How about a feathered tale? Let me tell you about The Pheasant. This isn’t just any name. It has echoes of history. It has a touch of the wild.
The story of pheasants in Britain stretches back over 2000 years. It began with the Romans. They were keen on bringing new things to Britain. Pheasants were among these imports. Phoenician traders may also have played a role. They came from what we now call Lebanon. Roman officers likely bred pheasants for their dining tables. The birds came from Asia. They possibly had Greek help to get there.
The first written mention of a pheasant is quite interesting. King Harold gave the canons of Waltham Abbey a “commons” pheasant. This was instead of a brace of partridges in 1059. It was a perk of their job. In 1089, monks of Rochester received 16 pheasants. Bishop Randulfus sent them. They also got geese, hens, lampreys, eggs, salmon, and wheat.
Pheasants weren’t always common in England. The Normans made them popular. They passed strict laws to protect pheasants. Pheasants then graced many medieval banquets. Henry I even granted the Abbot of Amesbury the right to kill pheasants in 1100. Thomas Becket famously ate pheasant. It was the night before his death in 1170.
Henry VIII also features in the story of The Pheasant. He kept a French priest as a “feasaunt breeder” in 1532. Pheasants thrived in Wiltshire, East Anglia, and Yorkshire. Polydore Vergil noted the English love for meat. He saw them keeping pheasants in houses and woods. They were managed like rabbits.
Shooting The Pheasant became a sport later. In 1594, James VI of Scotland protected pheasants from firearms. People likely shot perched pheasants with bows before guns. Practical firearms came around 1500. Henry VIII loved them. Shakespeare mentioned “birding” in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Shooting flying pheasants became popular after the Restoration. Charles II’s courtiers brought flintlock guns. The first picture of shooting a pheasant was in 1686. But it showed static shooting with a stalking horse.
In Ireland, they reared pheasants from the 1590s. Fynes Moryson mentioned feasts with 60 pheasants served. Pheasants came to Pembrokeshire from Ireland in the 17th century.
The Pheasant faced a decline in the 1700s due to habitat loss. People took action to save the bird. “Preserving” became fashionable around 1800.
The Enclosure Acts helped. Squires acquired woods and stocked them with pheasants. They were easier to manage than native birds. Pheasants didn’t flock when driven. This made them successful for sport.
New breeds of The Pheasant came about. The Chinese ringneck arrived in 1768. Lord McCartney brought artificial incubation methods from Peking. The Reeves’s pheasant came in 1831.
The Japanese southern green pheasant arrived in 1840. Lord Derby crossbred them to create greener birds. These experiments led to melanistic mutants.
The driven-pheasant battue became popular in the 19th century. Bags increased with faster-firing breech-loaders.
Today, the most popular pheasant is a mix. It is between the Michigan and the common species. The quest for the perfect flying bird continues. That’s The Pheasant’s journey. It is from Roman times to your pub today.