In his A History of English Country Sports (Robert Hale, 1994) Michael Billett mentions that: “In the early days of shooting… the partridge was the main quarry rather than the pheasant” and the “hunting of the partridge was considered more genteel” by the majority of landowners.

As to how it was most commonly carried out, you only have to look at examples of works by sporting artists such as John Nost Sartorius, Henry Thomas Alken and John Frederick Herring — which typically feature gentlemen of the time standing in stubble fields while shooting over pointers and setters.

The increasing trend towards arable farming — particularly in East Anglia, famous then as it is now for our native grey partridge — and the resultant acres of corn and root crops, provided an ideal environment for this little sporting bird. With readily available subject matter quite literally on his doorstep, it