From heron to badger

Berkshire offers an enormous number of opportunities for the all-round sportsmen, as well as myriad superb country estates, says East Sussex

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There are few parts of England that furnish such opportunities to the all-round sportsman as the county of Berkshire. Its proximity to the metropolis and the ease with which it can be reached by the busy man from town, who can only take a day off now and again, but who nevertheless can afford to pay something above the ordinary figure for his sport, has so enhanced the value of its shooting of recent years that, as a happy hunting ground to the shooting man possessed only of a slender means, it has become more or less as forbidden ground.

There are out-of-the-way parts, however, where the man who does not mind six or seven miles in a dog cart along a bad road on a frosty morning after a 6am breakfast can get fair sport at a reasonable figure. To the hunting man, and particularly to the angler, Berkshire holds a number of attractions not often to be met within such accessible districts. To the naturalist there is no county in which a holiday can be more enjoyably spent.

Encouragement

The chief interest of the county being agricultural, partridges and pheasants are given every encouragement. The extensive woods of oak and beech that are frequent in the eastern portion of the county prove especially attractive to the latter.

For its size, Berkshire contains an extraordinary number of country seats, one of the most beautiful being Englefield Park, through which the writer in days gone by has had many a delightful ramble. At Englefield there is a heronry of considerable size and long-standing.