We don't often see now pictures in the English Sporting and Social magazines - or anywhere else - of beaming tweedy men standing behind a carpet of dead pheasants, partridges or whatever. But a young shooting man pointed out an item in a Sotheby's catalogue of an auction of modern and vintage guns and rifles to be held at the end of August, which had on one page a photograph of a plump man with a goatee beard who must have been one of the greatest slaughterers of birds of all. Behind him stand two men, his loaders, one holding two guns. All this to illustrate the fact that the gun of the main character is a star lot at the forthcoming auction. It had unique characteristics, but nothing was more phenomenal than the record of the man with the beard. He was Lord Ripon, earlier Earl de Grey. The gun, for those with expertise, was built in 1895 as number two of a pair and the owner, we are told, enjoyed such features as a manual half-cock between the full cock and rebound half-cock. The gun was rebarrelled in 1928, having been given much use.
The game book (described as the Studely Royal Head Gamekeeper's Game Book) was kept by the Head Keeper, Charles Julian. Lord Ripon was born in 1852 and was, "Widely acknowledged as the greatest gameshot of all time," according to the catalogue. "His passion in life was shooting and his quest was for perfection in the sport." He normally shot with a set of three guns, and with great speed of loading, he is known to have seven birds dead in the air at one time. His recorded lifetime total was 556,813 head of game. He died on September 22nd, 1923, having killed 51 grouse. "While the last birds were being picked up, he fell down dead."
A few additional words from Country Life tell us that on one occasion Lord Ripon killed 21 birds in a minute. He liked to pretend that his skill was achieved without effort, and he was not at all pleased when, on one occasion, a well-known woman discovered him late at night in the library practising the art of changing guns with two loaders.