From the Darlington & Stockton Times of August 26, 1871
THE Glorious Twelfth had got off to an explosive start, the D&S reported 150 years ago. The Duke of Beaufort and a “distinguished shooting party” had arrived at High Force Inn and after attending church at Forest-in-Teesdale had turned their attention to the moors.
On Scargill Moor, owned by Sir Talbot Clifford Constable of Wycliffe, 400 brace of grouse – that’s 800 birds – were bagged in the first six days, but the star of the shooting was Sir Frederick Acclom Milbank of Barningham Park.
He had performed a “feat hitherto unparalleled on an English moor at the opening of the grouse season”, said the D&S. “On the 12th, he killed 142½ brace of grouse with his own gun, and on the 14th he shot the extraordinary quantity of 193 brace.”
Sir Frederick, of course, was the father of the remarkable duelling, debt-riddled, drug addict William Harry Vane Milbank who, as we told only last week, was also in the news 150 years ago as he was being pursued through the courts by a high class prostitute.
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