HUNTING IN TURKEY

At the end of William Gill’s time with the boundary commission in Constantinople, he and some colleagues took time out for a hunting expedition. On 28th September 1879 he wrote:

Had a line from Ashburnham in the morning to say he was ill and could not come with us – I went over to the embassy and found him in bed. I got Stephen to come instead. I then went up to Pera to get some cartridges I had ordered – for my guns, cartridges, etc. are all at Trebizonde and I have to borrow Lionel Moore’s gun every time I go out.

I got on board our tug about 4.15. The others came on soon afterwards and we set off about 6. We were about three hours in reaching our shooting ground, the village of Chiflik Yeni (Greek name Panarghia, for it is a Greek village) [Yeniçiftlik, near the ancient site Herakleia] on the north shore of the Sea of Marmora about 25 nautical miles from Constantinople – that is about 29 English miles – and just beyond Buyuk Chekmeje [Büyükçekmece] (the greater drawbridge). Carafed (my servant) provided us an excellent meal which we took on deck and then after cigars etc we returned to rest. Our reason for hiring a tug was to avoid insects, bugs and fleas with which the houses swarm. We turned in and blew out the lights about 10.30. All our sleep was however more or less uneasy, until at last Clarke and Swaine got up, lit a candle and discovered bugs. Swaine took up a fresh position. Clarke and Stephen took their beds on deck. I turned over in mine, for though the flea was frequent, the bugs were absent. I was just beginning to doze when we were again disturbed by the servant seeking for the brandy bottle, for neither Clarke or Stephen could sleep and they wanted a night cap. The servant forgot to blow out the candle, so I had to get up and do it, and this brought us well on between 1 and 2 in the morning.

Eventually we all overslept ourselves, and as our boat was so small, then we had to go ashore in two detachments: the sun was well up by the time we landed. We had with us Bounce, Clarke’s dog that he had bought from Hobart some months ago, and another dog of the same breed called Brown that Hobart gave me the day before yesterday. The first hour or two passed in shouting at and chastising the dogs who did nothing but run wildly for miles all over the country chasing larks. As there was not a feather seen, it was fortunately of not much consequence. As soon as the dogs began to weary, a hare got up in front of me with Bounce and Brown so close at his heels that I could not fire until he was out of shot. This however, together with again reducing the dogs to a certain degree of quietude, gave us excitement for three-quarters of an hour or so. Next Stephen shot a landrail [corncrake] and great was the rejoicing over ‘first blood’. After another hour Clarke got four shots at the same snipe and missed him. Then he killed a quail in a vineyard and lost him. And presently, as it was about 11 o’clock, we held a council of war.

Like Mr Gladstone we had now three courses. The first was to go forward about a mile in search of the quail marked down, the second to go back three-quarters of a mile after the snipe, and the third was to up all and eventually we adopted it.

After breakfast Stephen had had enough of it. I wanted to go back to the steamer to see about getting back to Constantinople, as I am going for a cruise in the ‘Bittern’ tomorrow. Clarke and Swaine wanted a few more hours walking. So Stephen and I returned. Carafed had not been able to devise any means of getting back either by land or water. So, as steam was up, I decided to let the tug take me to Kutchuk Chekmeje [Küçükçekmece] whence I could get a train at 6. I therefore first jumped overboard and we started at 1.05, reaching Kutchuk Chekmeje (the lesser drawbridge) at 2.20. I found a train just going, reached Constantinople at 3.30, just missed the fast 4 o’clock boat but got back before 6. On arrival got a letter from Pusey to say the ‘Bittern’ could not go tomorrow. So I gave up a possible day’s sport, a certain day’s outing, spent a lot of extra money (for they will stick me awfully for the consumption of coal between Chiflik Yeni and Kutchuk Chekmeje and return) all for nothing. The hire of the steamer was £25 [equivalent to about £1,000 today] and they will probably charge me five or six pounds extra, so my walk with one impossible shot at a hare has been a pretty expensive one.

Over the very ground on which we were shooting a man named Cooper shot nearly 400 quail in one day and his party (of 47 I think) shot upwards of 2,000 quail in three days. It shows what luck there is. Near here also, but in not such a good place, an Austrian, Wurmbrandt, shot 105 before 9 a.m., and Way of the ‘Bittern’ got 60 or 70 in one day.

Shortly after this expedition, William Gill left Istanbul for home.