonel's own exploits and experiences. He was very successful with his inventions, and we are told a great deal about his punts, his "invisible approach," his swivel-guns, and his stanchion-gun — "a Paganini of guns "—as he characteristically Bays—which he constantly "blew off" at the wild-fowl with very appre- ciable effect. The Colonel's notes on the weather are very original. "White frost, a butterfly and ladies' day ; " "nasty, rotten, undertaker's weather ; " "a north-east wind, and a looking-glass calm," are among his quaint phrases. He rarely went to Keyhaven without "changing the weathercock" and bringing on rain. This became so proverbial that during a drought the farmers at Longparish besought him to go to the coast ; he did so, with satisfactory results.

Colonel Hawker suffered from frequent attacks of illness, and his wound often gave him trouble. But he was fall of pluck. "Quacked myself up with sal volatile, bark, and

spirits of lavender." This was his favourite remedy on an emergency. He constantly travelled about England, and had

been in every county but Herefordshire. He paid many visits

to France ; he was in Paris in 1814, and visited Belgium and Holland in 1821, being taken over the field of Waterloo by the

peasant who was guide to Buonaparte during the whole of the battle, and from whom Sir Walter Scott gained informa- tion soon after the action. The narratives of these journeys are very entertaining. The Colonel was a keen observer, but

some of his notes are distinctly odd. The stones at Stone- henge he has no doubt are "a composition, as they will, ina.-

mediately on their being broken, dissolve in water like lump.

sugar." The streets of Bruges he found to be "very clean, but very dull ; " whilst he thought that Nelson's Monument

at Liverpool was "the chef-d'ouvre of all English productions.

It literally made me cry, there was so much feeling in the com- position." The Colonel was constantly in London, where he had a house, and where he died on August 7th, 1853, of an affection of the heart, brought on by over-work. He was certainly a most interesting person. He always speaks of his family, his friends, his servants, and his dogs, in terms of sincere affection ; but we can quite imagine that he was also what Dr. Johnson called "a good hater." He saw great improvements in the making of fire-arms. When he com-

menced gunning, there was only the flintlock weapon, which had to be protected from every shower. But in 1850 his new

military musket stood the trial of a night's exposure to wind and rain, "and after putting in a bucket of fresh water for a finish, she fired as well as possible after breakfast on the next morning. If this is not a waterproof musket, I know not what is." He worked hard at improving the wretched muskets supplied to the Army, and had an exhibit of his inventions at the Great Exhibition of 1851, where they received the marked attention of the Queen and Prince Albert.

The reader who is not a sportsman may find a little skipping necessary, but if this be judiciously done, he will

discover a fund of entertainment in these handsome volumes. It is interesting to learn that Miss Hawker, Colonel Hawker's grand-dauglater, is the clever authoress of Mademoiselle Re.