Counting the cost of a gamebird glut
If you have little or no knowledge of shooting beyond the past 20 years or so, you may think game has always been plentiful and relatively cheap. Not so. One of the main problems we have in encouraging the general public in this country to eat more game is the simple fact that most have never eaten it as, historically, it was too expensive.
It was, indeed, a luxury food that was most associated with the landed gentry and London clubs. Country dwellers did have access to some game, either legally obtained by consent or by rather more dubious means from a local ‘supplier’.
In the Highlands, those who risked taking the
